Goldman Sachs says it has satisfied diversity support promises, nixes initiative

Goldman Sachs is nixing a 2018 diversity initiative after reportedly fulfilling its goal of investing $1 billion in diverse-led businesses.

The leading investment bank’s decision to discontinue Launch With GS coincides with increased attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion measures.

According to Fortune, then-chief strategy officer Stephanie Cohen shared in a 2018 blog post that the goal of Launch With GS was to “generate strong investment returns.”

“The bottom line is this makes sense for our business – because investing and helping companies grow is our business,” she wrote.

At the time, the investment bank also said it would not assist firms in going public if their boards did not include at least one diverse director. 

As of June 2023, Goldman Sachs said it had deployed $1 billion of company and client capital into businesses led, developed and managed by women and people of color. The company quietly updated the initiative’s website in recent weeks, describing the effort in the past tense.

Regina Green, who worked at Goldman Sachs for nearly 17 years, was assigned to lead Launch With GS in May 2021. She announced her departure from Goldman via LinkedIn at the beginning of this year.

“I’m so proud of the work we’ve done, the founders and managers we’ve partnered with, and the impact we’ve had so far,” she wrote, according to Fortune.

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The company told Fortune that Launch With GS oversaw five “entrepreneur cohorts” which helped 47 startups and handled “nearly 60 investments” over five years. BentoBox, Burst Oral Care, LeaseQuery and the funds Construct Capital, Define Ventures and MaC Venture Capital are among the companies that benefitted from the initiative.

Goldman Sachs now says it is shifting its diversity efforts toward 2022’s One Million Black Women, a 10-year commitment to distribute $10 billion in investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic assistance to address the “dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations.” The funds will be spread across more categories than venture-focused Launch With GS, Fortune reported.

Goldman says the company has invested $2.3 billion thus far and has four team members exclusively focused on the initiative. 

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