SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Anthony Noto: The only other thing I’d add, Kevin, is in the call, I mentioned the fact that some of our financial services business are still an aggressive mode of investing, and they have a rescale yet the way the money business has and some of our other businesses within the Financial Services segment. I mentioned that on an annualized basis, we’re losing well over $100 million in a couple of those businesses, that’s a discretionary expense that we could decide to be more conservative on and drive to profitability faster. The scale that we have in our member base now at over 7 million members really gives us a significant opportunity just to market to our own members in a bigger way to help them get their money right with additional products and services that meet their needs based on the data that we have.

And I can’t underscore that enough. So that more than $100 million in losses from just two businesses, annualized is also an opportunity if we need to go down that path as well.

Operator: Our next question comes from Ashwin Shirvaikar of Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Ashwin Shirvaikar: Thank you and congratulations on the quarter. I want to ask about member growth. And this is, I think, the first-time in a very long time that we’ve seen a reacceleration in member growth, wanted to get down into what’s driving that? Was that driven by particular member product combinations? Should we expect the sustenance of maybe a slightly higher level of member growth now? Any commentary there?

Anthony Noto: Yeah. We had a really strong quarter member growth as well as product growth. We exceed — we set a record in member growth at over 700,000 and a record in product growth with more than $1 million for the first time. I mentioned on last quarter’s call that we’re starting to see and we’re continuing to see this quarter the compounding effects of everything working together across marketing and product as well as the experience in satisfaction word-of-mouth. We’ve been focused on driving unaided brand awareness because it makes the rest of our marketing more efficient as that goes up, our performance marketing has better performance and it’s much more efficient. The second thing is, as you scale your data and information, you’re hopeful that you can increase marketing and maintain those levels of efficiency.

And I’d say that’s been the biggest shift this year as that our marketing efficiencies have maintained as we spent more money, but clearly, we’re spending more dollars, but we’re getting greater yield from what we’re spending, and that’s also a factor. But the team has just done a great job of allocating 25% of marketing to brand building, which drives on unaided brand awareness and efficiently spending the other 75% against performance marketing, and then cross-buying continues to be very positive, reinforcing our overall one-stop shop mentality. In terms of the outlook for member growth and product growth, what I’d say is, we have largely been averaging in the 400,000 range for members. I wouldn’t start assuming we’re going to average over 600,000 or 700,000 today.

I think you could start to focus on 500,000 plus members in a quarter and keep it with a five-handle on it, and we’ll see how the quarter goes and how we’re doing overall. We’ve really been focused on driving to profitability. And as we go into 2024, we haven’t set our plans yet. So I wouldn’t set this at a new level. It was an extraordinary quarter. Can we repeat this quarter? Yes, but I wouldn’t plan on it. So I keep the outlook for members in the 500,000 range for now.

Operator: The next question today comes from Jeff Adelson of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Adelson: Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. So I think, just looking at the guidance for the full year, it looks like 4Q ’23, you’re — it looks like you’re looking for something like a 28% to 32% revenue growth exit rate for the year. Just thinking through next year, I know it’s early still, but if rates stay where they are at these elevated levels, is that a good number to be thinking about for next year or is there any reason it shouldn’t stay where it is? And how should we be thinking about the different revenue components? Should we be seeing continued strength in NII, a little bit less than the fee income, maybe a little more intact platform? And then, Chris, if I could just ask really quick on the $100 million of loans, I think you said you sold at 105.1%. Is that an unhedged or hedge number? And could you just maybe speak quickly to what those loans were? Were they more seasoned or more new originations? Thanks.

Anthony Noto: Thanks for the question. The first thing I’d say is, the opportunity we have to drive growth is significant. We can drive compounding growth for years, given how large these markets are and their low level of market share. What we choose to grow in 2024 will be a function of the environment as we get through the fourth quarter and where things shape (ph) in January. So we’ve taken an approach that we give full year guidance at the beginning of the year after we report Q4, so we’ll do that again and then will update you each quarter. So I don’t want to dig into the details of 2024 because there’s a lot left to be decided in ’23 as well as in January. Clearly, the Fed has some tough decisions to make, and that could impact the year, so I don’t want to make any assumptions on where rates are, especially using a scenario where they’re flat versus where they could be up 25 basis points or even 50 basis points as we start the new year.