As the bank seeks to further reduce costs and capitalise on efficiencies brought about by artificial intelligence (AI), Goldman Sachs has reportedly told its employees to anticipate another round of layoffs before the year finishes. According to an internal memo distributed to staff, the New York-based company intends to “constrain headcount growth through the end of the year” and implement a “limited reduction in roles across the firm,” according to Bloomberg.
According to bank spokesperson Jennifer Zuccarelli, Goldman Sachs anticipates ending the year with a total rise in headcount despite the planned reductions. According to the study, the company had 48,300 workers overall as of the end of September, up roughly 1,800 from the end of the previous year.
Goldman Sachs’ “OneGS 3.0” strategy
The bank’s new “OneGS 3.0” strategy was unveiled in the memo, which also hailed the efficiency gains anticipated from AI as a means of achieving even higher growth. Top executives stressed that it would take a “multiyear effort” to integrate AI in areas such as vendor management, regulatory reporting, lending procedures, and client onboarding.
In the memo, CEO David Solomon, President John Waldron, and CFO Denis Coleman stated that although they are still in the early stages of determining the best areas to implement AI solutions, it has become increasingly evident that their operational efficiency goals must take into account the benefits that these game-changing technologies will bring.
In addition to retooling their platforms, the executives emphasised that in order for Goldman to “fully benefit from the promise of AI, we need greater speed and agility in all facets of our operations.” The anticipated cut comes after the bank’s regular yearly exercise earlier this year, which resulted in a 700-person decrease in net headcount during the second quarter.
AI Fear Looms Over the US Market
The biggest American banks’ remarks regarding AI are similar to those of technological titans like Amazon and Microsoft, whose executives have warned their employees to prepare for AI-related disruptions, such as layoffs and hiring freezes.
As AI’s underlying models improve and investors reward companies that are considered as leaders in the field, corporations from a variety of industries have been more forthright this year about the potential effects of AI on workers.
The prevalent belief in banking is that employees in operational positions, often known as the back and middle office, are typically most at risk of losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence. For example, a JPMorgan official informed investors in May that, despite an increase in business volumes, AI will result in a minimum 10% reduction in operations and support personnel over the next five years. Solomon appeared to caution the 48,300 workers of Goldman Sachs that some may find the upcoming years uncomfortable.
Quick
Shots
•Goldman Sachs plans another round of
layoffs as AI adoption boosts operational efficiency.
•Internal memo warns staff of “limited
reduction in roles” before year-end.
•Total headcount expected to rise
slightly despite the planned cuts; 48,300 employees as of September.
•OneGS 3.0 strategy focuses on
leveraging AI in vendor management, regulatory reporting, lending, and client
onboarding.
According to a term sheet accessed by a media outlet, Harindarpal Singh Banga and Indra Banga would sell a 2.1% share in the beauty and personal care firm Nykaa for $140.3 million (about INR 1,200 crore) in a block sale.
According to the term sheet, the Bangas, who were among the first investors in Nykaa, are selling roughly 60 million shares at an offer price of INR 200 per share, which is 5.5% less than the most recent closing price.
Nykaa’s operator, FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd., ended Wednesday’s trading session on the National Stock Exchange just over 2% higher at INR 211.59. Thus far this year, the stock has increased by 28.7%.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Managing the Transaction
The deal is being handled by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Before Nykaa went public in 2021, Banga, a billionaire in commodities and the chairman of the Caravel Group, based in Hong Kong, owned 8.7% of the company.
The business’ founders, the Nayar family, still hold 52% of the company and haven’t sold any shares since the IPO. Nearly a year has passed since Banga sold more than four crore shares, or 1.43% of the company, for INR 208.30 each in August 2024, bringing in INR 851.5 crore.
His holding dropped from 6.40% to 4.97% after that deal. Nykaa reported a nearly threefold increase in consolidated net profit for the quarter ending March 31 from INR 6.93 crore to INR 20.28 crore. Operational revenue increased from INR 1,667.98 crore in FY24 to INR 2,061.76 crore, a 23.61% increase.
Nykaa Eyeing for More Profitable Trajectory
With collaborations with Yves Saint Laurent, NARS, Kerastase, Eucerin, GHD, Armani Beauty, Supergoop, and Nexxus, among others, Nykaa has introduced a record amount of international beauty brands in the last 12 months.
With a goal of mid-20% yearly growth in its beauty and personal care (BPC) sector over the next five years, Nykaa is now moving towards a more lucrative growth trajectory.
Deeper market penetration, premiumisation, and improved convenience are all part of the plan. By FY30, the company wants to expand its physical presence in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, growing from 237 to over 500 stores.
Additionally, it is making significant investments in local influencer marketing, collaborating with more than 28,000 influencers to promote discovery. Nykaa is expanding its logistical infrastructure in an effort to increase delivery speeds.
Its “Nykaa Now” two-hour fulfilment strategy is operational in seven metro areas. A network of 44 warehouses and more than 40 quick hubs equip Nykaa Now service, allowing for same- or next-day delivery in major cities.
In May, Goldman Sachs will reduce its workforce. Today, the company affirmed that it intends to refine its “pyramid” and implement its “annual performance review process”. It anticipates paying a $150 million severance fee in the process. Dennis Coleman, the CFO of Goldman, stated on 15 April’s investor call that $150 million will be spent on severance expenses during the second quarter. As it was previously reported in the media, Goldman plans to reduce its workforce by 3-4% in Q2, which translates to approximately 1,900 job losses. According to reports, Goldman is urging other VPs and managing directors (MDs) to relocate to less expensive areas like Salt Lake City, as vice presidents are anticipated to be the first to be fired. Goldman will pay severance payments of about $80,000 per person on average if it fires 1,900 employees in May. In the first quarter, Morgan Stanley laid off 2,000 employees and reported paying $144 million in severance costs, or $72k per employee. Goldman aims for an operating margin or efficiency ratio of 60%. The efficiency ratio for the first quarter was 60.6%.
No Fundamental Shift in the Business: Solomon
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, also discussed the future, stating that there is no sign of a “fundamental shift” in the company’s operations since the imposition of tariffs and that any possible repercussions would probably be minor. He reaffirmed that Goldman is still a “big, diverse, strong-earning business”; he joked that this description may also work as a catchy tagline should he ever go back to his previous side profession as a DJ. This most recent round of layoffs is part of a larger trend by which international financial institutions are readjusting their workforces in response to changing business requirements and economic challenges. Although the impacted employees will surely feel unsettled as a result of the layoffs, Goldman Sachs is making a larger effort to remain flexible, profitable, and competitive in a difficult market climate.
Layoffs have Become a Common Scenario in 2025
With big companies like Google, Microsoft, and others continuing to reduce their workforces, layoffs in the tech sector are not expected to halt in 2025. Companies are still cutting employees in an effort to simplify operations, save money, and emphasise automation and artificial intelligence, even though these figures are much lower than the major layoffs that occurred between 2022 and 2023. Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoffs in the industry, reports that 93 organisations have laid off nearly 23,500 tech workers so far this year, and the number is still growing. Google and Microsoft are apparently contemplating a new round of layoffs, according to the most recent job reduction reports. According to reports, AI-led restructuring and performance-based terminations are part of the corporations’ goals to increase the effectiveness of their personnel.
