Mercato Partners Traverse Fund (“Traverse”), announced that Social Finance (“SoFi”) has acquired one of its Growth Fund II portfolio companies, Galileo Financial Technologies (“Galileo”), a thriving API standard for card issuing programs and financial technology (“fintech”) innovation. SoFi, the digital personal finance company, confirmed the signing of its definitive agreement to acquire Galileo Financial Technologies for $1.2 billion early this morning.
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“To excel in the growth stage, a CEO and leadership team must be able to envision and execute at a level of innovation and ambition others might not even imagine,” said Mercato Partners Managing Director and Galileo Board member, Greg Warnock. “They must be hungry for large scale problem-solving and provide the energy and direction to fuel exponential growth. The CEO, in particular, must convey a strong vision and display an ongoing, unrelenting commitment to excellence. Clay Wilkes absolutely fits that profile and has done a world-class job of leading Galileo. We congratulate Clay and the entire Galileo team and look forward to the continued pace of innovation and value Galileo will bring to SoFi customers.”
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Mercato led Galileo’s Series A financing in 2014 with an $8 million investment. Galileo used the proceeds to invest in its differentiated technology and bolster its go-to-market efforts. Beginning with product innovation, Galileo developed and shared its APIs to enable fintech companies and developers to build on its platform, which spurred robust business development, expanded Galileo’s client base, drove organic growth and elevated operating margins. Galileo further fortified its technology leadership position by developing an AI-driven fraud protection solution. Since its launch, users have reduced and remediated payment fraud loss by 80% over the industry standard.
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