A blockchain-powered financial services startup Figure Technologies founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, announced it has closed a $103 million Series C round. But, that is not all folks. It has also added Morgan Creek Digital’s Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, one of the sector’s most vigorous supporters, to its board.
That’s not a consequence because, according to the company’s announcement, the round was also led by Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from MUFG Innovation Partners and several other new and existing investors such as DCM, Digital Currency Group, HCM Capital, Ribbit Capital, RPM Ventures and The Partners at DST Global. With Series C the total funding amounted to more than $225 million and the valuation grew to $1.2 billion.
The company’s CEO Mike Cagney said the funds will be used mainly on expanding its lending business that runs on a blockchain, but admitted that the Series C funding round was “primarily opportunistic.” He added that “the company has plenty of cash from an execution standpoint.”
The exact size of the round was disclosed in a securities filing last month, however, other details were not revealed yet.
Figure was previously best recognized for its home equity line of credit (HELOC). However, it started to spread so at the beginning of this year, it began offering student loans and mortgage refinance products. As until now, Figure has originated around $1 billion in loans, with $700 million of that being blockchain-based HELOCs.
Pompliano said:
“Figure has grown from an idea approximately two years ago to become the fourth largest HELOC originator in the United States.”
Founded two years ago, San Francisco-based Figure claimed to approve home loans in “as little as five minutes” and funding within five days.
One of the foundations of Figure’s lending products is Provenance, a distributed blockchain with 12 node operators. It works in a way that removes the document workload involved in loan origination, financing and sales. Cagney claims that the blockchain saves Figure more than 130 basis points on originating HELOCs. That would add up to $1,560 on an average-size loan of $120,000.
He added:
“We have originated approximately $1 billion in loans so far and have garnered significant interest from partners and customers like Jefferies, Franklin Templeton, Experian, Caliber Home Loans, and many others. We anticipate this will continue as we roll out new products in the lending space.”
Pompliano claims that Figure’s business model is in line with the Morgan Creek fund’s investment theory that every stock, bond, currency, and commodity will one day be digitized.
Morgan Creek was also playing part in Figure’s $65 million Series B round this year which was led by RPM Ventures and partners at DST Global, with the involvement of Digital Currency Group and Ribbit Capital, among others. In May, Figure managed to close a $1 billion uncommitted line of credit from investment bank Jefferies and WSFS Financial Corporation. The line ran on Provenance.
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