Amarendra Sahu, the co-founder and former CEO of the home renting platform NestAway, has taken an uncommon step for a startup founder by filing a criminal lawsuit against his fellow co-founders Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida, as well as lead investors Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, and Chiratae Ventures. In his native state of Odisha, Sahu has submitted a First Information Report (FIR) to the Bhubaneswar Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Chiratae Ventures, and the other co-founders of the company are accused of fraud, deception, document forgery, and criminal intimidation in the complaint.
Since December 10, 2024, the Orissa High Court has been considering petitions pertaining to the issue. The case will be reviewed once more on January 9. According to Sahu’s allegation, NestAway’s June 28, 2023, INR 90-crore sale to proptech startup Aurum was fraudulently completed using his signature as a company director. He made it clear that he had left his position as director on June 19, 2023, more than a week before the agreement was finalised.
NestAway’s Valuation Decline After the Acquisition
NestAway’s valuation dropped by 95% following its acquisition by Aurum. Since its founding in 2015, the Bengaluru-based business has raised a total of $116 million in investment. NestAway raised $220 million (INR 1,810 crore) in its most recent investment round in 2019 from well-known investors like Yuri Milner, Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global, and UC-RNT Fund.
Sahu claimed in the FIR that the company experienced significant losses as a result of the disruptions to its operations caused by the pandemic in 2020–2022. Additionally, Sahu worked remotely from his home office in Odisha because of the epidemic and his elderly parents. Investors Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global resigned from the board when the company was in serious financial trouble in order to protect their own money and reputation. Jitendra Jagadev, Smruti Parida, and Deepak Dhar, the other three partners, also departed the business.
However, Sahu persisted in running the business without receiving any compensation, and the FIR claimed that because of his genuine efforts and commitment, the business survived and was restored to a sustainable state.
How the Acquisition Deal was Cracked Without Informing Sahu?
Sahu claimed that without consulting him or the more than 250 shareholders, the investors obtained a direct offer to sell their shares to Aurum at a very cheap price through cooperation with one of the directors, Jitendra Jagadev. Sahu stated that the investors convinced him to sell his shares and help sell others’ shares because they were worried that the deal might not go through.
According to Sahu’s complaint, the principal investors—Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, and Chiratae Ventures—convinced him to pay an extra INR 11.72 crore over the value of his 5% investment through phone calls, WhatsApp messages, and emails. However, when the deal was completed, they allegedly denied this commitment.
Chiratae Ventures, acting on behalf of all investors, persuaded Sahu to sell the business to a third party they had arranged through a number of in-person and virtual meetings out of concern that Sahu and other shareholders’ rejection would delay their plan to sell their shares. In the FIR, Sahu stated, “They promised to give me an additional INR 11.72 crore from their portion of the sale proceeds in appreciation of my prior work and the efforts necessary for the sale.”
Sahu unwittingly consented, believing their words and their reputation, and carried out all of the work of pitching the business through WhatsApp chats, phone calls, and emails while continuing to work from Bhubaneswar. As a stockholder, he sent over all signed papers, including the sale agreement. On June 28, 2023, Sahu stated in the FIR that the investors, Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Chiratae Ventures, and Schroders Adveq, forcibly closed the sale transaction in favour of Aurum at a consideration of INR 90 crore after denying Sahu their promise of INR 11.72 crore after obtaining the signed documents and consent forms.
According to the investigation, Sahu owes Tiger Global INR 4.8 crore, Chiratae Ventures and its affiliates INR 2.18 crore, Goldman Sachs INR 2.04 crore, UC-RNT Fund INR 1.81 crore, and Schroders Adveq INR 0.89 crore.
180 currencies are recognized as legal tender around the world today. Foreign exchange is the process of changing one currency into another for various reasons, usually for commerce, trading, or tourism. It is one of the most actively traded markets in the world, with an average daily trading volume of $6.6 trillion.
The vast majority of currency conversion is undertaken to earn a profit. A foreign exchange company also known as a foreign exchange broker or simply forex broker is a company that offers currency exchange and international payments to private individuals and companies.
The foreign exchange market is a global decentralized or over-the-counter market for the trading of currencies. The conversion rates for almost all currencies are constantly floating as they are driven by the supply and demand market forces.
Factors Affecting Currency Value
The value of any particular currency is determined by market forces related to trade, investment, tourism, and geopolitical risk.
Foreign exchange is handled globally between banks and all transactions fall under the auspice of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The factors include various economic, political, and even psychological conditions.
The economic factors include a government’s economic policies, trade balances, inflation, and economic growth outlook.
Another important factor of demand occurs when a foreign company seeks to do business with another in a specific country.
Citigroup Incorporation is also known as Citi is a financial service corporation started in 1998. It is an American-based multinational company focusing on financial services and is headquartered in New York. Citigroup is given the tag of being the third largest banking institution group in the US and also forms an integral part of the big four banking institutions of the US.
The formation of Citigroup Incorporation was quite dramatic with the merger of two big firms named Citicorp and Travelers Group. Citicorp was a banking giant whereas Travelers Group was a big financial corporation. Citigroup mainly focuses on providing the best financial services to its clients.
The services given by Citigroup, in general, include facilities like providing financial services to different people falling in the organization of government, corporate, institution, etc. They also strive to provide simple yet effective financial solutions to their clients.
Pros of Citigroup Inc forex:
Includes more than one brand for its clients to select from for forex trading.
The platform allows international trading of foreign currency with its wide working area.
Allows forex trading at $0 commission to its clients.
2. HSBC Holdings Plc
Founded: 1865
Headquarters: London
HSBC website
HSBC is acknowledged as the largest bank in Europe initiated in the year 1865. It is a multinational universal bank along with a financial holding British company. It is headquartered in London. The letters HSBC belong to the initials of its origin by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
HSBC is one of the biggest banking service-providing companies with more than 64 countries covered and around 40 million customers served. The company mainly focuses on providing banking and financial services along with inventing new methods to make banking easy. It also allows different financial services like trading, private and investment banking, capital market, etc.
Pros of HSBC Holdings Plc forex:
Direct access to all facilities is provided rather than the involvement of any third-party service providers.
The process is made transparent and clear by the platform for easy use.
Can be accessed from multiple regions.
3. State Street Corporation
Founded: 1792
Headquarters: Boston
State Street Corporation website
State Street Corporation is counted among the oldest operating banking companies in the US. It was initiated in the year 1792 and is headquartered in Boston. State Street Corporation is counted as a financial service provider and a bank holding company.
State Street Corporation is ranked 15th among the largest banks in the United States. The firm is responsible for providing services like cash management, services revolving around international exchanges, financial assets management, and also provides investment advisory services.
Pros of State Street Corporation forex:
It provides fully automatic service that is 100% transparent for its customers.
The service is available in almost all major regions across the world.
Initiated in the year 1869, Deutsche Bank AG is a Germany-based financial service providing firm. It has its headquarters located in Frankfurt, Germany. The firm mainly works in the field of providing investment banking services along with other financial services to its clients worldwide.
Deutsche Bank AG is considered the largest financial service-providing firm in Germany and is also included in the list of largest banks in the world. The firm focuses on four different aspects of banking services including the investment bank, corporate bank, private bank, and asset management.
