Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought personal-finance app Clarity Money, acquiring a mobile storefront for its growing consumer bank.
The deal closed on Friday for Clarity Money, whose backers include Soros Capital and Citigroup Inc.’s
C, -1.55%
venture-capital arm. Adam Dell — brother of Michael Dell, the personal-computer pioneer — founded Clarity Money and will join Goldman
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as a partner, a title rarely given to outsiders.
The Wall Street firm has been intensifying its push into retail banking, a decade after its conversion from a broker-dealer into a bank that can take consumer deposits. Under the brand name Marcus, Goldman began making personal loans online in 2016 and has originated more than $2.5 billion so far. It also offers high-interest savings accounts and has about 350,000 customers across both products.
As previously reported, Goldman is paying a high eight-figure sum for Clarity Money — a rich valuation for a two-year-old startup that has yet to turn a profit. But Clarity Money’s roughly one million users will quadruple Goldman’s customer base. In addition to Dell, about two dozen other Clarity Money employees will join the bank.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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