Image: © Barbara Fröhlich/Stock.adobe.com
CEO David M Solomon said that GreenSky’s tech will help the investment bank develop ‘the consumer banking platform of the future’.
Goldman Sachs is acquiring US fintech GreenSky for $2.24bn to boost its consumer banking platform Marcus.
Founded in 2006, Atlanta-headquartered GreenSky provides home improvement financing with ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) options. The company, which has more than 4m customers and a network of more than 10,000 merchants, went public in 2018 with a valuation of around $4bn.
David M Solomon, chair and CEO of Goldman Sachs, said that GreenSky’s scalable technology will help Marcus “become the consumer banking platform of the future”.
“GreenSky and its talented team have built an impressive, cloud-native platform that will allow Marcus to reach a new and active set of merchants and customers and provide them with an expanding set of solutions,” he added.
The move comes at a time when the BNPL space is gaining traction and becoming increasingly competitive. Last week, PayPal acquired Japanese BNPL service Paidy, heating up competition in the Asia-Pacific market. PayPal rival Square also acquired Australian BNPL service Afterpay for $29bn last month, while Swedish BNPL giant Klarna became Europe’s most valuable start-up earlier this year.
Popular UK fintechs Revolut and Monzo are also reportedly set to enter the BNPL market to let users take short-term interest-free loans when making purchases.
GreenSky CEO David Zalik said that his team is thrilled to be joining Goldman Sachs. “In combination with Goldman Sachs, we’re excited to continue delivering innovative point-of-sale payment solutions for our merchant partners and their customers on an accelerated basis.”
Goldman Sachs stepped into retail banking with Marcus five years ago, offering personal finance and automated investing services, and has signed partnerships with tech giants such as Apple and Amazon. The consumer-focused platform is named after company co-founder Marcus Goldman.
The investment bank said that the acquisition of GreenSky is consistent with its strategy to meet consumers through the “ecosystems of leading companies with embedded technology”. The deal is now subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2022.
