🚨 Here's a brief overview of my investment thesis:
1) The One-Stop Shop for All Things Finance
$SOFI is disrupting traditional banking through its all-in-one financial platform, offering digital financial services such as banking, investing, lending, and more.
For enterprise clients, it also offers banking-as-a-service solutions through its technology platform, Galileo.
$SOFI's competitive moat stems from:
- its vertically-integrated fintech stack — no other company offers such a complete suite of financial offerings.
- a strong brand presence among the younger demographic, enabling $SOFI to acquire customers early on and cross-sell its products over time.
- a cost advantage over peers, fueled by the Financial Services Productivity Loop, banking charter, and neobank structure.
2) Only 3.3% Market Penetration
$SOFI has experienced extreme growth over the last five years, with Members, Products, and Revenue growing at a CAGR of 58%, 60%, and 50%, respectively.
In Q2, $SOFI added a record 846K New Members, bringing its Total Members to 11.7M, up 34% YoY.
Despite the exceptional growth momentum, $SOFI's 11.7M Member base is just a mere 3.3% of the 347M people in the US.
For context, $JPM and $BAC serve 84M and 68M consumers, respectively. That's 24% and 20% of the US population.
In other words, it’s not too crazy to assume that $SOFI can amass 50M members in its lifetime, or 15% of the US population.
That's a 4x from here.
Given its strong Member growth, $SOFI is continually taking market share from the big banks, and eventually, it'll become a top 10 financial institution.
3) Financial Services Hypergrowth
$SOFI's Financial Services segment is experiencing extreme growth. In Q2, Financial Services Revenue grew 106% YoY to $363M.
This was driven by several factors, including:
- a 35% YoY growth in Financial Services Product
- a 52% YoY improvement in monetization
- a 37% QoQ growth in the Loan Platform Business
Interestingly, multi-product adoption is still low at 1.46 Products Per Member. This means that members, on average, use fewer than two products. This is quite low, considering that SOFI offers nine major products.
However, I expect members to adopt more products over time, as they are continually exposed to other products in $SOFI's all-in-one app.
Just imagine how much more Revenue $SOFI could extract if Product Per Member rises to three or even four.
4) Lending Reacceleration
The Lending segment is $SOFI's bread and butter, its largest and most profitable segment.
After years of growth pressure due to the student loan moratorium, housing reset, and high interest rates, the Lending segment is showing signs of life as growth has accelerated for five straight quarters.
In Q2, Lending Adjusted Revenue was $447M, up 32% YoY.
Total Loan Originations were a record $8.8B in Q2, up 64% YoY.
Safe to say, the Lending segment is back in full force.
But here's why the segment will continue to accelerate:
- the Loan Platform Business is gaining steam
- Student loan volumes were $994M, nowhere near its pre-pandemic peak of $2.4B — the potential is there.
- New products like flexible student loan refinancing and home equity offering are seeing solid traction.
Also, interest rates haven't even come down yet — just imagine how much demand will come $SOFI's way when it does.
5) Tech Platform Deal Pipeline
The "AWS of Fintech" narrative has waned as growth for the Tech Platform segment remain muted.
- Tech Platform Revenue was $110M, up 15% YoY.
- Tech Platform Accounts were 160M, up only 1% YoY.
However, a robust deal pipeline awaits the segment.
During the earnings call, management mentioned that $SOFI
- signed two additional companies that are expected to launch later this year.
- anticipates 10 new clients that will contribute to Revenue growth strating in Q1 2026.
In other words, expect the Tech Platform to reaccelerate in the near future.
6) Turning Capital-Light
$SOFI is transitioning to fee-based, capital-light, high-margin Revenue streams.
As of Q2, Fee-Based Revenue makes up 44% of Total Revenue, up from just 27% in 2023.
This was mainly driven by the growth of the Loan Platform Business, which generated $131M of Revenue, up 37% QoQ.
In Q2 last year, it generated only $12M.
This growth spurt was due to a pivot in Q3 2024, where the LPB began originating loans on behalf of third parties — instead of just referring them to third parties, as they have historically done via its Lantern marketplace.
This way, $SOFI could:
- Scale in a capital-light manner, generating high-margin Revenue with no credit risk.
- Serve more members, well beyond its credit box, thus monetizing $100B in unmet loan demand.
- Retain member relationships, keeping them in the Financial Services Productivity Loop.
The LPB is experiencing unprecedented demand at the moment, securing a total of $10.2B of LPB agreements from capital partners, and so far, the LPB has originated $6.1B of loans.
