Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest startup backers on Wall Street

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

Goldman Sachs has been dialing up its presence in the startup investing space over the last several years.

The bank invests directly in deals and also wields a network of high-net-worth clients who are eager to back hot startups. 

Some of these investments are about gaining access to technology that Goldman might use in its own business — like Kensho, which creates analytics platforms that could help answer complex financial questions.

Others — like stakes in Facebook ahead of its IPO and Uber — have paid off twice: first as investments, and second when the investment bank landed big roles advising company deals.

Goldman, for example, was an investor in Square in 2012 and 2014, and also the lead underwriter of its initial public offering last week. JPMorgan, another Square underwriter, was also an investor in the company.

Goldman has made over 300 such investments, according to data from CrunchBase.

They include deals led by the tech investment banking group, an investment team housed in the securities division that puts money into trading technology company, and units housed in the investing and lending division. 

Here’s some of the investment bank’s most notable deals, including exits:

Goldman’s 2011 investment in Facebook preceded a big wave of startup deals for the bank.

In 2011, after Goldman Sachs invested in Facebook at a $50 billion valuation, it was presumed that the investment would help the bank land Mark Zuckerberg’s business when time came for an IPO. But Goldman “came in third” on the IPO. Still, the bank and its clients made a tidy profit on the social network.

Goldman has piled cash into Spotify.

Spotify has been sending its valuation skyward — Daniel Ek’s startup’s most recent round was for a valuation north of $8 billion — and Goldman Sachs has helped out as an investor in 2012 and as an adviser earlier this year.

Goldman recently led a round for Shift, which is disrupting the clunky online auto-sales marketplace.

Lately, plenty of capital has been flowing into the online auto-sales arena for several reasons. One reason is that the space is ripe for disruption, in part owed to the difficulty of getting all the way through a car purchase.

But a key opportunity for banks is to help the online players build financing out that flows through the lenders themselves. Goldman led a $50 million investment in Shift last month to help the startup compete against a growing field of online players.

Goldman led a round for office-rental startup WeWork.

WeWork is one of the hottest startups in New York, and when Goldman Sachs went to back the company a year ago, it did so with gusto. Goldman, joined by JPMorgan, plowed more than $350 million into the startup at a $5 billion valuation. It proved to be a great bet when the company would raise nearly $500 million more a few months later at double the valuation.

Goldman first participated in Square’s debt financing before taking the lead on its IPO.

While Goldman didn’t come in “first” on Facebook’s initial public offering, the big bank’s luck would improve. Square received $100 million in debt financing that involved Goldman in 2014, and then this year the bank was tapped to help lead the IPO.

Goldman bought in a little late into startup Pinterest.

One of the hottest private startups outside of Uber these days is Pinterest. Of course, Goldman found a way to invest in the company, but not until mid-2015.

The mega-round Goldman participated in this May will help the company continue its global development and, hopefully (for Goldman and its clients), drive the online retail startup toward an outsized exit. With more than $1 billion in venture funding, it will take a big IPO or a bigger buyer for that to happen.

Foodpanda picked up a round that Goldman backed.

Foodpanda was already on a roll of international expansion before Goldman joined in earlier this year. But for this Berlin-based food delivery startup, it certainly can’t hurt to have a Goldman Sachs executive joining its board. With more than $300 million in the bank, this startup has the potential to claim market share from industry incumbents that haven’t been able to keep users’ appetites satisfied.

Goldman’s Symphony Communications deal sent a strong message, in a manner of speaking.

Goldman led a consortium of banks to put money in a communications tool then known as Perzo — which, since, has been rebranded Symphony. Goldman, along with numerous Wall Street firms, put its own money into deals to support the startup challenger to Bloomberg LP, including one last month.

Amazon competitor Jet took flight with backing from Goldman.

When Jet took off earlier this year, it did so with more than $80 million in funding from a group of venture investors eager to see the online retailer put a dent in retailer Amazon’s unstoppable clout. Before it launched to all users, Jet would take on another $140 million from heavy-hitting backers that, of course, includes Goldman Sachs. About a year into the startup’s existence, it has already hit a valuation mark of $600 million on more than $200 million in total investment dollars, counting a debt financing.

Goldman has also done two rounds to support Motif Investing.

