SoFi Makes its NASDAQ Debut and Soars Over 12%

Online finance company SoFi made its debut on Wall Street this week and saw big gains on its first day of trading.

The company saw its shares close up more than 12% to $22.65 after debuting on the NASDAQ on Tuesday.

Founded in 2011 with a focus on student loan refinancing for millennials, SoFi, short for Social Finance, offers stock and cryptocurrency trading, personal and mortgage loans, and wealth management services.

The San Francisco-based company went public by merging with Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V, a blank-check company run by venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

The shares had been previously listed under the ticker IPOE for Palihapitiya’s special purpose vehicle. Shares of Palihapitiya’s venture closed at $20.15 on Friday, up 62% year to date.

Palihapitiya has taken a number of companies public through SPACs, including Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. and Clover Health Investments Corp.

“We’re the only one stop shop to do all your financial service needs at one platform,” CEO Anthony Noto told CNBC’s “TechCheck.” “Many people talked about broadening the suite of products but only SoFi has done it on one mobile platform.”

“Today marks an important step on our path toward providing an ecosystem of products, rewards and membership benefits all working together to help our members get their money right,”Noto said in a statement.

SoFi was last valued at $5.7 billion in private markets.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.