In Q2 alone, the LPB originated $2.4B, an annual runrate of nearly $10B.
Given its rapid origination cadence, I expect the LPB to sign more deals in the near future.
This will generate more high-margin, Fee-Based Revenue, thus contibuting to the company's bottom line.
7) Strong Operating Leverage
$SOFI is gaining strong operating leverage with each passing quarter. In Q2:
- Contribution Profit was $466M at a 54% Margin, up 6pp YoY.
- Adjsuted EBITDA was $249M at a 29% Margin, up 6pp YoY.
- Net Income was $97M at an 11% Margin, up 8pp YoY.
Best of all, $SOFI has a clear pathway to expand margins further.
For one, Incremental Adjusted EBITDA Margin was 43%, meaning $SOFI has the potential to expand Adjusted EBITDA Margins to as high as 40%.
In addition, the big banks have Net Margins of as high as 30%+. This means that $SOFI has the potential to 3x its current Net Margin.
In other words, $SOFI's profitability journey is still very early.
8) Balance Sheet Expansion
$SOFI continues to expand its balance sheet:
- Total Loans were $32.2B, up $3.1B QoQ.
- Total Deposits were $29.5B, up $2.2B QoQ.
- Total Debt was $3.9B, up $0.9B QoQ.
Importantly, $SOFI is growing its balance sheet responsibly, maintaing strong credit perfomance, with recent loan vintages outperforming old vintages by a wide margin.
9) Flawless Execution
$SOFI has a perfect track record of beating analyst Revenue estimates, displaying impeccable execution by management.
They have also beaten and raised their guidance countless times, showing a knack for outperformance.
Recently, management raised their FY2025 Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and EPS guidance by $100M, $75M, and $0.04, respectively!
Noto & Co. is definitely not messing around.
They have shown, time and time again, that they're serious about taking $SOFI to being a top 10 financial institution.
10) Still Undervalued
Despite running more than 200% in the last few months, $SOFI — believe it or not — is still undervalued.
Case in point. $SOFI currently trades at a Forward PE of about 74x, but that's based on 2025 EPS estimate of $0.30, which is below management’s revised guidance of $0.31.
In addition, analysts estimate 2026 EPS to be $0.54, which is also below management's guidance of $0.55 to $0.80.
Analysts forget that management likes to not only sandbag their guidance but also destroy it in the process.
That said, I believe $SOFI will achieve an EPS of $1.00 in 2026, valuing SOFI at a 2026 Forward PE of about 21x today.
Now that looks like a good valuation to pay.
Some catalysts to consider include:
- new deals for the Loan Platform Business
- acquisitions
- relaunch of crypto offerings
- interest rate cuts
That's a wrap!
If you would like to read my full investment thesis on $SOFI, do check out my deep dive article here:
These posts take a lot of time and energy to write, so I would appreciate a like, share, and subscribe.
$RELY is an underfollowed, underappreciated, and undervalued hypergrowth fintech company.
🧵 Here are 8 reasons why I've added it to my portfolio 👇🏻
1) Disrupting Traditional Remittance
In a nutshell, $RELY is a digital remittance company. It offers cross-border financial services via its user-friendly mobile app.
$RELY offers superior value compared to traditional remittance providers like legacy banks and $WU:
- it's cheaper
- it's transparent
- it's simpler
- it's faster
- it's completely digital
- it's more flexible
Over the last 14 years, $RELY has built a vertically-integrated cross-border payment infrastructure that supports money movement across:
- 5,200+ corridors
- 170+ countries
- 100+ currencies
- 470K+ cash pick up locations
- 5B+ bank accounts and mobile wallets
In addition, it is one of the most trusted brands for international money transfers, with 2.5M app reviews and a 4.8/5.0 app rating across iOS and Android users.
And because of its all-digital construct, $RELY also operates a low-cost, capital-light business model, thus having a cost advantage over incumbents.
In short, through its superior value proposition, vertically-integrated platform, and trusted brand, $RELY is essentially disrupting traditional remittance providers.
Just look at the Revenue chart of $RELY and $WU — it perfectly illustrates this ongoing disruption.
2) Eating Market Share
$RELY is growing like wildfire.
Over the last three years, its topline metrics have basically tripled:
- Active Customers went from 3.0M to 8.5M (37% CAGR).
- Send Volume went from $6.1B to $18.5B (41% CAGR).
