SoFi Technologies (SOFI): Is This One of the Best Fintech Investments in 2026?

Executive Summary

SoFi Technologies has finally evolved from a promising but unprofitable fintech into something much more interesting: a rapidly growing, profitable, diversified digital financial institution.

The numbers are impressive. In Q2 2026, SoFi produced $1.21 billion of adjusted net revenue, up 40% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA jumped 44% to $358 million. Membership grew 35% to 15.8 million, products grew 42% to 24.4 million, and GAAP net income reached $157 million. Even more encouraging, 51% of new products were opened by existing members—evidence that SoFi’s cross-selling strategy is actually working. (SEC)

But there is an important distinction between a great company and a cheap stock.

At roughly $17.80 per share on August 31, 2026, SOFI trades around 37× trailing earnings and roughly 29× forward earnings. That makes it substantially cheaper than Robinhood on earnings and cheaper than Affirm on normalized forward earnings, but considerably more expensive than Nubank, Happen Bank, and Ally. (MarketBeat)

Therefore, I would characterize SOFI this way:

SoFi is one of the better combinations of growth, competitive positioning and improving profitability among U.S. fintechs—but it is not the cheapest investment in the group.

If I were ranking these companies specifically on growth relative to valuation, Nubank currently gives SoFi its toughest competition. If I wanted the best U.S.-focused diversified fintech growth story, however, I would lean toward SoFi over Robinhood, Affirm, Happen and Ally.

1. What Exactly Is SoFi Today?

Thinking of SoFi merely as an online student-loan company is outdated.

SoFi increasingly resembles a combination of:

  • a digital bank,
  • a consumer lender,
  • an investment platform,
  • a brokerage,
  • a credit-card company,
  • a mortgage lender,
  • a financial marketplace,
  • and a financial-technology infrastructure provider.

This is important because diversification changes the risk profile.

A company such as Affirm depends heavily on BNPL transactions. Robinhood still derives a substantial amount of revenue from trading activity. Happen remains heavily connected to personal lending. Ally remains heavily exposed to automobile finance.

SoFi’s ambition is broader: own as much of the customer’s financial life as possible.

A customer might begin with SoFi Money, then open an investment account, refinance a student loan, obtain a mortgage, use a credit card and eventually take a personal loan.

That creates what SoFi calls its Financial Services Productivity Loop.

And there is now evidence that the loop is becoming economically meaningful.

In Q2:

  • members increased 35% to 15.8 million,
  • products increased 42% to 24.4 million,
  • products per member reached a record 1.54,
  • and 51% of new products came from existing SoFi members, versus 35% a year earlier. (SEC)

That 51% figure is especially important.

Acquiring a completely new customer is expensive. Selling another product to someone already using your app can be much cheaper. If cross-selling keeps increasing, SoFi should be able to grow revenue faster than marketing expenses over time.

That is the beginning of an economic moat.

2. SoFi’s Growth Is Excellent

SoFi’s latest quarter was remarkably strong.

Q2 2026

Metric Result YoY Growth
Adjusted net revenue $1.21 billion +40%
Adjusted EBITDA $358 million +44%
GAAP net income $157 million ~+61%
Members 15.8 million +35%
Products 24.4 million +42%
Loan originations $14.8 billion Record

(SEC)

This isn’t simply growth achieved by sacrificing profits.

Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 30%, and SoFi reported its 19th consecutive quarter satisfying its own Rule-of-40 measurement. (SEC)

Management also raised 2026 adjusted-net-revenue guidance to approximately $4.75-$4.85 billion. (SEC)

That’s the type of combination I particularly like in a growth company:

Revenue ↑ rapidly
Profit ↑ even faster
Margins ↑
Customers ↑
Cross-selling ↑

It suggests operating leverage rather than growth purchased at any price.

3. The Bank Charter Is One of SoFi’s Biggest Advantages

One of SoFi’s strongest competitive advantages is something less glamorous than its app:

Deposits.

Because SoFi operates a bank, customer deposits can fund its lending operations instead of relying primarily on more expensive wholesale or warehouse financing.

