SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch, under Creative Commons license

Fintech company SoFi has announced it has reached a deal to acquire Galileo, a Utah-based fintech startup, for $1.2 billion comprising of cash and SoFi stock. The deal marks one of the biggest acquisitions ever from the Utah tech industry, one that’s been on the rise as of late. Interestingly, Galileo had only ever taken outside funding just once; a $77 million investment led by Accel late last year. Ryan Smith, the CEO of Qualtrics, another notable Utah tech success story, also participated in the funding. As of when Galileo announced the funding, the company said it was “already profitable and growing rapidly.”

Galileo offers banking APIs used by fintech companies to facilitate online banking processes. Such APIs help in many things ranging from verifying new accounts to direct deposits, transaction notifications, issuing payment cards, point-of-sale authorization, and the likes. Venture-backed fintech companies including Chime, Robinhood, Transferwise, Revolut, and Monzo are Galileo customers. Galileo’s service is very similar to that of Plaid, another fintech startup that got acquired this year. In January, payments giant Visa reached a deal to acquire Plaid for a whopping $5.3 billion.

As of October last year when Galileo raised funding, a press release from the company said it managed over $26 billion in annual payments. That figure seems to have extensively boosted as the press release announcing Galileo’s acquisition notes that it processed more than $53 billion in payments in the year leading up to March 2020. Such growth seems very impressive.

Following the acquisition, SoFi says Galileo will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary, with its current CEO Clay Wilkes still at the helm. Both companies will collaborate on several fintech offerings including offering SoFi’s full product suite to potential fintech partners, the press announcement notes.

Wilkes founded Galileo 19 years ago. He has led the company since that time.