 "Goldman Sachs scouting for fintech start-ups")
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, is scouting for financial technology start-ups and is looking at Bengaluru for new picks.
The Principal Strategic Investment Group of the bank has a global portfolio of 75 firms, including a dozen investments in the Asia-Pacific. Two are in India — National Stock Exchange (NSE) and National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange.
“Indian tech companies are evolving from services to software development and Bengaluru is emerging as a global centre for innovation that is comparable to Silicon Valley of the US,” says Alokik Advani, managing director of the bank's PSI Group.
He heads the Asia-Pacific team of the group from his Hong Kong office and now claims to have brought a new focus to invest in firms from India. “We are scouting for start-ups,” he says. Indian fin-tech start-ups have had big success in payment systems but these are not so interesting for the bank. “For us, start-ups dealing with data analytics or machine learning could be a big opportunity in India,” says Advani.
New technology for trading platforms, enterprise solutions and data centre management are other interest areas. While fin-tech evolution is at an early stage in India, there are no dedicated fin-tech venture capital funds active here. This gives Advani an opportunity to invest, mentor and commercialise such start-ups, leveraging the global network of Goldman Sachs, he says.
The bank plans to invest i$2-10 million in each such investment, for a minority stake that can at most bring a board seat. It plans to invest for an average of five years. It, however, declined to comment on an exit plan from the NSE investment.
The Principal Strategic Investment Group of the bank has a global portfolio of 75 firms, including a dozen investments in the Asia-Pacific. Two are in India — National Stock Exchange (NSE) and National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange.
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“Indian tech companies are evolving from services to software development and Bengaluru is emerging as a global centre for innovation that is comparable to Silicon Valley of the US,” says Alokik Advani, managing director of the bank's PSI Group.
He heads the Asia-Pacific team of the group from his Hong Kong office and now claims to have brought a new focus to invest in firms from India. “We are scouting for start-ups,” he says. Indian fin-tech start-ups have had big success in payment systems but these are not so interesting for the bank. “For us, start-ups dealing with data analytics or machine learning could be a big opportunity in India,” says Advani.
New technology for trading platforms, enterprise solutions and data centre management are other interest areas. While fin-tech evolution is at an early stage in India, there are no dedicated fin-tech venture capital funds active here. This gives Advani an opportunity to invest, mentor and commercialise such start-ups, leveraging the global network of Goldman Sachs, he says.
The bank plans to invest i$2-10 million in each such investment, for a minority stake that can at most bring a board seat. It plans to invest for an average of five years. It, however, declined to comment on an exit plan from the NSE investment.