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SoFi gets its own financing in checkINTL

SoFi gets its own financing in check

It looks like SPACs aren’t done taking companies public. A special purpose acquisition company by the name of Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V (IPOE) announced its plan to take fintech startup SoFi public. SPAC is backed by acclaimed venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Palihapitiya’s SPAC is valuing the startup at $8.65 billion.

Need a primer on who’s who in FinTech? We got you there too!

Short for Social Finance, SoFi is a digital platform that offers a variety of financial products and services such as student loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, investing, and banking.

SoFi has managed to raise hundreds of millions in private funding since its founding in 2011. Most recently, the company raised USD 500m in a 2019 round of funding led by Qatari equity and sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority.

why it matters
While they have been around for decades, SPACs made headlines in 2020 after taking big names like DraftKings (DKNG) and Nikola (NKLA) public. As with the IPO wave, it seems that tech companies are following suit to ride the SPAC wave as well.