Wall Street banks care a lot about how they stack up against their rivals. At the top of their earnings statements, they tout where they placed in each line of business, and those rankings appear in every pitch book they hand out.
These rankings typically measure fees for mergers and acquisitions advisory work, or equity and debt deal work. They sometimes measure market share in fixed income trading, or equities. First place is always keenly fought over.
Now, Goldman Sachs, which has proclaimed its ambition to be the Google of Wall Street, has moved to the top of a different kind of league table ranking. The investment bank, which has taken to calling itself a technology company, has been betting big on tech startups — more so than any other non-tech company in the Fortune 500, according to a report by CB Insights.
Investments in private tech companies by non-tech Fortune 500 corporations — so the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are excluded here — have ramped up in recent years, growing 149% from 2013 to 2016 (absent a surge in the second half of the year, 2017 could buck that trend).
Goldman has been leading the way, according to the report.
Of all the non-tech corporations in the Fortune 500, Goldman has had the most total tech investments and number of investments in unicorns, backing the likes of Uber, Spotify, and Oscar.
General Electric and Citigroup were the next most active dealmakers, while financial stalwarts American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and BlackRock all cracked the top-10 as well.
Goldman has participated in some of the largest start-up funding rounds of the past five years. Here's a look at some of the companies they've backed:
Given that Goldman Sachs invests for its funds and wealthy clients in addition to making investments on its own behalf, beating out non-financial corporations like Coca-Cola and Disney in this space is less notable than its edge over competitors like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley.
Goldman is firmly entrenching itself in the tech startup sphere, and it stands to benefit not only if their investment bets hit, but when any of these tech clients find themselves needing investment banking advisory services.
When Uber finally decides to go public or get acquired, Goldman already has a relationship and is a phone call away to handle the deal.
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