During Q2, average deposits represented more than 90% of SoFi’s average liabilities.

More importantly, SoFi said its average deposit rate was 156 basis points cheaper than warehouse funding, equivalent to approximately $713 million of annualized interest-expense savings. (SEC)

That is a genuine structural advantage.

Imagine two companies making essentially the same personal loan.

Company A borrows money at 5%.

Company B funds the same loan with customer deposits costing 3.4%.

Company B can:

  • charge a more competitive rate,
  • earn a higher lending spread,
  • accept slightly lower-risk customers,
  • or keep higher profits.

SoFi’s banking infrastructure therefore makes its lending business structurally stronger than many non-bank fintech competitors.

4. SoFi Is Becoming Less Dependent on Lending

Another development I like is the expansion of fee revenue.

Q2 fee-based revenue reached approximately $472 million, representing about 39% of total revenue. Sources included loan-platform fees, origination fees, brokerage, interchange and technology services. (SEC)

This matters enormously.

Traditional lending requires capital.

Fee revenue generally requires much less.

A bank that must hold $10 billion of additional loans needs substantially more capital. But a business generating brokerage, transaction, referral or technology fees doesn’t necessarily require a proportionate increase in balance-sheet assets.

Therefore, if SoFi can keep pushing fee income toward 40%, 45% or eventually 50% of revenue, the business should become:

less capital intensive + more scalable + potentially deserving of a higher valuation multiple.

5. One Weak Spot: Galileo / Technology Platform

This is the biggest blemish in the current results.

SoFi’s Technology Platform—Galileo and related technology operations—generated only $84.5 million of Q2 revenue, down 23% year over year.

Technology-enabled accounts fell 16% to roughly 135 million, partly because a large client exited the platform before the end of 2025. (SEC)

Sequentially, however, revenue improved 13%.

This division was once supposed to be one of the major reasons SoFi deserved a technology-company valuation.

For now, that argument has weakened considerably.

If Galileo/SoFi Tech Solutions returns to sustained double-digit growth, it could become a meaningful upside catalyst.

If it continues stagnating, investors should increasingly value SoFi primarily as a fast-growing digital bank, rather than a financial-technology infrastructure company.

That distinction matters for the P/E investors should eventually be willing to pay.

6. SoFi vs. Its Major Competitors

Here is the valuation picture as of August 31, 2026. P/E ratios move with stock prices and analyst estimates, so these should be treated as approximate rather than permanent.

Company TTM P/E Forward P/E Recent Growth My View
SoFi (SOFI) ~37× ~29× Revenue +40% Excellent growth, reasonable-but-not-cheap
Nubank (NU) ~19× ~17× Revenue +39% Best growth/value combination
Robinhood (HOOD) ~45× ~50× Revenue +32% Excellent business, expensive
Affirm (AFRM) ~13×* ~42× Revenue +33% Strong growth; trailing P/E misleading
Happen (HAPN) ~13× ~11× Revenue +6% Cheap, but slower
Ally (ALLY) ~10× ~8× Mature/slower Very cheap, but little fintech-like growth

Valuation data: (MarketBeat)

That table immediately tells us something important:

SOFI is not the cheapest stock.

However, cheapness without growth isn’t necessarily value.

That’s why each comparison deserves a closer look.

7. SoFi vs. Nubank — SoFi’s Toughest Competitor

If there is one company that complicates the bullish SOFI argument, it is Nubank (NU).

Nubank’s Q2 2026 numbers were spectacular:

  • nearly 139 million customers,
  • revenue growth of 39% on an FX-neutral basis,
  • net income of approximately $1.1 billion,
  • net income growth of 49%,
  • and 33% ROE. (SEC)

Yet NU trades at only around:

19× trailing earnings
17× forward earnings. (MarketBeat)

SOFI trades at roughly:

37× trailing
29× forward.

On the numbers alone, NU is currently cheaper despite comparable revenue growth and much higher ROE.

That is impressive.

Why does NU deserve a discount?

Because the risk isn’t identical.

