Young French company leads the way in financial software innovation
Tags: entrepreneurs, funding, SMEs, start-up
When Paris-based Pricing Partners SAS set itself the goal of becoming a global player in financial valuation software solutions, it enlisted support from Microsoft to expand its marketing and R&D capabilities.
| PROGRAM FAST FACTS |
|
Situation
A French technology startup aims to take its specialist financial markets software solutions to the global marketplace.
Solution
Microsoft provided technology and testing support, sales and marketing advice, and help to secure a national R&D grant.
Benefits
- Access to Microsoft Technology Center facilities for product development and testing
- Access to Microsoft’s network of investors, customers and partners
- Increased visibility and faster time-to-market for Pricing Partners’ solutions.
|
Pricing Partners is a Paris and London-based specialist in the complex world of financial products valuation, pricing tools and risk analytics. The privately owned firm was founded in Paris by a professional team of trading floor experts, including IT specialists and quantitative analysts with experience at some of the world’s leading banks. In the past two years, Pricing Partners has become a major player in both pricing models and independent valuation of complex financial products such as derivatives and other structured products.
In October 2008, Pricing Partners launched its Internet valuation platform, Price-it® Online, which provides customers with very accurate and reliable information for transparent valuation of financial assets. Price-it® online uses cutting edge mathematical models together with a new language to describe the complexity of any structured products.
As well as the highly specialized expertise of the firm’s founders and employees, the Price-it® Online platform utilizes Microsoft .NET technologies. “Increasing the transparency of financial product valuation has become a major concern,” says Eric Benhamou, the CEO of Pricing Partners. “To respond to this growing market demand, we developed our new platform offering independent valuation solutions for derivative and structured products based on Microsoft’s latest technologies such as .NET, C++, C# and SQL server in order to be able to provide a large set of tools and services, like valuation models, which are state of the art for the financial industry marketplace, and more specifically for front-office trading.”
In February 2009, Pricing Partners joined Microsoft France’s IDEES program, which provides an integrated support system for high-potential technology start-ups, from product development to venture capital funding. “Our aim is to give Pricing Partners the means to become the world leader in its sector by supporting its technological, marketing and sales development. We will commit internal technological resources to this end, and provide access to our Microsoft Technology Center as well as to our ecosystem of large corporation partners,” explains Lubomira Rochet, IDEES manager at Microsoft France.
“IDEES will give us a privileged relationship with Microsoft teams and partners to facilitate and accelerate the introduction of our solutions in the market. Independent Valuation Service is new for most Corporate Finance Departments. We chose to develop Microsoft France’s IDEES program provides an integrated support system for high-potential technology start-ups, from product development to venture capital funding. our solutions on the Microsoft Explorer platform coupled with Microsoft Excel because it is a guarantee of professionalism and resilience for all our clients,” says Eric Benhamou, CEO of Pricing
Partners
Through the Microsoft IDEES program, Pricing Partners gets access to technology development and testing support at the Microsoft Technology Center in Paris; licensing access to Microsoft technology at low cost; sales and marketing support through participation at Microsoft hosted or sponsored events; access to Microsoft’s extensive network of customers and partners; and access to Microsoft’s network of venture