- Revenue went from $136M to $412M (41% CAGR).
According to the World Bank, global remittance flows grew by only 5% in 2024.
Given $RELY's superior growth rate, the fintech firm is undoubtedly capturing tons of market share.
Bears argue that mass deportations, travel bans, and other anti-immigration policies would put a strain on $RELY's growth since most of its customers are migrant customers residing in the US.
However, $RELY continues to process more volumes than ever, with barely any slowdown in volume growth.
That speaks volumes about the growth momentum and resilience of its platform.
In short, there’s A LOT to like about its recent results.
🧵 Let me break it down for you:
1) 16th Straight “Beat and Raise” Quarter
Aside from a tiny miss on Q3 Adjusted EBITDA Margin guidance, $ZETA basically destroyed analysts’ estimates across virtually every single metric. Just look at the table below.
In addition, management raised their full-year guidance more than the Q2 beat, a reflection of strong demand and operating leverage (more on guidance later).
2) 35% Revenue Growth
Revenue was $308M, up 35% YoY, which was 5pp above guidance and estimates.
This was driven by a 21% YoY increase in Scaled Customers and an 11% YoY increase in Scaled ARPU.
Notably, $ZETA is seeing strong traction in its agency business, which registered a 40% YoY brand count growth.
The OneZeta product — which unifies $ZETA's three use cases, namely CDP, marketing cloud, and DSP — saw meaningful adoption, contributing to the highest YoY growth in the number of customers leveraging 4 or more channels.
These customers make up less than 20% of the company's customer base, so there's still plenty of room to drive multi-product adoption.
Despite the strong growth momentum, $ZETA still has a long growth runway with only a 1.25% wallet share among the $100B+ marketing spend by its customers.
Management's goal: get this percentage to 5% to 10%.
$GRAB might just be one of the most compelling investment opportunities today — especially for those seeking exposure to Asian equities.
🧵 Here's an overview of my investment thesis:
1) The Leading Superapp in Southeast Asia
$GRAB is by far the largest superapp in Southeast Asia, providing delivery, mobility, and financial services to millions of consumers, merchants, and drivers across 800+ cities in eight countries.
At a high level, $GRAB offers three main services:
Deliveries: $GRAB offers on-demand delivery services for food (GrabFood), groceries (GrabMart), and packages (GrabExpress). $GRAB also operates grocery chains Jaya Grocer and Everrise in Malaysia, enhancing its GrabMart offering.
Mobility: $GRAB offers various ride-hailing services, including private cars (GrabCar), taxis (GrabTaxi), and motorcycles (GrabBike). The company has also just launched GrabCab in Singapore, becoming the sixth taxi operator in the country.
Financial Services: Through its superapp, $GRAB offers digital financial services such as payment (GrabPay), BNPL (PayLater), insurance (GrabInsure), and rewards (GrabRewards). Independent of the superapp, $GRAB also operates three digital banks, namely GXS Bank in Singapore, GXBank in Malaysia, and Superbank in Indonesia.
Some people call it the “Uber of Southeast Asia”, but no... it's way more than that.
$GRAB is essentially $UBER $DASH $SOFI combined.
2) Impenetrable Moats
According to Morningstar, there are 5 sources of competitive moats — I believe $GRAB has all 5.
1. Intangible Asset: In Southeast Asia, $GRAB is a household name, a verb. If you’ve ever been to Southeast Asia, you know how prominent the $GRAB brand is — it’s everywhere. Oftentimes, the first thing that travellers do when they land in Southeast Asia is to download the Grab app. That's how important it is.
2. Switching Cost: $GRAB offers the most complete range of services in a single app, including transportation options, merchant providers, and food choices. And with subscription services like GrabUnlimited, which gives subscribers additional benefits and discounts for a monthly fee, the immense value subscribers get makes it harder for them to switch to another provider, which often has fewer services or inferior quality.
3. Network Effect: The $GRAB ecosystem is massive with 46M+ Monthly Transacting Users, 6M+ merchants, and 5M+ drivers. As $GRAB adds more users, merchants, and drivers, the more valuable the ecosystem becomes.
4. Cost Advantage: Southeast Asia is a highly competitive market with cut-throat pricing, and to grow profitably in the long run, one must have significant scale to gain operating leverage. $GRAB has the scale and thus, superior margins compared to peers. For example, $GOTO — $GRAB's largest competitor — has Mobility and Delivery Margins of about 3.8% and 1.4%, respectively. $GRAB's Margins are much higher, at 8.7% and 1.8%, respectively.