Nu operates heavily in:

  • Brazil,
  • Mexico,
  • Colombia,
  • Latin American currencies,
  • emerging-market credit,
  • and less predictable regulatory environments.

Its 90+ day non-performing-loan ratio was approximately 6.9% in Q2 as it intentionally expanded into higher-risk/higher-return credit segments. (SEC)

SoFi, by comparison, is predominantly a U.S. business targeting comparatively affluent borrowers.

Winner

Growth: Tie / slight NU
Valuation: NU
ROE: NU
Geographic/currency stability: SOFI
Product diversification: SOFI
Risk-adjusted U.S. exposure: SOFI
Growth at a reasonable price: NU

If I were allowed to choose only one competitor that looks cheaper than SoFi while retaining SoFi-like growth, NU would be it.

8. SoFi vs. Robinhood

Robinhood is another excellent company, but its economic engine differs substantially.

Q2 Robinhood revenue increased 32% to $1.31 billion. Transaction revenue alone reached $776 million, driven by options, equities and rapidly growing event-contract activity. (Robinhood Markets, Inc.)

Robinhood also has:

  • rapidly expanding Gold subscriptions,
  • growing retirement assets,
  • banking,
  • international expansion,
  • prediction markets,
  • crypto,
  • advisory services.

It is no longer merely a zero-commission stock-trading application.

But approximately $776 million of its $1.31 billion Q2 revenue was transaction based. (Robinhood Markets, Inc.)

That makes Robinhood more sensitive to:

  • trading volumes,
  • investor enthusiasm,
  • crypto activity,
  • options volumes,
  • market volatility,
  • and prediction-market regulation.

SOFI’s lending and deposit businesses produce comparatively recurring net-interest income.

And valuation favors SoFi:

SOFI: ~29× forward earnings
HOOD: ~50× forward earnings. (MarketBeat)

Winner

Growth: Close
Profitability/ROE: HOOD
Revenue durability: SOFI
Valuation: SOFI
Cyclicality: SOFI lower
Potential upside in booming capital markets: HOOD

My preference: SOFI

At today’s relative valuations, I prefer paying roughly 29× forward earnings for SoFi rather than approximately 50× for Robinhood.

9. SoFi vs. Affirm

Affirm deserves considerably more respect today than it did several years ago.

Its latest fiscal quarter delivered:

  • GMV +36% to $14.1 billion
  • Revenue +33% to roughly $1.2 billion
  • Revenue less transaction costs +39%
  • GAAP operating margin around 13% (Affirm Holdings, Inc.)

That is excellent execution.

But investors need to be extremely careful with Affirm’s apparent 13× trailing P/E.

Affirm reported approximately $1.6 billion of quarterly net income partly because it released a large deferred-tax valuation allowance. Its 10-K says the valuation allowance was reduced by approximately $1.5 billion. (Affirm Holdings, Inc.)

Therefore:

AFRM’s 13× trailing P/E makes the stock look much cheaper than its recurring earnings really suggest.

Forward estimates put it closer to roughly 42× earnings. (MarketBeat)

That’s considerably higher than SOFI’s roughly 29×.

Affirm also remains more concentrated around consumer credit and BNPL.

Winner

Growth: Similar
Valuation on normalized forward earnings: SOFI
Business diversification: SOFI
BNPL competitive position: AFRM
Funding/business-model resilience: SOFI

My preference: SOFI

I would consider SoFi the lower-risk investment of the two at current valuations.

10. SoFi vs. Happen Bank — Formerly LendingClub

LendingClub rebranded and began trading as Happen (HAPN) on Nasdaq in June 2026. (Happen, Inc.)

Happen is actually a compelling value stock.

Q2:

  • loan originations reached $3.1 billion, +29%
  • net revenue increased 6%
  • ROE reached 15.1%
  • CET1 capital ratio stood at 16.9%. (Happen, Inc.)

And the stock trades around:

13× trailing earnings
11× forward earnings. (MarketBeat)

That is dramatically cheaper than SoFi.

