SOFI: $80 million in C round funding for San Francisco-based Social Finance (SoFi), led by hedge fund, Discovery Capital Management, and including support from Wicklow Capital and Peter Thiel (of the "20 under 20" why-go-to-college? fame). Renren, Baseline Ventures and DCM, all previous investors, also contributed. To day, SoFi has raised $161 million in venture financing and more in debt financing, reports Techcrunch.
S.P. "Wijie" Wijegoonaratna with Discovery Capital Management will join the SoFi board, which also includes: David Chao (DCM), Mike Spence (economist), Tom Hutton (Thompson Hutton), Joe Chen (Renren), Mike Cagney (CEO) and Steve Anderson (Baseline Ventures). Thiel and New York Stock Exchange chief executive Duncan Niederauer, are becoming advisors. SoFi launched in 2011 as a peer-to-peer lending organization, helping borrowers bypass banks. Among its activities is helping students refinance their school loans. Here's the press release or TechCrunch.