The firm helps government and private organizations along with small and medium-sized businesses by providing them with the needed services in the banking field to provide ethical and sustainable services to all.
Pros of Deutsche Bank AG forex:
The forex process is completely seamless and transparent with quick actions.
Provides competitive rates on the foreign exchange currency.
Provides swift transfer of funds through its platform.
5. JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: New York City
JPMorgan Chase & Co. website
Initiated in the year 2000, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the largest multi-financial bank in the world at the present year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an America-based multinational company focused on providing services related to investment banking services and financial banking services with its headquarters located in New York City.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. forms an integral part of the large four banks of America and is currently in the fifth position of the largest banks in the world for its assets. The firm mainly focuses on providing services like asset management, investment management, private equity, etc. The services provided by them are mainly targeted at individuals and businesses.
Pros of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Forex:
Services are provided worldwide.
Has different customizable options for easy understanding of the tools and news.
Provides access to the largest committee of currency pairs.
6. Barclays PLC
Founded: 1960
Headquarters: London
Barclays PLC website
Barclays PLC was introduced in the year 1960 as the universal multinational bank based in Germany. It has its headquarters located in London and is known to provide services worldwide.
Barclays is operated as two different units termed Barclays UK and Barclays international. The firm mainly focuses on providing services like retail banking, credit services, investment banking, wealth management, etc.
Pros of Barclays PLC forex:
Provides detailed market insight to their clients.
Has an excellent customer support system.
Includes different tools for foreign exchange risk management.
7. XTX Markets Limited
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: London
XTX Markets Limited website
XTX Markets Limited was introduced in 2015 as an algorithmic trading company with its headquarters located in London. XTX Markets Limited is a non-banking firm that still comes under the list of top liquidity providers for the foreign exchange market.
The services provided by XTX Markets Limited mainly focus on equities, foreign exchange, commodities, fixed income, derivatives, etc.
Pros of XTX Markets Limited forex:
The platform is multilingual and supports 26+ languages.
Provides fair and efficient services.
The platform is counted amongst the top 3 forex liquidity providers.
8. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Founded: 1869
Headquarters: New York City
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. website
Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is an America-based investment and financial service providing the firm with its headquarters located in New York City. The firm is quite famous for its investment in budding startups.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. comes second in the list of investment banks across the world due to its revenue. And is also included in the list of Fortune 500. The firm mainly provides services like asset management, commercial banking, investment banking, etc.
Pros of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. forex:
Has a range of tools that helps its clients with a better estimation of trading platforms.
Has a demo account for the clients to work and experience the service of Goldman Sachs to try before.
They serve worldwide.
Currency composition of world FX
9. Standard Chartered Group
Founded: 1853
Headquarters: London
Standard Chartered Group website
Standard Chartered Group was established in 1853 with its headquarters in London. It is a universal bank known to operate a large chain of units. Standard Chartered is a Britain-based multinational company providing financial and investment services.
Standard Chartered Group is known to own a network of more than 1200 branches and outlets in different parts of the world. They cover more than 70+ countries. The firm mainly works in the field of providing services to corporate and institutional services only.
Pros of Standard Chartered Group forex:
They provide excellent guidance to their clients for a better understanding of the terms and strategies.
The platform is widely spread across the globe and can give access to multiple currencies.
Their help support is quite reliable.
10. UBS AG
Founded: 1998
Headquarters: Zurich
UBS AG website
Introduced in 1998, UBS AG is the largest Swiss banking instruction, also co-headquartered in Zurich and Basel. It is a multinational and Switzerland-based financial service providing company also focusing on investment banking.
UBS AG is the third largest bank in Europe. It focuses on providing services to private and government organizations. The services provided by UBS AG fall in the category of global wealth management, personal and corporate banking, investment banking, etc.
Pros of UBS AG forex:
They provide a worldwide network with a global franchising platform to sort out their client’s needs.
The platform keeps on updating from time to time to meet up the demands of the real world.
They provide excellent customer support along with the required guide to the platform.
11. BNP Paribas Group
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: France
BNP Paribas Group website
Founded in 2000, BNP Paribas Group was formed by the merger of two different firms named National Bank of Paris and Paribas. The initials BNP came from the National Bank of Paris and Paribas came from other parts of the merger. It is a French company with its headquarters in France.
BNP Paribas is counted among the top 10 largest banks in the world and is placed second as the largest bank group in Europe. It provides services focused on the category of commercial, personal banking, and services. It also provides services for corporate and institutional banking. It also works to provide investment and financial services.
Allows access to more than 130 currencies for the FX.
Provides optimal tools to make the process more efficient.
12. Royal Bank of Scotland Plc
Founded: 1724
Headquarters: Edinburgh
Royal Bank of Scotland Plc website
Introduced in 1724, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc is a major player in the field of the retail and commercial banking sector in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Edinburgh. Royal Bank owns more than 700 branches across the country of Scotland and a few branches spread out in the major towns and cities covering England and Wales.
Royal Bank of Scotland Plc works to provide services to trusts, charities, private companies, etc. Its services include online banking, investments, saving accounts, fund transfer, etc. The firm operates by the means of a large networked server including different branches, outlets, online communication, etc.
Pros of Royal Bank of Scotland Plc forex:
They provide services concerning more than 60+ currencies from across the world.
Customized solutions are provided by them to fulfill the needs of their clients.
Provides help with advanced tools to manage the account and get more insight to risk management terms.
13. Saxo Bank
Founded: 1992
Headquarters: Denmark
Saxo Bank website
Introduced as a brokerage firm in 1992, now called Saxo Bank is a Danish firm giving out services like investment and online trading. It is headquartered in Denmark and the firm operates as an online broker platform.
Saxo Bank is in connection with more than 180 countries and provides services like investment banking solutions, online platforms for trading and investment, etc. The firm is widely spread in different parts of the world.
Pros of Saxo Bank forex:
Saxo Bank is acknowledged as the best forex broker and has an online trading platform from multiple sources.
Has great tools to help their customers get their needs completed.
Multiple currencies are supported by the platform.
Conclusion
The word “Forex” stands for the combination of two words foreign exchange. Forex means changing the currency of one country into another. This method requires different terms and rules to follow than the normal currency exchange. Foreign Exchange of currencies is done because of many reasons but not many platforms are trusted for the process. The above article contains a list of foreign exchange companies with their features.
FAQs
What are the top 10 currencies in the world?
The top 10 currencies in the world are Kuwaiti Dinar, Bahrain Dinar, Oman Riyal, Jordan Dinar, Pound Sterling, Cayman Island Dollar, European Euro, Swiss Franc, US Dollar, and Canadian Dollar.
What is the foreign exchange market?
A foreign exchange market is a trading place where the currencies of multiple countries are bought and sold at different rates just like the stock market.
Which currency has the lowest value?
The least valued currency can keep changing concerning changes in currency value. However, at present time Iranian Rial is considered the lowest valued currency.
What is forex earning?
Forex earning means the profit earned by selling goods and products in the global marketplace. It can also mean the simple exchange of only currencies in the global market as per the demand and supply rule.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by NestAway.
