Los Angeles fintech firm InvestCloud has acquired London-based Babel Systems for $20 million.
Babel Systems processes and records securities trades through application programming interfaces. By integrating its trading and accounting capabilities, InvestCloud hopes to enhance its robo offering and complete its product solution, according to CEO John Wise.
"InvestCloud needed an extremely high-volume and low-cost trading and accounting (book-keeping) solution designed for the cloud," he said in a Monday news release. "Babel is designed for the international market and is the most modern platform in the world designed for robo and wealth; however, it's also versatile and can be applied to all major financial markets."
He added that the move could help the company better compete with solutions from incumbents like FIS, SunGard and SS&C Advent.
Babel said the acquisition would accelerate its plans to enter the U.S. market.
InvestCloud provides cloud-based software for the securities industry. In September JPMorgan Chase made an equity investment in the company to accelerate its digital revamp for individual investors and expedite the introduction of its online investment offerings.
InvestCloud says it has more than 660 clients whose accounting needs are served by legacy accounting systems that don't provide reporting flexibility or cloud, mobility and digital capabilities.