But SoFi is growing revenue around 40%, whereas Happen grew Q2 revenue just 6%.

Happen therefore wins on price.

SoFi wins overwhelmingly on growth and ecosystem potential.

My preference

For pure value: HAPN

For long-term compounder potential: SOFI

11. SoFi vs. Ally Financial

Ally is the clearest example of why simply picking the lowest P/E isn’t enough.

ALLY trades at roughly:

10× trailing earnings
8× forward earnings. (MarketBeat)

That is tremendously cheaper than SOFI.

And Ally is no weak financial institution. It has approximately $200 billion of assets and 9.6 million customers, with the country’s largest all-digital bank alongside a major auto-finance franchise. (MediaRoom)

But Ally is a mature financial company.

SoFi is still acquiring millions of customers and growing revenue at approximately 40%.

Therefore these are fundamentally different investments.

ALLY

Cheap + mature + dividend + slower growth.

SOFI

Expensive + faster-growing + reinvesting + potentially much larger future earnings base.

For a traditional value portfolio, I’d choose Ally.

For growth over perhaps five to ten years, I’d choose SoFi.

12. So Which Company Offers the Best Combination?

My current ranking would look approximately like this:

Growth + Valuation

1. NU
2. SOFI
3. AFRM
4. HAPN
5. HOOD
6. ALLY

Pure Growth Quality

1. SOFI / NU
3. HOOD
4. AFRM
5. HAPN
6. ALLY

Pure Valuation

1. ALLY
2. HAPN
3. NU
4. SOFI
5. AFRM on normalized earnings
6. HOOD

Business Diversification

1. SOFI
2. HOOD
3. NU
4. ALLY
5. HAPN
6. AFRM

My Overall Risk/Reward Ranking at Current Prices

1. SOFI / NU — depending on risk preference
3. HAPN
4. AFRM
5. ALLY
6. HOOD

Why put SOFI approximately alongside NU despite NU’s substantially cheaper valuation?

Because SOFI has a combination I find particularly attractive:

U.S. exposure + bank charter + deposits + lending + investing + payments + mortgages + brokerage + credit cards + technology + rapidly increasing cross-selling.

For an investor who wants to avoid emerging-market/currency risk, I think SOFI is arguably the most attractive growth/valuation combination of this group.

But strictly from the financial numbers, NU is cheaper relative to its growth.

13. How Risky Is SoFi’s Lending?

This is probably the most important fundamental risk.

SoFi’s largest growth engine remains lending, particularly unsecured personal loans.

Q2 personal-loan charge-offs were approximately 2.62%, versus 2.83% a year earlier. Student-loan charge-offs were just 0.61%. (SEC)

That is currently quite healthy.

But the real test will come during a serious recession.

If unemployment rises substantially:

Defaults ↑
Charge-offs ↑
Loan values ↓
Provisions ↑
Profit ↓

And because SOFI trades near 30× forward earnings rather than 8-10× earnings, a deterioration in profits could cause both:

earnings to fall AND the P/E multiple to contract.

That double effect is why valuation still matters.

14. SoFi’s Capital Position Is Strong

There is reassuring news here.

At June 30, 2026, SoFi Technologies reported approximately:

  • CET1 ratio: 18.7%
  • total risk-based capital: 18.8%
  • Tier-1 leverage ratio: 16.5%

The required minimums shown by SoFi were far lower. (SEC)

Therefore, I don’t presently see SoFi as financially fragile.

It is a rapidly growing lender, so capital levels need continual monitoring, but this is not currently a weakly capitalized institution stretching desperately for growth.

15. CEO Anthony Noto

Anthony Noto may actually be one of the stronger components of the SoFi investment thesis.

He became CEO in 2018.

His background is unusually relevant to precisely what SoFi is trying to build.

Before SoFi, he was:

  • COO of Twitter,
  • CFO of Twitter,
  • co-head of global Technology, Media & Telecom investment banking at Goldman Sachs,
  • a Goldman Sachs partner,
  • head of communications/media/internet equity research,
  • and CFO of the NFL.

