SAN FRANCISCO — Last September, the board of the online lending company Social Finance ousted its chief executive, Mike Cagney, after questions about sexual misconduct.

The move was prompted by a board investigation that found Mr. Cagney was romantically involved with an employee, even though he had previously told directors that he was not involved in any extramarital workplace relationships, said four people with knowledge of the deliberations. Years earlier, Mr. Cagney had also promised the board he would not have affairs with employees after they learned of another relationship, said the people.

Yet just months after Mr. Cagney departed SoFi, two venture capitalists who had been on the company’s board and knew many details of his actions invested $17 million in his new start-up, called Figure. Since then, Mr. Cagney has raised another $41 million from others for the lending start-up, which will open soon.

Mr. Cagney’s swift comeback — from ouster to new company took four months — provides one of the starkest illustrations of the speed with which the technology industry is moving past the sexual harassment allegations that swept Silicon Valley and many other industries over the last year.