Figure Technologies CEO cuts its funding targets, mulls spin offs

Mike Cagney, the former chief executive officer of lending giant SoFi, is searching for investors for his latest startup, Figure Technologies Inc. The company, which builds financial products on a blockchain, is also seeking to spin off some product lines as it navigates a dramatic industry downturn.

Two years ago, when investors' fintech frenzy was at its peak, Cagney raised $200 million for Figure. The company at the time was valued at $3.2 billion, gaining it entrance into a rarified club of multibillion-dollar startups. The culture among employees was known to be hard-charging, and at least occasionally, hard-partying too. 

But recently, things have gotten tougher. In the last few months, several senior leaders have left Figure, including the president and chief financial officer; it scrapped an attempt to take its lending business public through a special purpose acquisition company; and executives slashed their targets on an ambitious fundraising effort.

The company is currently seeking to raise $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. That's one-third the sum it initially planned. Figure is not in any serious deal talks at the moment, the people said, and the startup is likely to delay raising money rather than agree to a down round at a lower valuation.

"We're just dealing with a lot of headwinds in the industry right now," Cagney said in an interview. "It's a very hard market." Figure and Cagney declined to comment on the funding efforts, which have not been previously reported. 

Figure is one of countless once-hot startups now suddenly forced to contend with an icy environment for venture capital, particularly in the world of crypto. But the company is higher-profile and better funded than most.

Cagney left Social Finance Inc. in 2017, under a cloud of allegations over a toxic and "sexually charged corporate culture" at the company, according to a lawsuit. Cagney also admitted that he had had consensual sexual relationships with female subordinates. Cagney said at the time he would not tolerate harassment at SoFi and said he resigned to avoid "distraction from the company's core mission." Despite the scandal, Cagney was quickly able to raise money for his next venture, and Figure brought in more than $400 million from investors including Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital and crypto firms like Digital Currency Group, according to PitchBook data. 

Figure builds lending, payment and other traditional financial products on Provenance, a blockchain it created, promising to offer faster and cheaper options than the status quo. The company said it gained traction with its lending product, and that it's also brought on big customers for other offerings. For example, Apollo Global Management is using Figure's blockchain to sell stakes in a fund. 

Last year, Figure appeared to be on track to raise $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter. But by September, as the market cooled on crypto, the startup was struggling to hit its fundraising goals. Figure cut its target by two-thirds. 

Last month, in another setback to Figure's endeavors to access more cash, the startup abandoned efforts to take its lending product public via a reverse merger with a mid-sized mortgage bank. The transaction was supposed to serve as a major milestone and strategic inflection point for the startup. 

Cagney said that the company is not currently planning layoffs. But he also said that if it's able to, Figure would complete a significant restructuring. "We are looking at spinning our markets business and potentially our payments business out from our lending business," he said. Cagney said that Figure was financially well-positioned: The startup was profitable on an adjusted basis during the third quarter of last year and lost about $1 million during the fourth quarter. 

Meanwhile, dozens of employees have left Figure over the last year, including the chief marketing officer and the vice president of communications. In December, President Asiff Hirji and Chief Financial Officer Sean Sievers also both quietly exited.

Asked about his departure in an interview with Bloomberg, Hirji spoke highly of Figure. He described the startup as a holding company for blockchain businesses that "quite honestly shouldn't be together" but all represent what he thinks could be "trillion-dollar" opportunities. Hirji said high turnover was related to this diffuse structure because people, including himself, would often leave Figure once a product was built and their work on it was accomplished. "Lots of people have come in and out as the company has evolved," Hirji said. 

Figure is known among employees to have a high-pressure corporate culture. Some former staffers also complained about the at times high spending that went along with it. Last May, Figure co-founder June Ou, who is married to Cagney, led a company offsite for engineers to Las Vegas, flying out roughly 200 people for a long weekend packed with activities, company meetings at the Venetian hotel and a party at Tao nightclub, which Figure rented. While perhaps not unusual by previous eras' standards of crypto excess, a few former employees who did not attend took umbrage when their full bonuses didn't materialize that summer, said people familiar with the matter. The company declined to comment on the characterization of its culture, the offsite or the bonuses.