He graduated from West Point and earned an MBA from Wharton. (SoFi)

That’s an unusually strong combination of:

finance + technology + operations + capital markets.

16. Anthony Noto — Intelligence

Obviously we cannot measure someone’s intelligence from SEC filings.

But we can evaluate decisions.

And I would rate the evidence here very highly.

Under Noto, SoFi transformed from a largely student/personal-loan operation into a diversified financial institution.

The important strategic decisions include:

  • building a broad financial-services ecosystem,
  • establishing bank-based deposit funding,
  • expanding cross-selling,
  • adding capital-light fee businesses,
  • building the Loan Platform Business,
  • pushing brokerage and investing,
  • acquiring financial infrastructure capabilities,
  • and achieving profitability while continuing 30%-plus growth.

One of the best examples is funding.

Replacing expensive warehouse funding with customer deposits isn’t flashy. But the company estimates it is currently saving approximately $713 million annually in interest expense. (SEC)

That is intelligent capital allocation and financial architecture.

My assessment: Intelligence — Excellent

I would give Noto roughly 9/10 based on strategic and operating evidence.

17. Anthony Noto — Energy

Again, we cannot directly measure personality from financial filings.

But execution speed provides clues.

SoFi is simultaneously expanding:

  • banking,
  • investing,
  • lending,
  • mortgages,
  • credit cards,
  • crypto,
  • subscriptions,
  • AI financial guidance,
  • loan-platform services,
  • and B2B financial technology.

Meanwhile membership is still growing 35% annually.

That’s a very high operating tempo.

The company isn’t behaving like an organization managed primarily to protect an existing franchise.

It continues attacking new markets.

My assessment: Energy/execution — Excellent

Approximately 9/10 based on observable execution.

18. Anthony Noto — Integrity

Integrity is the hardest attribute to judge because outsiders cannot truly know a CEO’s private character.

Therefore I would not claim that an SEC filing can “prove” Noto’s integrity.

But we can look for alignment and governance signals.

SoFi has:

  • an executive clawback policy,
  • stock-ownership requirements,
  • restrictions on hedging company shares,
  • risk-adjusted executive compensation,
  • and performance-based long-term incentives. (SEC)

Interestingly, the Compensation Committee calculated that 2025 corporate performance would have justified a 122.7% bonus-plan funding level, but voluntarily reduced it to 120% to improve alignment with shareholders. (SEC)

SoFi also changed its 2026 bonus structure after shareholder feedback. Previously, executives could receive 100% target payout when company performance reached only 80% of target. Beginning in 2026, 100% performance is required to earn 100% target payout. (SEC)

Those are positive governance signals.

I have not found evidence in this review that would cause me to place a major integrity discount on Noto.

My assessment: Integrity signals — Positive

I would call this approximately 8/10 based on observable evidence, while emphasizing that personal integrity can’t genuinely be assigned a precise numerical score from public information.

19. Does Anthony Noto Have Skin in the Game?

Yes. Substantial skin in the game.

As of April 20, 2026, Noto beneficially owned approximately:

23.97 million SOFI shares — approximately 1.9% of the company.

That number includes:

  • approximately 11.68 million exercisable option shares,
  • approximately 346,000 RSUs vesting within 60 days,
  • and shares held by his spouse. (SEC)

Even after recognizing that beneficial ownership includes options and near-term RSUs, this is still a very substantial economic interest.

And there’s an even stronger signal:

Noto has been buying SOFI shares with his own money.

Reported 2026 purchases include:

  • March 2 — 56,000 shares
  • March 17 — 28,900
  • May 8 — 15,878
  • May 11 — 15,545
  • June 16 — 13,888

That’s more than 130,000 additional shares purchased in the open market during 2026, involving roughly a couple of million dollars of personal capital. (Benzinga)

I put considerably more weight on open-market purchases than stock grants.

Stock awards are compensation.

Writing a personal check to buy additional shares is a genuine investment decision.

This is a meaningful positive for me.

20. SoFi Also Requires Noto to Own Stock

SoFi’s stock-ownership policy requires the CEO to maintain qualifying shares worth at least:

6× annual base salary.

