Sold by Goldman Sachs to a Sixth Street-led consortium for ~$500M (2024) — a fraction of the $1.7B Goldman paid.
The rise & fall
7 moments · 2006–2024
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2006
🌱
2006
Founded in Atlanta
David Zalik builds point-of-sale lending for home-improvement contractors, funded by partner banks.
Wikipedia
2016
🦄
2016
Joins the unicorn club$3.6B
A Fifth Third Bank investment values the quiet Atlanta fintech around $3.6B.
Fortune
May 2018
📈
May 2018
The peak: $4.5B Nasdaq IPO$4.5B
Raises $874M in one of the year's biggest fintech IPOs — the high-water mark.
Fortune
2018–21
2018–21
The model wobbles
Bank-dependent funding and slowing growth drag the shares well below the IPO price.
Banking Dive
Sep 2021
Sep 2021
Goldman Sachs buys in at $2.24B
An all-stock deal to power Goldman's consumer-banking push; it closes in 2022 nearer $1.7B.
Banking Dive
2022–25
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–25
Glassdoor reviews charted the decline through each handoff: employees described benefits and bonuses shrinking after the Goldman buyout, then repeated reorganizations and shifting targets under private-equity ownership — with veterans recalling the company changing owners more than once within a single stint.
Mar 2024
🤝
Mar 2024
Sold to Sixth Street for ~$500M$500M
Goldman retreats from consumer lending and offloads GreenSky to a Sixth Street-led consortium — under a third of what it paid.
Fortune
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
GreenSky operated a point-of-sale lending platform that let merchants — especially home-improvement contractors — offer instant financing to consumers, funded by partner banks. A private unicorn valued around $3.6B, it went public in 2018 at roughly $4.5B before its bank-dependent model and slowing growth weighed on the stock. Goldman Sachs bought it for $2.24B in 2021 (closing nearer $1.7B), then sold it to a Sixth Street-led consortium for about $500M in 2024.
Source: Wikipedia / Banking Dive / Fortune (~$4.5B IPO May 2018, raised $874M; Goldman Sachs acquisition $2.24B/closed $1.7B 2021-22; sold to Sixth Street-led group ~$500M, completed March 2024)
Founder
David Zalik
Founder & CEO who built GreenSky and led it through the Goldman sale era
