Former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney’s blockchain lending startup Figure looking to raise $100 million
Figure Technologies, the blockchain lending startup co-founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, is in full growth mode. Earlier this year, the company raised $65 million in its Series B equity funding.
And the company is seeking more funding to support that growth. According to a report from TechCrunch, Figure is planning to raise more than $100 million in a new round of equity funding.
The report, citing a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, states that Figure is trying to raise at least $103 million in new equity funding. The filing also states that Figure has already raised more than $58 million and plans to try to raise at least $44 million more.
Neither the TechCrunch article nor the SEC filing identify the sources of Figure’s new funding.
The company’s Series B funding was led by RPM Ventures and partners at DST Global, with participation from investors Ribbit Capital, DCM, DCG, Nimble Ventures, Morgan Creek, and others.
That round of funding pushed the company’s total funding to more than $120 million in just its second year of operating.
Cagney helped found Figure in 2018 after leaving SoFi in 2017 after reports emerged about the alleged toxic culture at the online lender.
Under Cagney’s leadership, SoFi was the apple of investors’ eyes, including raising $500 million in its Series F financing led by Silver Lake and raising $1 billion, led by SoftBank.
But the luster left SoFi quickly after allegations of how SoFi actually operated came to light, including claims that the company fired a former employee for reporting sexual harassment allegations to his superiors.
Cagney resigned shortly thereafter, moving on to Figure, which provides home equity lending via blockchain.
The company entered the home equity lending market first, when it rolled out its signature product, Figure Home Equity, which is a hybrid between a traditional home equity loan and a HELOC that allows homeowners to borrow from their home equity.
Then the company expanded into a different form of equity, unveiling a new program that it called an alternative to reverse mortgages. The program, called Figure Home Advantage, sees the company buy a property outright from a homeowner, who then rents the house back from Figure for as long as they want to.
The company has found success thus far, securing interest from investors of different types.
Earlier this year, the company closed on an asset-based financing facility on blockchain of up to $1 billion alongside Jefferies and WSFS Institutional Services.
The facility is located on Provenance.io, a blockchain platform developed by Figure last year that is used to originate, finance and sell HELOCs to banks, asset managers and credit funds.
“With the financing facility now in place, Provenance.io can support the entire end-to-end financing of loans, from origination to funding to servicing to financing,” Cagney said earlier this year. “It paves the way for the first securitization on chain, which will demonstrate the massive cost savings, risk reduction and liquidity benefits blockchain delivers.”
And with potentially $103 million more in equity funding on its way into Figure coffers, the company will continue in that mission.