Social Finance (SoFi) is continuing its steady growth streak into 2020, with a focus on boosting product offerings for its nearly one million members.
Launched in 2011, the company has had its share of ups and downs, most notably when its founding CEO Mike Cagney stepped down in 2017 after accusations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate workplace behavior. Additional top executives also resigned in the process, and the scandal reportedly cost SoFi its chance of obtaining a bank charter.
Now with a new CEO, SoFi has been working hard to put the past behind it. In October 2019, the company raised $500 million in a funding round led by Qatar, with a valuation of $4.3 billion. It also added crypto trading to its SoFi Invest platform and launched SoFi Money, a cash account with 2.25 percent APY.
This year is looking to see the same business expansion. In January it announced a partnership with Mastercard, which will initially focus on the SoFi Money debit card, offering no account fees, high-yielding interest, ATM fee reimbursements, mobile check deposit, P2P, and more. The two companies will also work together to develop new financial products, with Mastercard serving as the exclusive card network for SoFi’s upcoming credit card.
And earlier this month, SoFi revealed that it would acquire Galileo Financial Technologies, a financial services API and payments platform, for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. SoFi Money is already tightly integrated with Galileo’s payment platform, and with this deal the two will work together to boost technology innovation for Galileo’s partners, and eventually consumers worldwide.
“SoFi has established itself as a leader in the FinTech sector, providing our more than one million members a full array of financial products to help them get their money right,” said CEO Anthony Noto, who joined the company from Twitter last year. “The response by our members to our innovation across borrowing, saving, spending, and investing has motivated us to think bigger, bolder and more expansively given the insatiable consumer appetite for financial services innovation.”
One thing the company isn’t looking for right now: an IPO. Noto said in an interview last year that while it’s currently not a priority for the company, going public remains a long-term goal.
