NEW YORK–Goldman Sachs Group has agreed to buy GreenSky Inc. for about $2.24 billion. GreenSky is a fintech that works with more than 10,000 merchants to offer payment options to their customers on home improvement projects and health care.
Plans call for adding the GreenSky solutions to Goldman Sachs’ Marcus consumer-banking platform. The New York Times noted that when Atlanta-based GreenSky went public in 2018, Goldman was one of the lead underwriters on its initial offering at $23 a share. Now Goldman is purchasing the company today at about half that price.
“Consumers, especially younger people, have flocked in recent years to buy-now, pay-later programs offered by companies including Afterpay Ltd. and Affirm,” the Times reported. “Goldman is already working with Apple on a buy-now, pay-later program, people with knowledge of the matter said in July.”
According to the report, Goldman’s plan for expanding its Marcus business includes drawing new customers to its mobile app and core offerings such as unsecured loans and savings accounts. It’s also making a push to have its services reside inside other platforms and corporations, similar to its credit card tie-up with Apple.
‘Clear’ Aspirations
The analysis added that the purchase of GreenSky falls somewhere between the two strategies, with Goldman acquiring customers directly by providing its services to merchants who offer them at the point of sale.
“We have been clear in our aspiration for Marcus to become the consumer-banking platform of the future, and the acquisition of GreenSky advances this goal,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said in the statement. “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.”
The Times cited a statement from the company that said banks use GreenSky’s technology to provide loans to super-prime and prime consumers, according to the statement. It services a $9 billion loan portfolio and about 4 million customers have financed more than $30 billion of purchases using its technology since GreenSky was founded by CEO David Zalik in 2006.