BY Richard Summerfield
Despite the scarcity of deals given the COVID-19 outbreak, some M&A activity is still occurring. On Tuesday, non-profit online student lender Social Finance Inc (SoFi) announced it had agreed to acquire payments and banking technology provider Galileo Financial Technologies for $1.2bn in cash and stock, subject to regulatory approval.
The deal will see Salt Lake City-based Galileo continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of SoFi Inc, with current chief executive, Clay Wilkes, remaining in charge of the company.
“SoFi has established itself as a leader in the fintech sector, providing our more than one million members a full array of financial products to help them get their money right,” said Anthony Noto, chief executive of SoFi. “The response by our members to our innovation across borrowing, saving, spending, and investing has motivated us to think bigger, bolder and more expansively given the insatiable consumer appetite for financial services innovation.
He added: “Together with Galileo, we will partner to build on our companies’ strengths to drive even greater financial technology innovation, making those products and services available to both current and future partners. 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 achieve financial independence.”
“SoFi has built a very strong diversified financial services company focusing on a full suite of financial services,” said Mr Wilkes. “These are products that many of our leading fintech clients are asking for. Distributing products through our enterprise class API is the vision behind this combination. I think it’s very powerful.
He continued: “We’re excited to work with SoFi to build on the services that have made Galileo the leading supplier of infrastructure services to leading financial, technology, and fintech companies. With the help of SoFi, we intend to continue to grow with and support all of our existing clients and the product roadmaps that they have defined.”