Online personal finance company SoFi (Social Finance) has acquired banking and payments platform Galileo Financial Technologies for $1.2 billion. The move bolsters tech challengers that are rivaling the traditional banking system by offering a robust suite of mobile and crypto-friendly features geared for Millennials.
SoFi says Galileo’s powerful financial services interface and payments platform will accelerate the pace of technology innovation and offerings for Galileo’s partners and eventually for consumers.
Galileo powers day-to-day operations for a number of SoFi’s competitors including Robinhood, Revolut, Varo, Transferwise and Chime by providing core services across mobile and desktop devices as well as physical debit cards.
The payments processor reported over $53 billion of annualized payments volume in March of 2020, up from $26 billion in September of 2019, by servicing direct deposits, ACH transfers, account set-ups and bill pay for third parties.
Says SoFi CEO Anthony Noto,
“While we march forward on our mission to help people achieve financial independence through our own direct efforts, with Galileo, we can enable a broader ecosystem of companies to join us in helping the world over achieve financial independence.”
San Francisco-based SoFi launched in 2011 with a focus on student loan refinancing. Its SoFi Invest platform allows users to buy leading cryptocurrencies, stocks and ETFs under a single app.
The company expanded into cryptocurrency last year through a partnership with Coinbase, and acquired a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in December in order to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other digital assets.
Noto, the former chief operating officer of Twitter and former managing director at Goldman Sachs, remarked at the time,
“Our target audience wants to see what the price of cryptocurrency is and to buy it.”
Noto says Galileo will help SoFi lead the “multi-decade secular shift to digital financial services”. Since launching, the digital finance institution has also expanded into personal and mortgage loans as well as wealth management.
SoFi was last valued at $4.8 billion.
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