Goldman Sachs is investing $90 million in WSO2

American multinational investment bank and financial services company, Goldman Sachs Group is pumping in a whopping USD 90 million into WSO2. The deal is to be announced Monday and falls in line with Goldman’s increased focus on tech investments amidst the pandemic. Last month, Goldman’s banking co-head Dan Dees stated that the firm is doubling down on technology investing.

Addressing the developer shortage

The funding will be directed towards expanding WSO2’s cloud-based low-code platform, specifically to its Choreo and Asgardeo products. Further investment will also go towards WSO2 API Manager, WSO2 Identity Server, and its open-source language Ballerina.

With over 800 customers across 85 countries, this platform aims to help build business apps easier for personnel beyond the typical IT departments. In other words, it allows non-tech employees to create apps without being completely dependent on the IT team.

The announcement comes at a time where markets around the world are facing a massive developer shortage. Though the problem’s not uniquely a COVID-19 issue, it’s one that has gotten worse because of it. As the pandemic prompts more businesses to go digital and adopt remote working strategies, the demand for tech skills has shot up in the recent past.

This is where low-code platforms come into the picture. According to Founder and CEO of WSO2, Sanjiva Weerawarana in a Wall Street Journal report, “Low-code software offers non-tech employees an intuitive, simple and clear way to create apps themselves, without weeks or even months of back-and-forth with IT teams.”

Of course, simplifying the process of building digital solutions for non-technical personnel is only one benefit. Other advantages include speeding up development cycles, reducing maintenance requirements, bridging the tech divide within a company, and others.

Enabling the push for a low-code future

Earlier this year, Gartner forecasted that the global low-code technologies market will cross USD 14 billion by 2025. It also predicts ” half of all new low-code clients will come from business buyers that are outside the IT organization” by the same period.

Platforms like WSO2’s Choreo, for instance, hopes to enable this low-code future as the world navigates through a pandemic-affected landscape. Now, with Goldman Sachs’ USD 90 million funding on WSO2, the multinational firm is also banking on this future.

“To survive and thrive over a long period, software companies must evolve in radical steps, not just in incremental movements. The funding from Goldman Sachs allows us to quickly realize our vision for WSO2 to become a cloud-first company. We are thankful for the firm’s belief in us.” says Weerawarana in a blog post talking about the investment.