Not everyone realizes you don't actually need a fortune to start building real wealth through the stock market. Most people chase whatever's hot right now—usually tech and AI—but honestly, there are some seriously underrated opportunities in other sectors if you know where to look.

I've been watching the fintech and banking space pretty closely, and there are two stocks that have caught my attention for anyone sitting on $500 looking to deploy capital right now. Both are growing at rates you'd normally only see in tech, except they're flying under most people's radar.

First, there's SoFi. Started back in 2011 at Stanford as a student loan platform, but it's evolved into something much bigger. It's basically become a full mobile-first bank—think of it as a one-stop shop for financial services. The app is genuinely easy to use, they've got everything from personal loans to credit cards to investment products, and the marketing has been pretty smart about bringing in new users.

The numbers are wild. They hit 13.7 million customers by end of 2025, up 35% year-over-year. As the user base grows, more people naturally start using the higher-margin products like personal loans and credit cards. Revenue has absolutely exploded—up 2,900% over five years to hit $4.77 billion in the trailing twelve months. And here's the kicker: they're actually profitable now. We're talking about $500 million in pretax income in 2025. For a growth-stage fintech, that's impressive.

Then there's Nu Holdings, which dominates Latin America in a way that's honestly pretty remarkable. It's the parent company of Nubank, operating across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Same playbook as SoFi—ditch the expensive branch network, cut out the predatory pricing, let customers do everything through their phone. People are responding big time. They've got 106 million active users as of Q3 2025, making them one of the largest banks in the world by customer count.

The growth trajectory is insane. Last quarter they posted 42% year-over-year revenue growth hitting $4.2 billion, while net income jumped to $783 million. The fact that they're scaling this fast and still maintaining profitability tells you something about the business model—more scale should mean even better margins down the line.

What's interesting is both of these are legitimately among the fastest-growing banks globally right now, yet they don't get the attention they probably deserve. If you've got $500 to put to work and want exposure to financial stocks that actually beat the traditional banking playbook, these two are worth serious consideration. The runway for growth in both markets is still substantial.