Other executives must maintain three times salary.

And unvested RSUs, PSUs and unexercised options generally don’t count toward satisfying the requirement.

If an executive falls below the required ownership threshold, that executive must retain at least 50% of certain net shares received from future awards. (SEC)

That’s good governance.

21. How Much Does Noto Get Paid?

Noto’s 2025 compensation was substantial.

The SEC proxy reports:

Component 2025
Base salary $1.0 million
Stock awards $25.31 million
Cash incentive $2.76 million
Other compensation $1.21 million
Total $30.28 million

(SEC)

The $1.21 million of additional compensation included expenses associated with personal aircraft usage for security purposes and personal-security services. (SEC)

Thirty million dollars is certainly not cheap.

But what matters to me is how the compensation is structured.

And here SoFi does a reasonably good job.

22. Does Noto Have a Stock-Option Bonus Plan?

Not exactly—not anymore in the traditional sense.

Noto still owns legacy stock options, but SoFi’s current executive equity program primarily uses:

RSUs — Restricted Stock Units

and

PSUs — Performance Stock Units.

SoFi specifically reported that there were no outstanding options or warrants under its current 2021 equity plan at year-end; outstanding current-plan equity consisted primarily of RSUs and PSUs. (SEC)

For Noto’s 2025 annual equity award, the target value was:

$29.5 million

split:

50% RSUs
50% PSUs.

(SEC)

I like the fact that half is performance based.

23. The PSU Structure Is Particularly Interesting

Noto doesn’t automatically receive all of those performance shares.

The 2025 PSUs measure performance over three years through the end of 2027.

The principal metric is growth in tangible book value, with another adjustment based on SoFi’s total shareholder return relative to the Nasdaq Composite. (SEC)

There is an especially shareholder-friendly provision:

If SoFi’s total risk-weighted capital ratio falls below 10.5% during the performance period, the PSUs are forfeited.

(SEC)

I like this provision quite a lot.

It discourages management from saying:

“Let’s grow loans as fast as possible, take enormous credit risks, boost earnings temporarily and worry about the balance sheet later.”

Noto’s compensation explicitly penalizes that behavior.

That is sensible incentive design for the CEO of a rapidly growing financial institution.

24. One Concern: Stock-Based Compensation and Dilution

There is nevertheless a cost.

RSUs and PSUs eventually become shares.

That means shareholders get diluted.

SoFi’s employee equity program therefore needs monitoring.

The company is growing sufficiently fast that stock-based compensation may become less significant relative to revenue over time, but investors shouldn’t treat SBC as “free.”

The right question is:

Is earnings growth per share keeping up after dilution?

Not merely:

“Is company-level revenue increasing?”

If SoFi keeps increasing net income 30%-40% while its share count rises only a few percent annually, dilution becomes manageable.

If share issuance repeatedly consumes a large portion of operating gains, shareholders won’t receive the full benefit of business growth.

This is one of the metrics I would watch closely every quarter.

25. What Could Go Wrong With SOFI?

There are six risks I consider particularly important.

1. A severe recession

SoFi’s personal-loan portfolio would experience rising delinquencies and charge-offs.

2. Valuation compression

At roughly 29× forward earnings, expectations remain high.

If expected earnings growth declines from 30%+ to 15%, the market may no longer award SOFI a near-30× multiple.

3. Technology Platform disappoints

Galileo/SoFi Tech Solutions revenue currently isn’t living up to the original growth story.

4. Lending grows too aggressively

Personal-loan originations are exploding. Credit quality currently looks healthy, but today’s loans haven’t yet experienced a severe economic downturn.

5. Dilution

Stock awards and capital raising can reduce each existing shareholder’s percentage ownership.

6. Competition

SoFi competes with different companies in virtually every direction:

JPMorgan
Bank of America
Capital One
Ally
Robinhood
Charles Schwab
Nubank
Affirm
PayPal
Block
Happen
traditional mortgage lenders
credit-card companies
fintech startups

The breadth of SoFi’s business is a strength—but it also means it fights competitors on dozens of fronts.

