Argentina has formed a new unicorn company thanks to an exit. SoFi Technologies, which is one of the leading fintech companies in the US, announced the acquisition of the Argentine startup Technisys. This brings its valuation to US$1.1 billion, and makes it a unicorn.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.
Technisys is a banking software platform for different types of products. With this acquisition, the startup’s shareholders will receive total compensation of approximately 84 million shares of SoFi common stock. That is less than 10% of SoFi’s total diluted share count as of September 30, 2021.
SoFi estimates that this acquisition will allow it to generate up to US$800 million in additional revenue and save up to US$85 million by 2025.
Technisys was founded by an Argentinian team: Miguel Santos, Adrian Iglesias, Germán Pugliese Bassi and Kevin Ball. Its last investment round was in 2019 when it raised US$50 million from Riverwood Capital in a Series C funding round. Other investors included Alta Ventures, Kaszek Ventures, Oria Capital and Endeavor Catalyst.
The Latin American investment firm Dalus Capital is also one of Technisys’ previous investors. In 2014, Dalus participated in its Series B.
“I had the opportunity to lead the Technisys round… when we identified an incredible founding team with a great product that serves some of the largest Latin American banks,” said Diego Serebrisky, co-founder and managing partner of Dalus. “The leadership of Mike Santos, co-founder and CEO, has been impressive throughout this process. Truly inspiring to other tech entrepreneurs.”
Thanks to this acquisition, SoFi will add new technology and a unique strategic business to be able to offer the best financial products. The full addition of Technisys will help SoFi continue to build its end-to-end vertically integrated banking technology offering.
SoFi started as a fintech offering student loans. It then spread to all financial services and went on to obtain its banking license, and then a few years ago they bought Galileo, with software that processes B2B payments. We should also note that it is a public company listed on Nasdaq.
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