SoFi, an online lender based in California, has emerged as a darling of the fintech world.
The company raised $1 billion in September, helping establish Mike Cagney's endeavor as one of the best-funded startups in Silicon Valley.
The fund-raising was the biggest financing round by any company in the fintech industry.
Cagney is taking SoFi up against online lenders and brick-and-mortar banks alike — and pursuing a $30 billion valuation.
"We have a path that we're executing against, and it's around the idea that these are things, we think, [will] get us to a $30 billion valuation," he said in an interview with Business Insider.
Entire landscape
So far this year, the startup has lined up more than $4 billion in loans. That accounts for roughly 80% of its $5 billion in loans issued since its launch in fall 2011. Cagney believes there's a lot more room for its origination platform to grow.
"We're looking at the entire landscape of financial services," he told Business Insider. "Like, life insurance, for example."
He cites the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as a catalyst for SoFi's success.
"It's opened up not just niche opportunities, but large swaths of consumer lending for folks like SoFi, and mortgage loans, and personal loans and student loans that might not have been there pre-crisis."
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