26. Is SOFI Cheap Enough Today?

This is where I would exercise some discipline.

At approximately $17.80, SOFI isn’t absurdly expensive, considering that adjusted revenue is growing approximately 40% and earnings are growing even faster.

But neither is it a bargain-basement stock.

Around:

29× forward earnings

is reasonable if SoFi continues producing ~25%-35% EPS growth for several years.

If it does, today’s multiple can compress naturally.

For example, a company doesn’t necessarily need its stock price to fall for its P/E to fall.

If earnings double while the stock price merely rises moderately, valuation rapidly becomes cheaper.

That’s the bull case.

But if growth slows unexpectedly, there isn’t a huge valuation margin of safety.

Therefore:

SOFI’s business has a larger margin of safety than its stock valuation does.

That’s an important distinction.

27. My Investment Conclusion

After comparing SOFI with NU, HOOD, AFRM, HAPN and ALLY, here’s where I land.

Is SoFi the fastest-growing?

Among the fastest, yes.

Not uniquely so—NU and AFRM are also growing extremely quickly.

Does SoFi have a competitive advantage?

Yes, increasingly.

Its most important advantages are:

bank deposit funding + integrated ecosystem + member cross-selling + data + broad product portfolio + capital-light fee expansion.

The 51% cross-buy rate is particularly encouraging.

Is SOFI the cheapest?

No.

This is important.

ALLY, HAPN and NU are all considerably cheaper on P/E.

SOFI is, however, cheaper on normalized forward earnings than HOOD and AFRM.

Is SOFI less risky than its competitors for the price we pay?

Compared with HOOD: I think yes.

Lower forward valuation and less reliance on trading activity.

Compared with AFRM: I think yes.

More diversified business and cheaper normalized forward earnings.

Compared with HAPN: Not on valuation risk.

HAPN provides a much lower earnings multiple, but much slower growth.

Compared with ALLY: No on valuation, yes on growth potential.

ALLY gives investors a much larger valuation cushion.

Compared with NU: This is the difficult one.

NU is significantly cheaper while currently growing almost as quickly.

SOFI’s advantage is U.S. geographic exposure, diversification and potentially lower macro/currency uncertainty.

28. Final Scorecard

Category SOFI Score
Revenue growth ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Earnings trajectory ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Competitive advantage ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Member/customer growth ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cross-selling ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Balance-sheet strength ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Credit quality today ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Diversification ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Valuation ⭐⭐⭐½
Margin of safety at current price ⭐⭐⭐½
CEO intelligence/execution ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
CEO alignment/skin in game ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
CEO compensation structure ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall long-term investment quality ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Overall Verdict: Attractive, but not a deep-value stock

I consider SoFi one of the most interesting financial-growth companies in the market today.

The part of the story I like most isn’t simply the 40% revenue growth.

It’s the combination:

40% growth + profitability + cheaper deposit funding + expanding fee revenue + 35% member growth + accelerating cross-selling + a CEO who owns substantial stock and continues buying shares personally.

That combination is difficult to find.

However, I would not say SOFI is unequivocally the best bargain among its competitors.

NU currently beats it on growth-adjusted valuation.
HAPN and ALLY beat it on absolute valuation.
SOFI beats HOOD and, in my view, AFRM on the current combination of valuation and business risk.

If the goal is to find a U.S.-based fintech with strong growth, a potentially durable competitive advantage, improving profitability and an unusually well-aligned CEO, SOFI may be the best-balanced candidate in this peer group.

The price investors are paying is not cheap enough to make the investment low-risk, but it is reasonable enough that continued 25%-35% earnings growth could justify—and eventually make today’s valuation look inexpensive.

That is the central SOFI investment thesis.

Valuation figures are approximate as of August 31, 2026 and will change with stock prices and earnings estimates. This is investment analysis rather than personalized financial advice.

Because SOFI’s valuation, credit losses and growth rates can change the investment thesis fairly quickly, I can keep an eye on those three factors after each earnings report.

Investment