In this video I will be talking about Social Finance (SOFI 1.97%) and why it might be a good fintech stock to pick up right now. SoFi has a lot of positive momentum going for it, but that might not be reflected in the recent stock movement. At a $14 billion market cap, it's no small company, but if you compare it to one of its peers, such as Square (SQ 1.68%), it's got some catching up to do. 

Tailwinds

SoFi will get a lot of brand exposure in the years to come thanks to SoFi Stadium, home of the Rams and Chargers. It will host the 2022 Super Bowl, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the 2028 Olympics. A naming rights partnership offers a huge return on advertising dollars that is far above what can be achieved through traditional marketing channels. Much of this return comes in the form of offsite promotion through media mentions.

And then there's the banking charter. In March, SoFi bought Golden Pacific Bancorp, which will help it lower cost of capital, increase net interest margin, and increase its growth in lending. 

Galileo

During the investor call in January, backer Chamath Palihapitiya said that SoFi is responsible for 90% of new neobanks created in the U.S. That's the power of owning a company like Galileo. SoFi's Galileo offers fintech companies application programming interfaces (APIs) for core digital banking functionality. Galileo enables companies to build out payment, card, and digital banking products, and this segment is also finding meaningful success.

Last quarter, total Galileo members skyrocketed 130% year over year to reach 70 million. This growth rate compares to 75% in the year-ago period, showing there is real, positive momentum here as well. Management plans to operate Galileo independently from SoFi, to ensure Galileo can be seen as a pure partner to these companies rather than a partial adversary. 

Super app

Going back to SoFi itself, it's all about building the super app. The more products the customer uses the better the experience, and, obviously, the harder it becomes for the user to leave the platform. Apple's ecosystem is one example of this. SoFi also recently added a very demanded feature, the ability to invest in IPOs. I believe this will attract a lot of new users to the app.

*Stock prices used were the closing prices of July 2, 2021. The video was published on July 6, 2021.