Social Finance (SoFi) is preparing to complete its merger with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Social capital Hédosophy V (NYSE: IPOE), and the fintech start-up released first-quarter results last week that rocked its own forecasts. SoFi is seeing its growth accelerate on several fronts, as it positions itself as a one-stop-shop for financial services targeting young people.

Here’s what Social Capital Hedosophia V shareholders need to know.

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Accelerate growth

First-quarter adjusted net income was $ 216 million, well ahead of SoFi’s forecast of $ 190 million to $ 195 million. Net income also includes an impact of $ 5 million due to interest expense related to debt repayment. It all translated into adjusted EBITDA $ 4.1 million, similarly beating the prospect of $ 5 million negative to $ 1 million positive.

Membership growth has accelerated dramatically, with total membership surging 110% to 2.28 million. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of accelerated growth and SoFi continues to roll out new products for its members. The number of accounts on SoFi’s Galileo platform, which SoFi acquired last year, reached 70 million, up from 59 million in the fourth quarter. Galileo provides back-end infrastructure functionality to third-party companies.

Student loan initiations, where SoFi initially started as a business, remains the dominant loan category, originating $ 1 billion in the first quarter. Personal loan creations totaled $ 805.7 million and home loan creations amounted to $ 735.6 million. This brought the total creations to over $ 2.5 billion.

SoFi reiterated its objectives for the year 2021, with the fintech company forecasting adjusted net income of $ 980 million for the year, up 58% from 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in 2021 is expected to stand at $ 27 million.

What happens after

SoFi recently detailed several additional catalysts to continue driving future growth. The company plans to allow retail investors to participate directly in IPOs, which departs from the status quo where IPO allocations are typically heavily skewed in favor of high net worth individuals and institutional investors. The disruptive move is already attracting competition: Robinhood said on Thursday it would follow suit and do the same.

SoFi also recently launched a refinancing of car loans through its subsidiary Lantern and in partnership with a small fintech start-up MotoRefi. The company sees significant opportunities in auto loans, as total auto debt in the United States hit a record high of $ 1.37 trillion in 2020, according to Experian. (Disclaimer: The Motley Fool invested in MotoRefi through Motley Fool Ventures.)

The company is also still working towards obtaining a national banking charter, which will significantly reduce its borrowing costs and boost profitability by using members’ deposits as a source of funding. SoFi is in the process of being acquired Golden Pacific Bancorp to accelerate this strategy.

Shareholders of Social Capital Hedosophia V are expected to vote next week.

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Evan Niu, CFA holds shares of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. V and has the following options: long July 2021 calls for $ 10 on Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. V. a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.