Mike Cagney
Michael Cagney | |
|---|---|
| File:Mike Cagney TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017.jpg Cagney in 2017 | |
| Born | February 1, 1971 Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Santa Cruz Stanford Graduate School of Business |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for |
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| Spouse | June Ou |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
Michael Cagney (born February 1, 1971) is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of financial services company Figure Technology Solutions, a member of the founding team of Provenance Blockchain and the co-founder and former CEO of SoFi.[1] Cagney is also co-founder and was the managing member of hedge fund Cabezon Investment Group.[2]
Career
[edit | edit source]Cagney was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and grew up in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Southern California. He received a degree in applied economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.[3][4] In 1994, Cagney worked as a trader with Wells Fargo before leaving in 2000 to start Finaplex, a wealth management software company that was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions. He then founded Cabezon Investment Group, a global macro hedge fund that manages money from family offices, before taking a Sloan Fellowship at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2010.[5][6]
In 2011, Cagney and four fellow graduate students at Stanford Graduate School of Business created SoFi as a way to lower loan costs while providing a way for alumni to invest in students.[7] Stanford ran a pilot SoFi program, seeded with $2 million from 40 alumni and disbursed to 100 graduate business students.[8] By 2013, the company had funded $200 million in loans to 2,500 borrowers at 100 eligible schools.[9] By 2015, the company was offering mortgages in more than 20 states[10] and had funded more than $4 billion in loans.[11]
In 2015, Cagney raised a private financing for SoFi of over $1 billion, led by Softbank. It was the largest private financing ever done to that point.[12]
In 2016, Cagney was named to Business Insider’s Creators list of top 100 business visionaries creating value for the world.[13] By 2017, SoFi had a valuation of over $4 billion and had extended more than $20 billion in loans.[14] The company had also expanded its services to include mortgages, personal loans, wealth management services and life insurance.[15]
In September 2017, Cagney left SoFi after several workplace controversies, including allegations of misconduct and presiding over a toxic work environment.[16][17] At the time of his resignation, Cagney said that the litigation and ensuing media coverage made his presence a distraction to the company’s mission.[16]
In 2018, Cagney and his wife, June Ou, co-founded fin-tech startup Figure Technology Solutions, which builds marketplaces to trade and finance blockchain-native assets.[18] Figure was the first company to put consumer loans on the blockchain.[19] The company has raised over $400 million since its launch with a valuation of $3.2 billion in 2021.[20] As of 2019, the company had raised over $225 million and was valued at $1.2 billion.[21] By 2020, the company began offering securitizations backed by Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC), including the largest bond backed by a HELOC in over a decade.[17] In August 2021, Figure Technology Solutions agreed to merge with Homebridge Financial Services, a mortgage lender.[22] In June 2022, the merger was cancelled.[23] In March 2024, Figure Technology Solutions spun off its Lending division by establishing a new parent entity, Figure Technology Solutions (FTS).[24] The company has funded over $16 billion in loans, reporting $340 million in revenue.[25] In 2024, Cagney split Figure into two companies, Figure and Figure Markets.[24] He became chairman of Figure and CEO of Figure Markets.[26][27] Cagney raised $60 million for Figure Markets in a round led by Pantera and Faction with participation from Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, and other investors.[28][29]
In 2025, the companies recombined, purportedly to go public. Cagney is executive chairman of the recombined company.[25] In the same year, Figure Markets went effective with the SEC as the first public security, a fixed-income stablecoin called $YLDS.[30] Figure Markets also launched a DeFi lending protocol called Democratized Prime in 2025, directly connecting lenders and borrowers.[31] In September 2025, Figure went public on Nasdaq under the ticker FIGR. The company is valued at $7.6 billion.[32]
Cagney and Ou also founded Provenance Blockchain, a public proof-of-stake Layer 1 (L1) chain. In 2025, Provenance Blockchain was the largest public blockchain measured by real-world assets.[33]
Other activities
[edit | edit source]In 2024, Cagney was part of a group bidding to lift Celsius out of bankruptcy, but the bid was not successful.[34] He later went on to support an activist campaign against the emerging public company, Ionic Digital.[35] The campaign successfully claimed two board seats.[36] Cagney also bid to rescue FTX from bankruptcy.[37]
Cagney has written about his belief that stablecoins and the GENIUS Act will ultimately lead to narrow banking and support blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi).[38]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Cagney is married, with two children.[6]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Connie Loizos, "SoFi founder Mike Cagney’s already well-funded new startup is raising another $100 million," TechCrunch, December 1, 2019.
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- ^ Andy Kessler, "The Uberization of Banking," The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2016.
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- ^ David Goll, "Stanford grads launch student loan program," Silicon Valley Business Journal, April 6, 2012.
- ^ Ann Carrns, "SoFi Tapping Alumni to Help With Student Loans," The New York Times, April 3, 2012.
- ^ Peter Renton, "SoFi Adding Leverage For Their Alumni Investors," Lend Academy, September 24, 2013.
- ^ Jody Shenn and Dakin Campbell, "SoFi CEO Sees $4 Billion of Loans as Startup Seeks Mortgages," Bloomberg News, March 10, 2015.
- ^ "A startup out to displace Wall Street banks just hired ex-SEC chairman Arthur Levitt," Business Insider, September 9, 2015.
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- ^ Peter Rudegeair, "In Second Act, a Silicon Valley CEO Opens Up About Affairs," The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2018.
- ^ Anna Irrera, "Ex-SoFi CEO Cagney's startup debuts digital home equity loans," Reuters, October 9, 2018.
- ^ a b "Online lender SoFi CEO Cagney to step down," Reuters, September 11, 2017.
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- ^ Selina Wang, "SoFi's Former CEO Harnesses the Blockchain for Home Loan Startup," Bloomberg News, April 30, 2018.
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- ^ Connie Loizos, "Mike Cagney is right now testing the boundaries of the US banking system," TechCrunch, December 4, 2020.
- ^ Katherine Chiglinsky, "Cagney’s Figure Agrees to Merge with Lender Homebridge," Bloomberg News, August 3, 2021.
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