The home rental has been a pretty rigid segment, particularly in India. Homeowners have qualms about hiring tenants and it’s not a smooth sail for the latter either. Unrealistic advance deposit demands, lack of proper amenities and facilities, and turbulent rental agreement fiasco are just some of the problems that hamper the entire process.
NestAway, a Bengaluru-based startup has identified this crisis and is now setting things right. This is a detailed article about NestAway, how the startup came into being, and how it is operating to simplify the process of finding rented accommodation.
January 19, 2021 – NestAway sold off the society and apartment management platform, ApnaComplex to Anarock Group within a year of its acquisition.
About NestAway
NestAway is a concept. It’s a solution. It’s fixing something that’s grossly wrong. Actually, it’s a concoction of the three. It is a new concept for homeowners, a solution for tenants, and it’s fixing the youth housing crisis in cities.
Founded in 2015, NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is headquartered in Karnataka. It is an online aggregator of fully furnished and well-maintained rooms and flats for rent. NestAway homes are present across 16 cities in India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Thane.
The app helps the users find, book, and move into a rental home of their choice across various Indian cities. One can move in, ask for services from tap leakage to broken door locks, pay rent, and finally move out. The Nestaway app is available for Android and iOS.
NestAway has also forayed into the co-living segment. In 2019, it officially announced the launch of its independent subsidiary, Hello World. Hello World, focuses on co-living and student housing and is present in 15 Indian cities. Hello World claims to have 10,000 beds and 90% occupancy rate. It will be led by NestAway co-founder Jitendra Jagadev.
NestAway was co-founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar, and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015. It was an aggregator of shared and furnished apartments for bachelors in the beginning before adding full homes for families in its catalog.
NestAway Founders
Amarendra Sahu
Amarendra Sahuis the CEO of NestAway. He is a Computer Science engineer from NIT Surathkal and has an MBA from IIM-B. Amarendra has past experience of working at Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks, and Cisco as a Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer after which he co-founded BrizzTV Media Labs Pvt Ltd. Sahu is now a Co-founder of BrizzTV along with serving as a Co-founder and CEO of NestAway.
Jitendra Jagadev
Jitendra Jagadev is currently known as the Co-founder and Board Member of NestAway and has earlier served as the COO of the startup. Hegraduated from NIT Karnataka and has previously worked with companies like Philips, Cisco, and Ojas Venture Partners, before joining the founding team of NestAway. Jagadev is also the CEO of Helloworld Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Smruti Parida
Smruti Parida was the Co-founder of NestAway, and had also served as the CTO of the startup. Smruti is an IT graduate from NIT Karnataka. He was with Microsoft and United Online and worked as the Software Design Engineer and Program Manager 2 and Senior Software Engineer respectively before devoting himself to the company. Smruti quit NestAway on October 23, 2019. Smruti had also co-founded Zero Heights Technologies Pvt Ltd. previously and is currently working as a Founder at AutoSave.
Deepak Dhar
Deepak Dhar is an IT graduate from NIT Karnataka. Being a co-founder, Deepak was responsible for the product and user experience divisions at NestAway before leaving the startup in June 2019. Before joining NestAway, he worked with companies like Aceva Technologies, Fidelity Investments, and Royal Bank of Scotland. He also led Citruspay (acquired by PayU) as a Founding Member and Operations Head. Deepak Dhar quit Nestaway in June 2019 to startup a fintech venture but he will continue to be a director in the company. He co-founded Repute in October 2019.
NestAway owners Amrendra, Smruti, Deepak, and Jitendra are all serial entrepreneurs. Amrendra and Jitendra co-founded Brizztv, Deepak was a part of the founding team of Citrus Payment Solutions, and Smruti founded ‘Sen6’—an art marketplace. NestAway has anywhere between 200-500 employees, according to the latest records.
When Amarendra Sahu came to Bangalore in 2004, he had trouble finding a house to rent. Unmarried individuals are never the first choice of the house owners. Besides, renting in decent localities is not always reasonable.
Amarendra wanted to solve this problem and went about setting up NestAway with the help of friends. In June 2014, his friend Jitendra Jagadev’s house in Whitefield became the site of an experiment.
Amarendra recollects, “We took furnishing from Furlenco, took some pictures of the house, and posted it on Facebook. There were four beds in the 2 BHK – all sold in a day. Out of the seven girls who came to visit, six wanted it and four got it.”
This was the story behind NestAway’s inception which has established itself in a surprisingly short amount of time.
NestAway – Mission and Vision
Nestaway’s core vision is “to provide young people value-for-money spaces with convenient solutions and amenities.” The steering vision was to make living easy and hassle-free.
Nestaway is fueled with a mission to provide homes for everyone, without discrimination. The mission of the company was not just to find homes, but to help the youth set up in a new city without any hassles.
NestAway – Name, Tagline and Logo
With the onset of the new year 2022, NestAway has come up with a new tagline that goes “New Year, New Home.”
NestAway is India’s fastest growing “Home Rental Network” which provides better rental solutions via design and technology. The units are ready-to-walk in homes and with different schemes based on the tenant’s requirement—a bed, a room, or a complete house. From 1 BHK flats to 8 BHK luxury villas with state-of-the-art facilities, the company caters to all kinds of customer needs. Homescome with cot, mattress, sofa, TV, fridge, washing machine, and a furnished kitchen. Besides, fully furnished apartments, semi-furnished and unfurnished apartments are also listed on NestAway.
Some major USPs of NestAway are:
Guided house visits: Tenants are given a guided tour of the house they are interested in.
Rent on time: Ensures timely rent every month.
Zero paperwork: The company does all the paperwork such as agreement creation.
House safety: The company ensures that the house stays in good condition.
House maintenance: It provides on-demand and periodic house repairs. By subscribing to NestAway Assure, house owners can avail the facility of 100% free maintenance, cleaning, and repairing services.
Marketing and promotion: It promotes the properties registered with it through ads and other rental platforms.
Easy move-in and move-out policy: NestAway allows easy move-in and move-out facilities to tenants. Tenants can simply visit the website or use the app and schedule move-in or move-out dates according to their convenience. The move-out policy allows tenants to leave before the license end date. They can shift to the new house by notifying just two days before the planned move-in date.
Zero Deposit: NestAway has tied up with agencies to provide zero deposit offers, whereby tenants can move in by paying the booking amount without any advance deposit.
Pet-friendly: It allows animal lovers to find pet-friendly homes.
Open guest-hosting policy: It allows tenants to host guests responsibly without causing inconvenience to fellow tenants.
The lock-in period is of 6 months. Unless mentioned otherwise in the agreement, the minimum stay is 6 months. However, this may vary in different cities. NestAway does not impose any move-out charges. However, if a person moves out before completion of the lock-in period, he has to pay one month’s rent as move-out charges.
The rent is determined considering the given factors:
Area and location of the house.
Tenancy type, i.e whether a full house, a room, or a bed is taken for rent.
Condition of the house.
Size of the house.
The best part for the homeowners is that the company ensures that the rent is paid before the 5th of every month.
NestAway has a sound business model. It is a one-stop service provider for tenants and house owners where neither has to pay any brokerage fee.
The company serves as a broker and property manager for homeowners by helping find tenants, collect rent, and manage the property over its lifetime in exchange for a percentage share of the rental stream.
