{"id":3726,"date":"2017-02-24T19:20:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T19:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/sofi-confirms-500-million-in-new-funding-as-it-pushes-beyond-lending.html"},"modified":"2017-02-24T19:20:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T19:20:37","slug":"sofi-confirms-500-million-in-new-funding-as-it-pushes-beyond-lending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/sofi-confirms-500-million-in-new-funding-as-it-pushes-beyond-lending.html","title":{"rendered":"SoFi confirms $500 million in new funding as it pushes beyond lending"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Online finance\u00a0startup SoFi<\/a>\u00a0got its start refinancing student loans but gradually has been adding other services to members.\u00a0To expand into new regions and move closer to becoming a full-service financial services company, SoFi\u00a0has confirmed\u00a0that it raised an additional $500 million in equity financing led by Silver Lake.<\/p>\n

The new funding round, which previously had been reported by Bloomberg<\/a> and the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, brings total equity financing to $1.9 billion. Other investors in the round include SoftBank and GPI Capital.<\/p>\n

SoFi is best known as an online lender targeting so-called HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet) with student loan refinancing and other financial services. Rather than look strictly at FICO scores as a measure of credit-worthiness, SoFi also takes into account factors like income and cash flows as it evaluates potential \u201cmembers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting with student loan refinancing, SoFi quickly added personal loans and mortgage lending options for its members. But each of those products is limited by the lack of frequency with which users\u00a0need them, which led\u00a0SoFi to begin offering a wider suite of financial services.<\/p>\n

Nowadays SoFi members can buy life insurance and use wealth management tools the company has added, and soon they will\u00a0be able to get\u00a0more traditional banking services from the company.\u00a0SoFi acquired banking startup Zenbanx<\/a>\u00a0in a deal valued at around $100 million to round out its portfolio with\u00a0banking, debit, payments and money transfer services.<\/p>\n

Over time, SoFi has caught\u00a0some flak<\/a> for cherry-picking customers and not being more inclusive with who can take advantage of its services. That exclusivity has also meant a somewhat limited addressable market, which can be seen in its user numbers.<\/p>\n

While SoFi\u00a0more than doubled from 100,000 members in 2015 to 225,000 at the end of 2016, that\u2019s still a very small number relative to the size of the U.S.\u00a0financial services market.<\/p>\n

With the acquisition of Zenbanx and the addition of SoFi-branded banking services later this year, the company should be able to capture more customers\u00a0in the U.S. Who knows \u2014 maybe by giving them a bank account, SoFi will be able to identify\u00a0customers who might not have applied for their loans.<\/p>\n

In addition to offering more services, SoFi is also looking beyond U.S. borders. The company says it plans to expand service offerings to Australia and Canada by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

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Featured Image: Cattallina<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/Rzxqmcui7-I\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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