New Platform Enables Companies to Expand Participation to Individual Investors in Public Offerings

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2024-- SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI), a member-centric, one-stop shop for digital financial services that helps members borrow, save, spend, invest and protect their money, and PrimaryBid Technologies Inc., a leading capital markets fintech firm, today announced the launch of DSP2.0, an advanced Directed Share Platform (DSP) that offers a modern and streamlined approach to equity program management for companies looking to raise capital in the U.S.

DSPs allow companies to allocate a portion of their share offerings to specific individuals or groups such as employees or customers. However, since these solutions often require manual processing and don’t integrate well with other systems, they’re expensive and time-intensive to operate and limit investor participation to a select few.

With a potential rebound for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) market in 2025, SoFi’s offering brings equity program management, IPO, and follow-on offering processes into the digital age. It also gives issuers enhanced flexibility in raising capital by enabling them to involve non-institutional investor groups at scale.

SoFi’s DSP offers a cohesive investor experience, automations to minimize manual back-office processing, and expanded integrations with modern marketing analytics tools.

“For decades, companies have wanted to offer the opportunity to participate in their IPOs to the employees, partners, customers, and others who helped them grow,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi. “Unfortunately, traditional DSPs often have high account minimum requirements, carry significant costs to companies, and lack benefits to underwriters, limiting their appeal. SoFi now offers companies going public a turnkey, 100% digital way to offer IPO shares to employees and other people who helped build their business, and whomever else they want to direct the shares to, whether it’s to 10 or 10,000 people. People can open an account from a smartphone in seconds, transfer money seamlessly, and stay informed throughout the IPO process – with no costs or deposit requirements. At SoFi, we continue to provide Main Street investors access to products like alternative investments and IPOs, which have historically been reserved for high net worth individuals, helping more of our members get their money right.”

“Companies want intelligent, targeted investor inclusion at IPO to enfranchise those people who matter to their long-term success,” said Anand Sambasivan, CEO of PrimaryBid. “Until now, they've lacked tools to deliver this at scale with meaningful data, a problem PrimaryBid is solving globally. This solution for the U.S. market, combining SoFi and PrimaryBid's technologies, ensures regulatory compliance while removing the administrative burden from issuers and advisors when running a DSP. SoFi’s DSP2.0 lets companies shape their offer around strategic needs, not technical limitations.”

“It's vital to see innovation in the ways companies engage stakeholders when going public, and the market will welcome new technologies that modernize the IPO process as policymakers look to broaden investor participation,” said John Tuttle, former Vice Chairman for NYSE Group and expert on U.S. capital markets policy. “These advancements can strengthen our public markets and support the next generation of great American companies.”

For more information, please contact dsp@sofi.org.

About SoFi Technologies

SoFi (NASDAQ: SOFI) is a member-centric, one-stop shop for digital financial services on a mission to help people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. The company’s full suite of financial products and services helps more than 8.8 million SoFi members borrow, save, spend, invest, and protect their money better by giving them fast access to the tools they need to get their money right, all in one app. SoFi also equips members with the resources they need to get ahead – like credentialed financial planners, exclusive experiences and events, and a thriving community – on their path to financial independence.

SoFi innovates across three business segments: Lending, Financial Services – which includes SoFi Checking and Savings, SoFi Invest, SoFi Credit Card, SoFi Protect, and SoFi Insights – and Technology Platform, which offers the only end-to-end vertically integrated financial technology stack. SoFi Bank, N.A., an affiliate of SoFi, is a nationally chartered bank, regulated by the OCC and FDIC and SoFi is a bank holding company regulated by the Federal Reserve. The company is also the naming rights partner of SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams. For more information, visit SoFi.com or download our iOS and Android apps.

About PrimaryBid

PrimaryBid is a leading fintech firm. We build advanced retail capital-raising solutions for regulated financial institutions, enabling smart investor inclusion in public and private offerings globally. Our SaaS platform facilitates efficient investor access in IPOs, follow-ons, block sales, and corporate and government bonds, and transforms retail investor participation into a systematic and data-driven component of capital raising.

PrimaryBid has facilitated over 350 transactions for companies ranging from large-cap to SMEs across the UK, EU and U.S. Our technology ensures compliance while broadening access to regulated markets, allowing companies to include their most committed stakeholders in their capital journeys.

A partner to SoFi Technologies, London Stock Exchange Group and Euronext, PrimaryBid is backed by leading financial institutions and venture capital firms, including SoftBank, London Stock Exchange Group, Fidelity, Molten Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Motive Partners, Outward Ventures and Pentech.

Disclosures:

• Investing in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) involves substantial risk, including the risk of loss. Further, there are a variety of risk factors to consider when investing in an IPO, including but not limited to, unproven management, significant debt, and lack of operating history. For a comprehensive discussion of these risks please refer to SoFi Securities’ IPO Risk Disclosure Statement. This should not be considered a recommendation to participate in IPOs and investors should carefully read the offering prospectus to determine whether an offering is consistent with their investment objectives, risk tolerance, and financial situation. New offerings generally have high demand and there are a limited number of shares available for distribution to participants. Many customers may not be allocated shares and share allocations may be significantly smaller than the shares requested in the customer’s initial offer (Indication of Interest). For more information on the allocation process please visit IPO Allocation. This information should not be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, nor is a recommendation or endorsement of any investment strategy.
• SoFi Invest refers to the two investment and trading platforms operated by Social Finance, LLC and its affiliates (described below). Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of the platforms below.
  • 1) Automated Investing and advisory services are provided by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser (“SoFi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC.
  • 2) Active Investing and brokerage services are provided by SoFi Securities LLC, Member FINRA(www.finra.org)/SIPC(www.sipc.org). Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation.

For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above, including state licensure of SoFi Digital Assets, LLC, please visit SoFi.com/legal.
Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform.

INVESTMENTS ARE NOT FDIC INSURED • ARE NOT BANK GUARANTEED • MAY LOSE VALUE

• PrimaryBid Technologies Inc (“PrimaryBid”) solely acts as a communication services provider to broker-dealers in relation to securities offerings. PrimaryBid is not itself a broker-dealer and it does not itself effect securities offerings.

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241002730071/en/

For SoFi: Meghan Brown | pr@sofi.org
For PrimaryBid: Mike Coombes | mike.coombes@primarybid.com

Source: SoFi Technologies