SoFi is starting a hedge fund that will start out buying its own loans, with the possibility of growing beyond that, an article in Bloomberg by Noah Buhayar stated.
From the Bloomberg piece:
In recent weeks, the company established the SoFi Credit Opportunities Fund and raised $15 million from investors, according to a regulatory filing and a company spokeswoman. It’s seeking to attract more money from wealthy individuals, funds of hedge funds and other institutional investors that may not want to buy whole loans directly from the company or securities backed by the debt.
The hedge fund will initially buy SoFi loans and could eventually put half of its capital into debt from other online lenders, according to Debra Jack, the spokeswoman. With no annual management fee, the fund will charge 25 percent on returns above 3 percent, plus the short-term government debt rate, she said.
SoFi’s surprising entrance into the Super Bowl-commercial world was only the beginning of a major brand push from the alternative lender.
Back in February, Meg Ciarallo, vice president of brand marketing at SoFi, touched on the lender’s goals in an interview with HousingWire, noting their plans to soon launch wealth management services.
In January, SoFi announced it had officially surpassed more than $7 billion in funded loans, and in September, SoFi announced $1 billion in Series E funding led by SoftBank.