Amarendra explains the business model, “You can rent just a room, or the whole house. Our area manager will arrange the visit according to your preference. Once you are satisfied with the house, you can book it online. If you stay in the house for three days and don’t like it for any reason, we refund with full deposit. NestAway’s popularity grew mainly through word-of-mouth, with digital marketing spend in the early days being less than 10 percent of total expenses.”
NestAway runs on a very simple revenue model. It manages a homeowner’s rental property throughout the rental life cycle, from showing the house to a prospective tenant and closing the rental agreement, to collecting rent on the owner’s behalf and assisting the tenant and owner during move-out.
For all these services, the company charges the owners a fixed percentage of 12.5% of the total rent generated from the home as its commission. NestAway does not charge any brokerage or charges from the tenants apart from rent
NestAway Technologies has raised over $109.1 Million in funding from 9 rounds of funding it saw to date. In the latest round, it raised a funding of $4.70 Million from Goldman Sachs on September 17, 2019.
Date
Stage
Funding Amount
Investors
September 17, 2019
Series D
$4.70 Million
Goldman Sachs
May 13, 2019
Series D
$10 Million
Tiger Global Management & Chiratae Ventures
October 17, 2018
Venture
Undisclosed
InnoVen Capital
August 7, 2018
Venture
Undisclosed
Epiq Capital
March 1, 2018
Series D
$51 Million
Goldman Sachs
April 15, 2016
Series C
$30 Million
Tiger Global Management
February 28, 2016
Venture
Undisclosed
Ratan Tata
July 21, 2015
Series B
$12 Million
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management
March 16, 2015
Seed
$1.2 Million
Undisclosed
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Goldman Sachs, InnoVen Capital, Epiq Capital, Chiratae Ventures are some of the Investors in NestAway. Also, NestAway is in talks with multiple investors including Fosun International and Shunwei capital for $100 Million that it might be seeing ahead.
According to Wikipedia, NestAway registered lower growth in revenue in 2017-2018 as compared to 2016-2017. Its revenue increased by 533% in 2016-2017 whereas, in 2017-2018, it increased by only 28.7%. As per ROC filing, its revenue from operation in FY 2018 is Rs 46.98 crores. Again, the losses increased from Rs 134.24 crore in 2016-2017 to Rs 203.79 crore in 2017-2018.
The company claimed to earn $2 million worth of revenue each month, as of 2019’s reports.
NestAway – Growth/Valuation
NestAway is currently present in over 16 Indian major cities, as of September 2020. It is managing over 60,000 homes across the country. Over 10,600 house owners and 72,400 tenants are registered with it. About 40% of the new bookings now come from the family segment with the ratio being at 65:35 for shared versus family rental houses.
In Bengaluru, where typically rental advances are of 10 months, the company offers homes on two-month deposits. The company claims to earn a monthly revenue of around $2 Million. NestAway gets a commission of 12.5% in each rental agreement.
After a Series D funding of $51 million raised in March 2018, NestAway’s valuation was at about $200 million. It raised two more rounds of funding after that. However, the exact net worth or valuation has not been confirmed by the company.
In 2019, NestAway ventured into the co-living and student housing segment by launching a new brand, ‘Hello World‘. ‘Hello World’ which began in May 2019, currently has a capacity of around 10,000 beds and is operational in 16 cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Kota, and Dehradun. The startup boasts 90% occupancy rates. Hello World charges zero brokerage and one-month rent for a security deposit. NestAway has plans to introduce ‘Hello World’ in nine more cities, thus increasing the number of beds to over 50,000.
In the wake of COVID-19, Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway has taken a host of measures to support its users and property owners. To start with, the company has reduced the onboarding charges by 50% for anyone who had planned to move into Nestaway’s properties before the lockdown was put in place.
Also, Nestaway is allowing all the frontline workers to stay at its properties with 100% off on onboarding charges. For property-owners, which are tied-up for more than two years, the startup has set up an INR 50 Lakh fund to support them in these hard times.
For migrants struck in Kota, Nestaway has provided free stay and food under the ‘Hello World’ initiative. More than 30 migrants and 30 healthcare staff have lived at Hello World’s properties since the COVID-19 outbreak. One building in Kota has been dedicated to healthcare staff with food and basic facilities. Furthermore, NestAway has also extended canteen services for doctors and guards and hostel managers.
NestAway – Partners
NestAway uses Localitics, a real estate statistical data science platform that not only predicts where rental demand is going to grow, but also where new houses are going to spring up. Today, Localitics is used for evaluating all the cities in India where the company is present and churns out data to help them target the next set of cities.
NestAway has acquired 3 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was StayAbode on Mar 2, 2020. However, it has later sold ApnaComplex, which makes the proptech startup the owner of the 2 other companies, Zanify and StayAbode.
It acquired a smaller rival Zenify (City Synapse Information Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount in May 2017. This move will help them expand their offerings for families.
In February 2020, the company acquired the apartment management platform ApnaComplex. ApnaComplex is a 10-year-old startup and the platform offers tools to manage various aspects of the residential complexes like organizing public events, raising complaints, society billing/accounting, and much more. The company will now provide home services like cleaning, painting, pest control services, etc. to the registered users of ApnaComplex. However, within a year of its acquisition, the proptech startup decided to let ApnaComplex be acquired by Anarock on January 19, 2021.
Acquiree Name
Acquired Date
Price
StayAbode
March 2, 2020
–
ApnaComplex
February 13, 2020
–
Zanify
May 7, 2017
–
NestAway – Challenges
One of the major challenges for the company was finding the right investors because it was the first business in this arena and some skepticism. Now, it is one of the highest funded Indian startups.
In the initial stage, earning the house owner’s trust and convincing them to register was difficult. To solve this issue, it started offering a ‘rental default guarantee’ that guaranteed NestAway paying the house owner rent in case the tenant did not pay on time.
Some house owners don’t consent to give their house for rent with two months’ rent as deposit money and expect more. However, this scenario has been bettered with the arrival of NestAway where the users need to pay two months’ rent as the tenant and the company pays the difference.
NestAway – Competitors
There are many companies and websites like this that list properties for rent. The Major competitors of NestAway are:
What sets NestAway apart from its rivals is that it provides end-to-end solutions to tenants and house owners by taking care of everything—creating the rent agreement, rent collection, house maintenance, etc. In short, it mediates throughout the rental life cycle.
NestAway – Awards and Achievements
NestAway has been conferred upon a list of awards and recognitions throughout the years. One of the proudest moments for NestAway was when the founders of the company achieved the Comeback Kid Award on August 18, 2017.
NestAway – Future Plans
NestAway is planning to introduce ‘Smart Homes’ by launching the Smart Lock service for all homes. Smart Lock is a safety locking system that ensures security for people staying in their homes, especially for women. This service will be available on their app for both Android and iOS devices. The company is planning to venture into the women’s housing and senior housing sector by 2020.
Another area of focus for NestAway will be student housing. With 10.4 million migrant students and only 6.1 million beds as the current official supply, there is an increase in demand for student housing which continues to increase day by day. Cashing in on this opportunity, it is strongly focusing on student housing and aims to start operations in Kota (Rajasthan) followed by Delhi (North Campus), and Bangalore. NestAway is also looking to expand PAN India and conversations are going on with progressive builders for exclusive properties earmarked for students.
