Atlanta deal: Digital bank Greenwood buys Black network Gathering Spot
Two of Atlanta’s most powerful and newest Black brands — digital banking platform Greenwood and The Gathering Spot — are now one.
Greenwood is buying the popular networking hub and workspace frequented by young Black professionals and the entertainment and creative elite.
Greenwood’s founders include Michael Render, more commonly known as rapper Killer Mike, and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. The company, named after the Black Tulsa community that white racists destroyed in 1921, was founded in 2020. It reports more than $40 million in assets and more than 30,000 account holders.
The Gathering Spot, which offers spaces for Black professionals to work, meet and socialize, opened in Midtown in 2016. Since then, the company has opened physical spaces in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, while creating communities in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Houston and Charlotte. About 4,000 of its 12,000 paying members — whose memberships run from $100 to $250 a month — are in Atlanta.
“Technically this deal is an acquisition, but strategically, this is a partnership to bridge the racial wealth gap,” said Ryan Glover, a Greenwood founder. “Both brands joined forces to provide access to capital, wealth-building, business networking and community engagement to a million people in our collective community, which is powerful.”
“The banking community hasn’t been kind to our community — Blacks and minorities,” he added.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t released.
Glover will be the chief executive officer of the combined company. Ryan Wilson, The Gathering Spot’s CEO and co-founder, will take on the added role of Greenwood’s chief community officer.
Wilson and officials from Greenwood believe that the partnership will have widespread financial implications, by focusing on wealth-building and financial literacy, assets that would naturally be transferred to the members and communities that both companies served.
“This is a very powerful moment in Atlanta,” said Wilson. “For this city to have these two companies, that are well respected, come together is a powerful example of what happens when we decide to work together.”
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
