Investments · Fintech (online lending)
SoftBank leads $1 billion funding round for online lender SoFi
- Investor
- SoftBank Group (Tokyo)
- In
- Social Finance (SoFi), San Francisco, California
- Value
- $1B Series E round led by SoftBank (SoftBank's own share not stated)
- Status
- Completed.
- Date
- 2015-09-30
SoftBank Group led a $1 billion Series E funding round for Social Finance (SoFi), a San Francisco online lender. SoFi called it the largest single financing round in fintech to that date. SoftBank's own share of the round was not stated.
Why it matters
The round marked SoftBank's entry into US financial technology with a large check, ahead of the much larger investments it later made through the Vision Fund.
The round
The round brought SoFi's total equity funding to $1.42 billion. Other investors included Third Point Ventures and affiliates of Third Point, Wellington Management, Institutional Venture Partners, RenRen, Baseline Ventures and DCM Ventures. SoFi did not state a valuation in its release.
SoFi at the time
SoFi said it had funded more than $4 billion in loans and expected to pass $6 billion by the end of 2015. It had been profitable since 2014 and had more than 400 full-time employees. It planned to use the money to add products, improve its credit underwriting model and mobile experience, and expand its offices, including doubling its office in Healdsburg, California, to 20,000 square feet.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