The brand continues to concentrate on the concept of co-living, wherein it takes up the entire building including the shared facilities such as gym, libraries, common areas, game room, and others. Through this concept, NestAway Technologies is trying to create a community for members with common interests to engage in yoga/salsa classes, have talk sessions from seasoned entrepreneurs/sportspersons, entrepreneurial knowledge sharing meets, and collaborate on other exciting avenues.
NestAway – FAQs
Who are the Founders/Owner of NestAway?
NestAway was co-founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar, and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015.
What is NestAway?
NestAway is an online aggregator of fully furnished and well-maintained rooms and flats for rent. NestAway homes are present across 16 cities in India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Thane.
Who is the CEO of NestAway?
Nestaway CEO and Co-founder is Amarendra Sahu.
Who are the Top Investors of NestAway?
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Goldman Sachs, InnoVen Capital, Epiq Capital, Chiratae Ventures are the Investors in NestAway.
How much Funding did NestAway raise till date?
NestAway Technologies has raised over $109.1 Million in funding from 9 rounds. In the latest round, it raised funding of $4.7 Million from Goldman Sachs in September 2019.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal is the current Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Co-founder of the e-commerce ShopClues, which was established in 2011 with just 10 team members. She is the first woman Co-founder in India, whose company entered the Unicorn Club. Radhika’s husband was Sandeep Aggarwal, who founded ShopClues with her and Sanjay Sethi. Sandeep served as the CEO of the company before resigning in 2013. Soon after that, Sanjay Sethi was made the CEO of the company, and he is currently continuing with the same designation.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal was born to an Army family. Her father was employed in the Indian Army and her mother was a dietician by profession. She got married to Sandeep Aggarwal, whom she met during her college days. However, the couple eventually got divorced in 2017. Their relationship started turning bitter when Sandeep was arrested by the FBI in 2013.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation charged Sandeep Aggarwal for insider trading. Sandeep worked as an analyst at the US-based Collins Stewart before he started the dotcom venture. This was when he was involved in leaking non-public information to a former SAC Capital portfolio manager. Sandeep was arrested by the FBI in San Jose, California after which he resigned from the company, giving way to Sanjay Sethi, another Co-founder of the company to become the CEO of ShopClues. The couple eventually saw their way to separation.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal currently lives in Gurgaon, Haryana, as per her Twitter profile.
Radhika Aggarwal- Early Life
Being an Army ward, she grew up in ten different cities including Pathankot, Ahmednagar, and Jodhpur, and attended several schools throughout her childhood. Traveling to new places gave her the opportunity to meet new people and adapt to the formidable change, which further helped in running a business without getting affected by daunting changes and challenges.
Perseverance is yet another quality that she learned while growing up. Her attitude of not giving up helped her in standing against all odds in the startup world.
Radhika actively helped her father, who started his health club after he left the Army at the age of 45, in 1992. She served as a fitness trainer during the early days of her father’s entrepreneurship venture. This way she also earned her first-ever pay cheque of Rs. 400. Following her father’s entrepreneurial mind, she founded her very first advertising agency in Chandigarh in 1997. Though the entrepreneur in her was also there, founding her advertising agency happened primarily due to the dearth of options available there in Chandigarh, as she would like to put it.
Radhika Aggarwal on her success mantra
Radhika Aggarwal- Education
Radhika Aggarwal completed her graduation and eventually went for an MBA in 1999 after ending her brief stint as the founder of an advertising agency. Radhika pursued an MBA from Washington University, in St. Louis, US. She also holds another post-graduation degree in advertising and public relations. Furthermore, Radhika also participated in an executive program at Stanford University.
Radhika Aggarwal started her career in the marketing field at Goldman Sachs in 2001. However, the very next year she left the company to join Nordstrom, headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Along with strategic planning, she also learned the inverted pyramid structure there and studied how it works in reality. Nordstrom was a company where the customers were prioritized.
“Even the CEO would be seen on the floor being a shoe runner, just to understand the needs of the customer better. The entire company and its ethos revolve around this concept. It helps you understand what the customer wants,” recalled Radhika.
It was Nordstrom that founded the base of learning in her professional career, which was deemed to add an extra edge later while working on her startup.
She stayed with Nordstrom till early 2006 after which she took a pregnancy break. However, indomitable as her spirit was, Radhika rose up rather quickly from her break and resumed her career with Abhivyakti Infotech, where she worked as a marketing strategist.
With the start of the next year, Radhika started Fashion Clues in 2007, a fashion and lifestyle website that focused on the people of South Asia and the US, which she began to manage single-handedly.
Brimming with experience, Radhika decided to found another startup with her husband, Sandeep and Sanjay Sethi. She had quite an experience, close to 14 years by then, which she garnered while working at Nordstrom and during her stay in the US when she amassed considerable experience in diverse sectors like e-commerce, fashion, lifestyle, and retail. Radhika founded her e-commerce venture ShopClues with her husband, Sandeep Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi in 2011. She reportedly started with a team of 10 members. However, gradually the workforce kept on increasing as the company rose in popularity. Shopclues emerged as a unicorn company in January 2016, India’s fourth unicorn company. She currently serves as the CBO and Co-founder of Shopclues.
Radhika was once asked that whether she has been able to change the convention towards women employees across the industry she had served. On this, the Co-founder and CBO of Shopclues replied:
“The best way I deal with this is to avoid gender-based discrimination in the first place. At ShopClues, we empower a good worker and we provide equal opportunities that can help maximize potential. If you’re an able worker, gender doesn’t even come into the picture. At ShopClues, we have women leading our vibrant community of merchant partners. Our women employees know I have their back, and that they are at par with our male employees, with many of them in the leadership team.”
Radhika Aggarwal encourages women to share their opinions, voice out their challenges and any other issues that bother them. She is known to have discussions with her women employees at the cafeteria, which helps her keep a track of her women employees and their grievances to address them duly.
Furthermore, Shopclues follows a no-door policy in the office, where there are no designated cabins differentiating the co-founders and the employees. Both Radhika and Sanjay sit with their employees, which helps them maintain a strong bond with their employees.
Radhika Aggarwal- ShopClues
ShopClues Logo
ShopClues was founded in July 2011 and is currently headquartered in Gurgaon. This was 2 years before the emergence of Amazon India. The company served as an Indian online marketplace and saw a steady rise in popularity, revenues, and funding. It once became the only choice for millions of Indians. Seeing the potential in Shopclues, the company saw funds pouring in Tiger Global, Helion Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners. It also successfully registered a GMV of $400 million in 2015.
Being valued at $1.1 billion, Shopclues achieved unicorn status between late 2015 and early 2016 and was recognized as the 4th Indian unicorn company, which was in talks for an IPO. However, destiny had it the other way round, as the Co-founders of the company were caught in an ugly spat, following which the revenues of Shopclues started to slow down, while the losses started to pile up. The company’s revenues increased by a feeble 5% in FY17, in contrast to the steady 50% with which it had been growing. Besides, the losses stood at around Rs 332 crores by then. Though the company started to cut costs, advertising expenses, and expenses on its employees in 2018, the competition was on a rise with Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, and others, which were growing at dizzying speeds.
