Shares in financial technology company SoFi closed up 12%, to $22.65, on their debut on the Nasdaq exchange today after merging with special-purchase acquisition company Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V.

The SPAC merger, first announced in January, valued SoFi, formally named Social Finance Inc., at $8.65 billion with the SPAC offering raising $2.4 billion.

Founded in 2011, SoFi, headed by Chief Executive Anthony Noto (pictured), pitches itself as a fintech company that provides financial services to millennials. The company offers a range of lending and wealth management services, including variable and fixed-rate parent, personal and business degree loans, mortgage refinancing and others.

The company says it creates modern financial products and services that help people borrow, save, spend, invest and protect their money better to achieve financial independence and realize their ambitions, from owning a home to saving for retirement to paying off their student loans and more.

In a sign of the times, SoFi started offering cryptocurrency trading to users through a deal with Coinbase Inc. in February 2019. SoFi hasn’t been without problems in its past, however, such as a previous CEO forced to step down in 2017 following sexual harassment allegations.

The strong result for SoFi in its SPAC debut comes as the method of going public is starting to decline following an unprecedented boom in using the merger method in 2020. In April, a note from JP Morgan said that the SPAC boom had peaked and that the decline in SPAC activity had been driven by a decline in retail traders pouring money into the new deals, along with increasing regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Even if the peak for SPACs may have passed, tech companies are still lining up to do SPAC deals. Digital manufacturing startup Bright Machines Inc. announced on May 17 that it will going public in a SPAC deal valued at $1.1 billion, and electric scooter and moped hire startup Bird Rides Inc. is also pursuing a SPAC merger on a $2.3 billion valuation. In the largest SPAC deal of all time, Southeast Asia ride-hailing giant Grab Holdings Inc. announced in April that it’s using the method to go public on a valuation of $39.6 billion.

Photo: SoFi