In the world of promising young startups, there are far worse things than having Goldman Sachs as your largest investor.
Just last week we announced that NBCUniversal News Group had forged a strategic partnership with Kensho, the global analytics and intelligence systems specialist. This week we learn that Goldman Sachs has taken the lead in a $15 million investment in the company and is now Kensho’s largest investor.
According to a source cited in Forbes discussion of the news, the investment puts Kensho’s valuation “in the 9-figure range.” Combined with the company’s previous funding, Kensho’s total capital raised stands at more than $25 million.
Tony Pasquariello, Co-Head of North American Equity Derivatives Sales in the Securities Division for Goldman Sachs said, “our unique partnership with Kensho is an extension of our overall strategy of using and investing in new technology which allows us to deliver insights to our clients.”
Kensho leverages massively parallel statistical computing on unstructured data to provide financial analysts with real-time responses to complex questions. It’s partnership with NBCUniversal will include deploying a Kensho Stats Box for use by journalists at the financial news network, CNBC. And rumors and opinions are already swirling about how the notoriously savvy Goldman Sachs may use the technology.
Writing for Business Insider, Mike Bird suggested that Kensho “should have analysts quaking in their boots” for fear of losing their jobs to the Siri-like intelligent virtual assistant. Over at The Financial Times, Tracy Alloway and Arash Massoudi cited analysts who said that the move is largely a cost-cutting one – which may or may not calm the nerves of Bird’s quaking analysts.
The Financial Times also reported that Goldman Sachs played at least a small role in convincing the company to change the name of its signature implementation of the technology from “Warren” to “Kensho”, the same name as the company. Recall that “Warren” was the name of the platform when it was demoed at FinovateEurope 2014 back in February.
Zack’s Equity Research added that Goldman will use the analytics platform “throughout its business as well as to some of its major clients” and noted that Goldman has been active in the technology space, including an investment in Finovate alum, Motif Investing. “We believe Goldman is set to benefit from its tech investments,” Zacks said, “which seem to offer decent returns to the company.”