5. Efficient Scale: $GRAB has the highest market share in Southeast Asia. In Food Delivery, $GRAB generates $10.4B of GMV in 2024, or 54% of total volume. In Mobility, $GRAB has a market share of about 70%. Per management, the company is at least 3x larger than its next largest competitor. By definition, $GRAB is a virtual monopoly in Southeast Asia.
In my view, $GRAB is one of the most durable businesses in Southeast Asia, and with all 5 moats in its arsenal, $GRAB is in a prime position to compound sales and earnings for decades to come.
🧵 I initiated a position in $ZETA a few weeks ago. Here's why:
1) Full-stack AI-powered Marketing Cloud
$ZETA offers an all-in-one marketing platform, complete with three core products, namely:
- Customer data platform with 85% to 90% first-party data
- Marketing automation software powered with AI
- Demand-side platform for programmatic ad buying
Most adtech/martech players lack one or two of these products — $ZETA has all three.
By combining these three products, $ZETA gives marketers the power to deliver cost-efficient, hyper-personalized, and highly automated marketing campaigns that generate significant ROI.
This is why 44% of the Fortune 100 use $ZETA.
2) Only 1% Market Penetration
In the last four years, $ZETA grew Revenue at a 30% CAGR, and in the next four, the company is expected to grow at a 20% CAGR.
Per management, $ZETA's customers spent over $100B in marketing and advertising last year, and with $1B of Revenue in 2024, $ZETA's current market share is only 1%.
Fueled by AI tailwinds and current business momentum, management sees their market share expanding to 5% to 15%, which is at least a 5x from here.
Some of $ZETA's clients are already allocating more than 5% of their wallet share on the ZMP, so getting to a 5% market share is very much possible.
As a matter of fact, $ZETA is growing at the fastest rate among other players like $CRM, $HUBS, and $KVYO, indicating market share growth.
In other words, it's just the beginning for $ZETA.
3) Perfect Execution
$ZETA has beaten and raised its guidance for 15 straight quarters.
It also has a 100% track record of beating analyst Revenue estimates.
I sleep well at night knowing that $ZETA is run by world-class management.
$NBIS is building AI factories to service the AI revolution.
I believe $NBIS has three competitive advantages, namely:
- a full-stack AI infrastructure with complete control of the entire AI value chain, from data center design, to in-house servers, to its proprietary cloud platform.
- the best price-to-value AI infrastructure-as-a-service offering in the market, with one of the most affordable prices while delivering top-quality performance.
- high barriers to entry, as $NBIS has access to scarce resources, such as $NVDA GPUs, skilled AI engineers, and massive amounts of capital.
2) The Road to 1GW+ Capacity
$NBIS is in hypergrowth mode, growing Revenue by high triple digits.
More importantly, the company has a massive growth runway ahead as management aims to expand capacity to more than 1GW of capacity — a 40x increase from the start of 2025.
1GW of capacity would potentially translate to $10B of Revenue. Management aims to reach this level of capacity within "a few years", so if they can pull it off, it'll make $NBIS look tiny today.
3) Potentially Highly Profitable
Management's medium-term financial target calls for a 20% to 30% Adjusted EBIT Margin, with the potential to "go well north of 30% in the longer term".
Looking at the Operating Margins of some of the most prominent cloud infrastructure providers, $NBIS's EBIT Margin could reach as high as 30% to 40%.
- $GOOG Cloud Operating Margin = 16%
- $MSFT Intelligent Cloud Operating Margin = 42%
- $AMZN AWS Operating Margin = 38%
- $ORCL Operating Margin = 32%
- $CRWV Adjusted Operating Margin = 18%
Also, $NBIS is expected to turn Adjusted EBITDA positive in the second half of this year, which could be a major catalyst for the stock.
$HIMS is rapidly growing its Subscriber base, which increased by 45% year over year to 2.2M+ in Q4.
User growth is a leading indicator of future Revenue growth and, thus, earnings growth.
2) Dominant Market Position
$HIMS continues to gain market share in the crowded telehealth space, implying a superior value proposition, marketing execution, and distribution.
As of 2024, $HIMS has a dominant market share of 47%+.
3) Still a Baby
Despite high market share in the telehealth subindustry, $HIMS has barely scratched the surface of its market opportunity.
For one, the US Healthcare industry is worth about $4.3T, while HIMS has a Market Cap of only $9B. This signifies a massive growth runway ahead for the company.