The CEO of Social Finance, a six-year-old lending company valued at $4 billion, has resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Mike Cagney, who founded the San Francisco-based company, which does business as SoFi, says he will leave by the end of the year. He is stepping down as the company’s executive chairman immediately.
Cagney announced his departure following a report in the Wall Street Journal that cited multiple current and former SoFi employees alleging that “some executives, including the company’s former finance chief, engaged in or tolerated what they described as improper behavior toward women in recent years.”
(Disclosure: SoFi has been a Recode podcast sponsor.)
In a blog post, Cagney praised his company’s growth and performance, but wrote that “recently ... the focus has shifted more toward litigation and me personally. The combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company’s core mission.”
SoFi’s investors, who have put nearly $2 billion into the company, include SoftBank and Peter Thiel. The company is attempting to challenge traditional lenders, primarily by focusing on borrowers it thinks will become high-income earners.
Last quarter, Cagney wrote, the company funded $3.1 billion in loans, earning an adjusted profit of $61.6 million on $134 million in revenue.
Silicon Valley has been grappling with a spate of sexual harassment allegations that have, in part, led to the ousters of CEOs at companies like Uber and venture capitalists like Justin Caldbeck at Binary Capital.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.