SoFi Technologies Inc. is buying banking-software maker Technisys SA for about $1.1 billion, the latest in a string of deals designed to transform the lender into a one-stop financial shop.
The all-stock deal is equivalent to roughly 10% of SoFi’s market value. The deal gives SoFi control of its own core-banking platform, the back-end technology that banks use to power mobile-banking apps, open accounts and keep track of customer deposits.
Under CEO Anthony Noto, SoFi has looked to deal making to branch out beyond its roots as a lender that focused on refinancing student debt. This month, it became a bank when it completed its acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp Inc., a California community lender. In 2020, SoFi agreed to spend about $1.2 billion on Galileo Financial Technologies Inc., a financial-infrastructure company focused on issuing debit cards.
SoFi will use Technisys’s platform to roll out personalized financial services to its own banking customers. It will also allow other banks and financial-technology companies to use the platform, which today is mostly used by banks in Latin America.
SoFi estimates that the Technisys acquisition will generate up to $800 million in additional revenue through 2025. It will also create up to $85 million in cost savings over the span. SoFi currently relies on one legacy software vendor to power its banking and savings accounts and a separate one to power its credit card. Technisys will allow it to bring those capabilities in-house.
SoFi went public last year through a merger with a blank-check company run by tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Its shares, like those of other high-growth tech stocks, have fallen out of favor in recent weeks at the prospect of higher interest rates. Since the start of 2022, SoFi’s stock price is down 28%.
The market volatility hasn’t made Mr. Noto rethink SoFi’s strategy. “We’re not slowing down. The distance between us and others is only going to increase,” Mr. Noto said.
