SoFi, a personal finance company most recently valued at $4.8 billion, agreed to buy Galileo, a Salt Lake City-based financial services API and payments platform, for $1.2 billion in stock and cash.
Why it matters: This reflects how SoFi has expanded far beyond its student loan refinancing roots, and also how fintech remains relatively immune to the pandemic's economic impact.
Details: Multiple reports are that SoFi financed the deal via $875 million in equity, $75 million in cash, and $275 million in debt.
- ROI: Galileo last year announced a $77 million Series A round led by Accel, but was founded in 2000 and previously raised from such firms as Mercato Partners and Kickstart Seed Fund.
The bottom line: "The acquisition will, in theory, give SoFi leverage over the likes of Robinhood and Chime, which compete with SoFi, since they depend on Galileo for day-to-day operations. Among the services Galileo provides are account setup, funding, direct deposit, early paycheck direct deposit, and bill pay." — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune
