SoFi Technologies announces agreement to acquire Technisys

By Edlyn Cardoza

SoFi Technologies, Inc., the digital personal finance company, recently announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Technisys, a leading cloud-native, digital multi-product core banking platform. Technisys’ shareholders will receive aggregate consideration of approximately 84 million shares of SoFi common stock, less than 10% of SoFi’s fully diluted share count as of September 30, 2021, subject to customary adjustments set forth in the Merger Agreement. These shares have an aggregate value of approximately $1.1 billion based on the volume-weighted average price of SoFi common stock for the 20-trading day period ended February 15, 2022. The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2022, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.

“Technisys has built an attractive, fast-growth business with a unique and critical strategic technology that all leading financial services companies will need in order to keep pace with digital innovation. The acquisition of Technisys is an essential building block in delivering on our member-centric, digital one-stop-shop experience for SoFi members and our partners through Galileo, our provider of fintech cloud services,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi. “Under the leadership of co-founder and CEO, Miguel Santos, Technisys has emerged as a proven leader in Gen 3 multi-product banking core technology. We are excited to bring their technology offering under the SoFi Technologies umbrella and deliver it to hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.”

The acquisition of Technisys adds a unique, strategic technology and business for SoFi in pursuing its ambition to provide best-of-breed products as a one-stop-shop financial services platform and for Galileo, in SoFi’s overall pursuit to build the AWS of FinTech. The combined technology stack will create what is expected to be the only end-to-end vertically integrated banking technology stack, from user interface development capabilities to a customizable multi-product banking core and ledger with fully integrated processing and card issuing available for SoFi products and Galileo/Technisys partners. The combination of Technisys’ platform with Galileo will uniquely support multiple products – including checking, savings, deposits, lending, and credit cards – and future products, all surfaced through industry-leading APIs. Together, Galileo and Technisys are expected to enable the combined company to meet both the expanding needs of their existing partners and serve additional established banks, FinTechs and non-financial brands looking to enter financial services.

The acquisition will also add to the high revenue growth rate of SoFi and accelerate its three-year revenue CAGR. Together, the companies can better serve Galileo’s consumer FinTech and enterprise partners seeking to add product offerings to their 89 million enabled customer accounts (as of September 30, 2021) across the U.S., Mexico and Colombia, and Technisys’ more than 60 established bank, FinTech, and non-financial brands in Latin America and the U.S., while expanding both companies’ partner bases in the U.S. and an addressable market across 16 countries. The estimated incremental revenue from the acquisition, including base revenue of Technisys and revenue synergies of the vertically integrated capabilities, is expected to add a cumulative $500 to $800 million through year-end 2025, at high incremental margins.

SoFi also expects to leverage this modern technology stack to capture significant savings in third-party costs by integrating Technisys. Once SoFi has migrated off its current multiple third-party cores to a single owned and operated Technisys core, it expects to be able to innovate even faster, perform more real-time decisioning, and offer greater personalization for its more than three million members. SoFi estimates this shift and the vertical integration with Galileo will create approximately $75 to $85 million in cumulative cost savings from 2023 to 2025 and approximately $60 to $70 million annually after that.

“We are thrilled to bring Technisys’ technology, customer base, and expertise to the larger SoFi Technologies platform,” said Miguel Santos, CEO of Technisys. “We are confident that together, we can offer a best-in-class financial experience for traditional and non-traditional financial services players alike at a greater velocity than ever before.”

Technisys’ revenue growth is accelerating and is on track to deliver approximately $70 million in revenue for calendar-year 2021 on an unaudited IFRS basis. The acquisition is expected to deliver to SoFi a mid-teens internal rate of return (IRR) on a standalone basis through 2025, with significant upside in the IRR when accounting for anticipated revenue and cost synergies.