Online lender SoFi is closing on a deal to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (Spac), Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp V, according to Reuters.
The deal, which would value SoFi at more than $6 billion, could be announced within days, but is not yet complete, says Reuters, citing sources.
Increasingly popular, Spacs act as shell companies that raise funds via IPOs before merging with privately-held firms that can then trade publicly.
Social Capital Hedosophia V is a blank-cheque acquisition firm led by Chamath Palihapitiya, a serial Spac backer who has previously used the technique in deals for Virgin Galactic and Opendoor.
SoFi started life as a student loan financing outfit but in recent years has been expanding aggressively.
In October it received preliminary approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its application for a national bank charter and launched its first credit card.
Earlier in 2020 it also paid $1.2 billion for financial services API and payments platform Galileo Financial Services and has also teamed up with Coinbase for cryptocurrency trading.