Motif Investing has attracted capital from top venture and Wall Street firms — Goldman Sachs being just one of them. The bank led a 2013 round for $25 million, then returned in 2014 as part of a $35 million investment. Motif is a customizable investing platform on steroids — you can build a series of factors into an investment, which allows investors to personalize picks instead of having to just buy into an ETF if they were looking for specific sector exposure.

Goldman Sachs jumped into a debt round at OnDeck Capital.

OnDeck Capital’s IPO surprisingly did not include Goldman Sachs among its advisers — Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch led the offering. The startup, which makes loans to small businesses, raised more than $500 million in total funding prior to its December 2014 stock offering — including $100 million in the form of a debt financing that included Goldman.

OnDeck’s stock hasn’t fared well in the time since the IPO, so perhaps it’s best that Goldman didn’t market this particular deal to its clients.

Goldman Sachs hitched a ride with Uber beginning in 2011.

Goldman Sachs was one of Uber’s earliest adopters, joining in a 2011 round to provide the budding ride-hailing startup more than $30 million. The investments in the startup got a little bit bigger from then on. And Goldman kept bringing its high-net-worth clients back for future deals — including a monster $1.6 billion financing deal that it hired Goldman to execute late last year.

Dropbox could prove to be a big IPO opportunity for Goldman Sachs.

Goldman’s 2011 deal alongside top VCs to support Dropbox’s growth could help translate into an IPO opportunity for the startup and the bank.

The poor performance of rival Box since its market debut could be holding up Drew Houston’s startup, but sooner or later the company will have to start considering its exit options. One way or another, that’s a payday for Goldman.

Goldman didn’t have to stray too far from its New York headquarters to find the ZocDoc deal.

Goldman has been particularly keen on getting cash into New York City startups.

At the time, its 2011 investment in ZocDoc, which lets people book doctors from their phones, was one of its bigger forays into venture capital. The bank was joined by Yuri Milner’s DST Global for the round, and other backers like Founders Fund have invested in recent months, boosting ZocDoc’s valuation in the process.

Goldman backed Gilt Group in 2011.

Gilt Groupe has raised nearly $300 million, run into some trouble, and let employees go. But in 2011 it was one of New York’s hottest startups, luring in Goldman alongside other investors for its biggest round of $138 million. Other backers in the startup include private-equity hybrid General Atlantic, New Enterprise Associates, and SoftBank Capital.

Goldman picked Zendesk for a funding round. Zendesk would later pick Goldman for its IPO.

Goldman Sachs began a relationship with Zendesk, the customer-service portal, with a 2012 investment where it was joined by a roster of top Silicon Valley VCs. Two years later, when Zendesk readied its initial public offering, Goldman claimed the role of lead underwriter, along with Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Shares are up since the 2014 market debut, so any Goldman client that bought into Zendesk is probably pretty happy with the result.

Goldman Sachs knows a hot deal when it sees one.

Goldman Sachs has also been putting money to work internationally, as was evidenced in its $100 million round the bank led for Indian startup Pepperfry. Despite the name, which might entice foodies, the company is actually a home-goods and furnishings startup based in Mumbai. Other backers include Bertelsmann.

Earlier this year, Goldman bought into developer platform Docker.

Goldman Sachs joined in a $95 million investment round this April for San Francisco-based startup Docker, which serves as a platform to connect developers. There are plenty of boldface investors buying in alongside the bank, including Uber-backer Benchmark, Insight Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock Partners. It’s notable that it took the startup just two years of operation to turn into a full-fledged unicorn.

Goldman wasn’t the only bank with an eye on tax startup Ryan.

Goldman was joined by another big Wall Street firm, Bank of America, when it set up a $300 million debt financing for Texas-based tax startup Ryan. Already, the company is the seventh-largest corporate tax-service provider in the US, despite being around just a few years.

Goldman even knows how to do the “robot.”

Rethink Robotics makes collaborative robots for manufacturing environments, and the Massachusetts-based startup already has some boldface names on board, like General Electric’s venture-capital division. In fact, so far this year Goldman and GE thought Rethink Robotics was so nice that they bought in twice.

There are plenty of other venture backers for the company, including Bezos Expeditions, Two Sigma Ventures, and Sigma Partners.

More startups:

Check out all the startups diving into the insurance arena to disrupt one of the world’s oldest business models

The post Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest startup backers on Wall Street appeared first on Business Insider.