2 Fintech Stocks to Buy While Their Customer Numbers Keep Climbing

SoFi (NASDAQ: SOFI) and Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) both disrupted older financial companies with their fintech platforms. SoFi, which initially offered only student loans, evolved into a "one-stop shop" for personal loans, auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, insurance plans, estate planning services, and stock and crypto trading tools. Robinhood challenged traditional brokerages with commission-free trading, and expanded its ecosystem to include cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets, prediction market trading, and digital banking services.

Both companies are still gaining new customers in this challenging market, but their stocks have stumbled as rising Treasury yields have compressed their valuations. Over the past 12 months, SoFi's stock has declined 46%, while Robinhood's stock has dropped 38%. However, those pullbacks could be great buying opportunities for investors who can stomach a little volatility.

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How fast is SoFi growing?

SoFi's digital-native approach made it a popular choice for younger people who didn't want to deal with traditional banks. It also acquired the digital payment processing company Galileo in 2020, launched its own digital bank after receiving a U.S. bank charter in 2022, and acquired the cloud-native banking platform Technisys that same year.

In the third quarter of 2026, SoFi's members grew 35% year over year to 17.1 million, while its total products in use rose 44% to 26.7 million. That's up from just 2.5 million members and 1.9 million products in use at the end of 2021. Galileo, which operates separately from its core business, hosts another 140 million accounts.

From 2021 to 2025, SoFi's adjusted net revenue grew at a 37% CAGR, as its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose at a 227% CAGR. It also turned profitable under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in 2024 and 2025.

From 2025 to 2028, analysts expect SoFi's adjusted net revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at CAGRs of 29% and 38%, respectively. That growth should be fueled by its loan platform business (which originates loans for third parties to earn high-margin referral fees), new blockchain-based services (tokenized assets and stablecoins), and more direct deposits. It also plans to further expand and monetize Galileo and Technisys.

With an enterprise value of $20.6 billion, SoFi trades at just three times next year's sales and 10 times next year's adjusted EBITDA. Even though it's a high-growth fintech company, it's still valued like a conventional bank -- so it could have a lot more upside potential.

How fast is Robinhood growing?

Robinhood ended the third quarter of 2026 with 28.7 million funded customers. That's up 7% from a year earlier. At the end of 2021, it had only 22.7 million funded accounts.

From 2021 to 2025, Robinhood's revenue and adjusted EBITDA grew at CAGRs of 25% and 193%, respectively. Like SoFi, it also turned profitable on a GAAP basis in 2024 and 2025.

Robinhood's growth was initially driven by the buying frenzy in meme stocks, riskier options, and cryptocurrencies in 2020 and 2021. Its commission-free trades and streamlined app made it a popular option among younger retail investors. Its growth cooled off in 2022 as rising interest rates drove many investors to park their cash in more conservative investments, but heated up again over the following years as the AI boom pulled them back toward higher-growth stocks.

Robinhood also expanded its subscription platform, Robinhood Gold, to lock in its customers with higher interest rates, more margin, and other perks. Its number of Gold subscribers grew 34% year over year to a record 5.2 million in the third quarter of 2026. Its growth in subscription revenue is gradually reducing its dependence on cyclical transaction-based revenues -- which it mainly generates by selling its "free" trades to high-frequency trading firms.

From 2025 to 2028, analysts expect Robinhood's revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow at CAGRs of 21% and 24%, respectively. That growth should be driven by new features (especially prediction markets and tokenized real-world assets), the expansion of its digital banking ecosystem (including its new cards and Trump accounts), and Gold subscriptions.

With an enterprise value of $79.4 billion, Robinhood trades at just 12 times and 20 times next year's revenue and adjusted EBITDA, respectively. It's cheap because investors are pricing in another cyclical slowdown in trading as the macro headwinds intensify -- but its growth, scale, and shrewd diversification should help it bounce back and soar higher over the long term.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Robinhood Markets. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.