It also planned again for an IPO in 2018 but it didn’t materialize. Furthermore, the company saw too many exits, firing of employees, coupled with the loss of a legal fight with L’oreal. All of these beat Shopclues down and its troubles to thrive became public. The rumors of a possible merger or sale were also doing the rounds. After talks of mergers with Snapdeal and ebay.in were dissolved, Shopclues was finally acquired by the Singapore-based Qoo10, which acquired the company in an all-stock deal.
Radhika Aggarwal- Kindlife
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Shopclues Co-founder has started Kindlife.in, her next venture, as of September 6, 2021. Kindlife is deemed to be a marketplace for organic products spanning across a range of categories.
The website of the brand is equipped with different spaces, pages, and forums of varying topics like nutrition, grooming, wellness, and others along with a list of products that can be bought.
According to the website of Kindlife, Alphacama is registered as the parent entity for the brand and Vidit Jain is listed as the director. Deltacama Pvt Ltd and Zetacama Pvt Ltd are two other entities incorporated by Ghai where Jain also serves as a director for the other two entities along with Ghai.
Radhika Aggarwal- Awards
Radhika has been conferred with numerous awards and recognition in her professional life. Here are some of the prestigious awards that she has won in 2016:
Outlook Business Woman of Worth at Outlook Business Awards
Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at Entrepreneur India Awards
Exemplary Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at CMO Asia Awards
It was obviously not a cup of tea to build an e-commerce website from scratch, especially with a good amount of competition that was already in a rage back then. ShopClues was established when Flipkartand Snapdealwere already in the business and had raised a considerable amount of money and popularity. Jabong was also founded in the same year along with ShopClues.
As of now, September 8, 2021, the competitors of ShopClues further multiplied with Flipkart and Snapdeal already cementing their positions as homegrown eCommerce giants along with Amazon India, which emerge together to be nothing less than household names in eCommerce. Some other competitors of Shopclues include Jabong, Myntra, Naaptol, HomeShop18, Yepme, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is ShopClues net worth in FY20?
ShopClues has an operating revenue of INR 89 Crores in FY20, the year that ended on March 31, 2020.
Is ShopClues a unicorn?
ShopClues became India’s fourth unicorn firm valued over a billion dollars at $1.1 billion in January 2016 within just 5 years after its launch.
Is ShopClues an Indian company?
Yes, ShopClues is an Indian company headquartered in Gurugram, India.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
Goldman Sachs is an American multinational investment bank. It has got a net worth as of December 17, 2020, as $83.41B. It offers services in investment management, securities, asset management, and securities underwriting. Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs founded Goldman Sachs in 1869.
Read about the Goldman Sachs success story, Founders, Competitors, Business Model, Funding, and Revenue Model below.
Goldman Sachs is a leading investment firm. It maintains offices and all major financial centers around the world. Goldman Sachs brings capital, people, shareholders, clients, and ideas together. They actually serve all. Serve the community to grow more. Advice about buying and selling businesses is always given. Starting from raising capital to managing risks takes place here.
The financial services industry is considered to be one of the most powerful industries in the world as it contains a wide range of businesses that manage money.
As per the latest reports, the market size of global financial services grew from $25848.74 billion in 2022 to $28115.02 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8%.
Goldman Sachs – Founders and Team
Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs are the Founders of Goldman Sachs.
Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs – Founders, Goldman Sachs
Marcus Goldman was a German banker, financier, and businessman. He was born in Trappstadt, Bavaria. He immigrated to the United States in 1848. He was the founder of the company. His company is now known by all and is one of the world’s largest investment banks.
Samuel Sachs was an American investment banker. He was born in Maryland, United States in 1851. He was the business partner of Marcus Goldman. But actually, Marcus Goldman was his father-in-law. He joined the business. He died in 1935.
David M. Solomon is an investment banker. Since the year 2018, he is the CEO of Goldman Sachs. He is 58 years old as of 2020. He has a net worth of around $100 Million
CEO, Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs – Startup Story
As you have read before, Samuel Sachs was the business partner as well as the son-in-law of Marcus Goldman. Before, accepting the offer. Samuel Sachs used to work as a bookkeeper and ran minor businesses. After his joining, Marcus named the company M. Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1888. An updated listing took place in 1883. Samuel established the company’s reputation day by day. He stood in the banking community. By 1890, Goldman Sachs became one of the largest dealers of commercial paper in New York. Later, Samuel retired and passed away in New York.
Goldman Sachs – Mission and Vision
The mission of Goldman Sachs reads as, “We aspire to be the world’s most exceptional financial institution, united by our shared values of client service, excellence, partnership, and integrity.”
The company has four core values, which are based on:
Client Service
Excellence
Partnership
Integrity
The aim of the firm has always been towards serving its clients well. Besides this, the goal of the company is to ensure that they deliver returns to its shareholders.
Goldman Sachs – Name, Tagline, and Logo
In the tagline, the goal of Goldman Sachs speaks for itself. Hence, its tagline is “Our people are our greatest asset.”
Goldman Sachs Logo
Goldman Sachs – Solutions
Goldman Sachs is known for building and integrating developer-centric, cloud-based financial products and services into the ecosystems of its clients to enable them to provide better service to their own clients and customers.
As we are aware that the company is mostly into offering services related to finance, it offers 3 major platform solutions for its clients, these are:
Transaction Banking
This platform designed by the company is to assist clients in creating a future treasury and enabling software partners to improve their services. It is a straightforward and secure transaction banking platform with 24/7 accessibility so that its clients can easily use it.
Merchant Point of Sale Lending
Merchant point of sale lending is a growing network of retailers that are offered clear and uncomplicated solutions to assist them in expanding their operations and better serving their clientele.
Embedded Consumer Finance
Through its API-first platform, a SaaS technology, the company enables businesses to directly offer its highly regarded consumer financial products within their online experiences. This doesn’t end here. The company also offers tools that will help enable developers to drive long-term growth for their businesses and derive smart decisions.
Why Goldman Sachs Went From Investing For The Rich To Targeting Everyone
Goldman Sachs – Business Model
The company deals with a range of financial services. It has got a diversified client base which includes financial institutions, governments, and corporations. The company has got 4 operable segments. These are Investment Banking, Institutional Client Services, Investing & Lending, and Investment Management.
Investment Banking is advising organizations on capital raising strategies. This feature helps to raise capital and grow businesses.
Institutional Client Services are actually financial services with both financial and non-financial firms. The firm makes clear client transactions. For future exchanges, security lending, prime brokerage, etc.
Investing & Lending are something very common, which everyone already knows. Still investing is putting money into property, shares, and schemes. The firm makes investments both directly and indirectly. And lending is allowing someone or something to use an amount of money. Money can be paid back later.
The firm also offers wealth advisory services, portfolio management, and financial counseling.
Basically, the company’s business is to help people, companies, shareholders, and clients on the following points:
It advises on what to buy or sell depending on the marketing conditions.
It helps local or national governments tofinance their operations.
It transacts for its clients in all financial marketing conditions such as bonds, equities, currencies, etc.
It helps orsupports markets to remain effective and liquid for investors and businesses to meet up with their needs.
It manages to safeguard and improve the value of assets for both private individuals and institutions like mutual funds, pension funds, and foundations.
