2 Brilliant Growth Stocks to Buy Now and Hold for the Long Term

Key Points

• SoFi Technologies is adding record numbers of members and launching innovative services.

• MercadoLibre is a powerhouse in Latin America and is getting ready to open a full bank.

• 10 stocks we like better than SoFi Technologies ›

The stock market took a sharp dip early this year, which can be scary for investors, not knowing how long a downturn might last. There have been bear markets that have gone on for years, and it's not easy to stay in and hope for better times when that's happening.

Fortunately for investors today, the market's dip has already turned around, and the Nasdaq-100 index, which is a fair representation of how growth stocks are doing, is up 10% year to date.

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If you're looking for great growth stocks as the market climbs, consider SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) and MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI). They have what it takes to grow your money today and keep it up for decades to come.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. SoFi: The next big bank

The market has had a love/hate relationship with SoFi since it went public in 2020 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), but investors have been giving it a lot of love lately. It's up 190% over the past year, and there are many reasons to expect that it can continue to wow the markets.

The growth story has been spectacular. It's adding members at a fast rate, and they're driving growth as they engage with a variety of products on its platform. It added 800,000 new accounts in the 2025 first quarter, a record, and adjusted net revenue accelerated to a 33% increase year over year.

The fintech does things a little differently than the standard legacy bank. It's all digital, and it offers innovative services like access to some initial public offerings (IPO) and certain private-equity opportunities like an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that includes SpaceX.

Although lending (its original segment) is still its core business, it now has a bank charter and a wide assortment of financial services available on its easy-to-use app. All of its segments are growing and profitable, but the low-cost, fee-based financial services are a standout, and the segment's sales increased 101% year over year in the first quarter.

The market got excited about its most recent announcement: that it's going to offer cryptocurrency trading and other blockchain products on its app to simplify and expand its services. SoFi is still much smaller than the older, big banks, but it's growing much faster, and now is a great time to buy the stock.

2. MercadoLibre: Becoming an e-commerce giant

MercadoLibre is already an e-commerce giant, but it's nowhere near as big as Amazon. That's great for investors, who can still get in on this fast-growing stock that has a habit of beating the market; it's up 41% this year versus 9% for the S&P 500, and that's usually how things go.

That's because it's a growth machine and highly profitable. Its regions in Latin America are underpenetrated in e-commerce, giving it a long growth runway. In the 2025 first quarter, revenue increased 64% year over year (on a currency neutral basis), and gross merchandise volume was up 40%.

The growth was driven by a 25% increase in unique active buyers, which demonstrates that the company is attracting new business and shifting the retail landscape. Brick-and-mortar still accounts for 85% of retail sales in its regions, and it lags behind the U.S. by about a decade. If you can imagine what happened to Amazon over the past decade and apply it to MercadoLibre, you can envision the opportunity here.

Although e-commerce is its main business, it has a lot more going on. Its financial services segment is growing even faster than e-commerce, and it may have an even greater opportunity as MercadoLibre continues to identify new growth avenues.

For example, it had announced a few months ago that it's planning to open a digital bank in Mexico, and it recently followed that up with another announcement that it's going to open a full digital bank in Argentina. The margins on these lower-cost businesses is beneficial for the overall bottom line, too, and it makes money from net interest income.

The opportunities here are almost endless -- MercadoLibre operates in 18 countries, and those are just two where it's starting full banking on top of its current financial services. Expect the company to keep growing and creating shareholder value for years.

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Jennifer Saibil has positions in MercadoLibre and SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and MercadoLibre. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.