- Social Finance (known as SoFi) has raised $500 million in funding led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)
- This round of funding values SoFi at $4.3 billion on a pre-money basis.
Social Finance (known as SoFi) has announced that it has raised $500 million in funding led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) — which values the company at a $4.3 billion on a pre-money basis. This valuation is about the same as it received about two years ago when it raised a round led by Silver Lake. With the $500 million funding round, SoFi plans to invest in growth initiatives and to strengthen its $2.3 billion balance sheet.
The Qatar Investment Authority is a Doha, Qatar-based private equity firm that has about $12 billion in assets under management. This firm has also invested in Uber, Airtel Africa, Super, Lu.com, Compass, OncoResponse, and Flipkart according to Crunchbase. Including this round, SoFi raised a total of about $2.5 billion from investors like SoftBank, Renren, Baseline Ventures, and DCM Ventures.
“Over the last year, we’ve worked aggressively to grow SoFi from a desktop lending business to a broad-based, mobile-first financial platform enabling members to borrow, save, spend, invest and protect their money,” said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto in a statement. “We’re thrilled to have QIA as a new investor and partner in our journey to help our members Get Their Money Right.”
SoFi originally launched in 2011 as a student loan refinancing service, but then it expanded quickly to personal and mortgage loans, mortgage refinancing services, and wealth management. SoFi now has over 700,000 members and 7.5 million registered users.
Plus SoFi recently announced cryptocurrency trading services through a partnership with Coinbase and zero-fee So-Fi branded exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Plus SoFi is planning to launch a credit card in the second half of 2019 and a cash account with 2.25% APY.
“We strongly believe in SoFi’s approach, and their dedication to build a transformational financial platform that is rapidly disrupting consumer finance,” added QIA’s CEO Mansoor Al-Mahmoud. “SoFi’s team have a clear long-term vision for their business, and we’re proud to be their partners and to support them on their journey as part of our broader strategic investments in technology.”