It also invests in capital to help grow its clients’ capital.
It also aggressively helps toinnovate and come up with new ideas, and new products to grow further.
In addition, the company offers the following solutions for corporates and institutions:
Asset Management
FICC and Equities
Comprehensive Solutions for Nonprofits
Financial Cloud
Investment Banking
Global Investment Research
Ayco Personal Financial Management
Marquee
Liquidity Investing
On the other hand, for individuals, some of the services provided by Goldman Sachs are:
Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Private Wealth Management
Global Investment Research
Ayco Personal Financial Management
Personal Financial Management
Apart from all these, Goldman Sachs is a key trader in the market for Treasury securities issued by the United States. It offers custodian bank and clearing services.
Investing activities and the origination of loans are to provide financing to clients.
After clearing client transactions on major stock, commissions, and fees are executed.
Financial advisory fees and underwriting fees are charged by the clients.
In 2022, the company generated a revenue of $47.4 billion. As of September 26, 2021, the firm has a market capitalization of $134.8 billion.
Goldman Sachs – Employees
As of 2021, the number of employees the company reported having was 48,500. However, as a result of the earnings report from July of 2022, which showed significantly decreased earnings, Goldman Sachs announced in September 2022 that hundreds of employees across the company were laid off.
Goldman Sachs – Marketing Strategy
The company invests around 90% of its marketing budget in digital marketing schemes. The main focus is on the creation of content and social media. With the help of social media platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
The company enables itself to reach its customers. Innovation and expansion of the market are increasing day by day. Social enterprises are also contributing to the UK economy and community. After a lot of research, the company designed a 10,000 small business program. This was created to bring high-quality business support to the leaders for growing their small businesses across the country.
One of the most challenging parts for Goldman Sachs was during the aftermath of the financial crisis that happened between 2007-2008. The firm came under fire for allegedly deceiving its investors and making money through the collapse of the mortgage market. The situation was so bad that there were investigations into this matter. It was conducted by the US Congress and the US Department of Justice, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit. As a result, the company agreed to pay a $550 million settlement.
While this was one of the many challenges faced by the company, there was another major controversy in 2021, wherein a group of first-year bankers complained to managers that they were working 100 hours a week with only 5 hours of sleep at night. This was highlighted and the company faced scrutiny. However, the firm announced a 15 days vacation every year for its employees to maintain their work-life balance.
Goldman Sachs – Mergers and Acquisitions
The company has made 28 acquisitions till now. Some of the details are:
Date
Aquiree Name
Amount
September 15, 2021
GreenSky
$2.2 Billion
August 19, 2021
NN Investment Partners
1.6 Billion
December 8, 2020
Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities
–
October 2, 2020
General Motors – Credit Card Business
$2.5 Billion
May 14, 2020
Folio Institutional
–
June 3, 2019
Capital Vision Services
$2.7 Billion
May 16, 2019
United Capital
$750 Million
November 9, 2018
ClearFactr
–
July 11, 2018
Boyd Corporation
$3 Billion
June 14, 2018
Slickdeals
–
Goldman Sachs – Investments
It is recorded that Goldman Sachs has made 956 investments, out of which 376 are lead investments. Some of the latest investments are:
Date
Name Of The Organization
Amount Raised
February 2, 2023
Syngene
$11.9 Billion
January 25, 2023
Fever
$110 Million
January 25, 2023
Forward Networks
$50 Million
January 12, 2023
LePure Biotech
–
January 11, 2023
Xpansiv
$125 Million
January 3, 2023
InsuranceDekho
$110 Million
December 15, 2022
Mews
$185 Million
December 13, 2022
Vestiaire Collective
$75 Million
December 8, 2022
Younited
$60 Million
November 17, 2022
Bikaji Foods
$566.4 Million
June 25, 2020
Capital Markets Gateway
$25 million
July 14, 2020
Permira
–
July 14, 2020
Nasuni
$25 billion
July 15, 2020
Bond Financial Technologies
$32 million
July 23, 2020
Missfresh E-Commerce
$495 million
In addition to this, the company has made 46 diversity investments. These are:
Date
Organization Name
Amount Invested
February 15, 2022
Homebound
–
January 11, 2022
Wonderschool
$25 Million
November 27, 2021
H2O.ai
$100 Million
March 4, 2021
Flywire
$60 Million
February 24, 2021
Madison Reed
$52 Million
October 6, 2020
BlocPower
$11.8 Million
September 17, 2020
Ellucian
$1.6 Billion
July 14, 2020
Nasuni
$25 Million
February 13, 2020
Flywire
$120 Million
January 15, 2020
Moneythink
$10K
Goldman Sachs – Philanthropic Activities
Under Goldman Sachs Foundation, the company has contributed about $1.8 billion towards philanthropic activities. With a maximum employee donation match of $20,000, the business provides a donor-advised fund (DAF) called Goldman Sachs Gives that makes donations to nonprofits.
Even during the pandemic when companies struggled to operate, the company made progress in reuniting its teams across the world and in supporting their employees and their families.
In addition, the company advised the governments of several nations on how to raise more than $15 billion for vulnerable populations, contributing $30 million to a COVID-19 Relief Fund and $775 million to a Small Business Stimulus Package during this time.
Goldman Sachs – Awards and Achievements
The company has won many awards and achievements, some of which are listed below:
The Wall Street Journal – 250 Best Managed Companies of 2022 (December 2022)Ranked 105
Euromoney – Market Leaders Awards (November 2022) Ranked 1 in Chile and Ranked 2 in Brazil
Goldman Sachs has been recognized for the International Financing Review (IFR) Awards – Bank of the Year
Achieved the Fintech Futures Banking Tech Awards – Best Use of Cloud
CNBC Select – 5 Best Personal Loans of December 2022 – Marcus by Goldman Sachs named Best for Debt Consolidation
Received the Interbrand – Best Global Brands by ranking 49
The Banker – Investment Banking Awards (October 2022)Investment Bank of the Year
FinTech Futures – Banking Tech Awards USA (May 2022) – Best Digital Initiative – Marcus by Goldman Sachs products and app
Mergers & Acquisitions – Middle-Market Deals of the Year (May 2022) –Industrials Deal of the Year
Ranked No. 19 in the Fortune – Modern Board 25 (April 2022)
The company especially focuses on investments and technology-driven companies. The Merchant Banking Division has invested more than $5 billion in strategic capital. For entrepreneurs and management to execute long-termed growth plans. This process is, going on since 1994. They usually tie up with strong management teams. This formula helps the company to grow more. Giving value to customers, shareholders, and partners is the key to success. The target of the team is investments ranging between $20 – 250+ million in companies. A proven proper management team is also very essential to walk toward growth.
Goldman Sachs – Future Plans
While the company remains one of the leading financial and investment banking companies, it is reported that the company is soon going to change its business strategy. The company plans to expand its transaction banking and wealth management operations. Given the economic crisis going on, the company is looking for ways to change its overall business plan soon.
FAQs
When was Goldman Sachs founded?
Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869.
Who are the founders of Goldman Sachs?
Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs are the Founders of Goldman Sachs.
What services does Goldman Sachs provide?
Goldman Sachs provides a range of financial services to individuals, corporations, and governments. Some of the services offered by Goldman Sachs include:
