US investment giant Fortress Group has agreed a deal worth $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) to acquire loans from Irish financing platform Wayflyer that the fintech unicorn says will fuel its next phase of growth.
In a statement issued today, Wayflyer said it has agreed a milestone “forward flow” arrangement with the New York-based private equity giant, covering the next three years.
It means the Irish company, which provides ecommerce businesses affordable unsecured loans to allow them to fund advertising and inventory in advance of selling items, will continue to originate loans. Fortress will then acquire the loans and collect payments from the borrowers.
Wayflyer said the arrangement allows it “to unlock the value of its loans upfront, recycle capital faster, and channel more funding to small businesses, all while continuing to invest in product development”.
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“This agreement is a milestone in how we fund and scale our business,” said chief executive and co-founder Aidan Corbett.
“A forward-flow facility of this scale gives us committed, reliable capital to put to work for our small business customers, while letting us manage our own balance sheet far more efficiently.
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“As we scale, the sophistication of our capital structure grows with us, and that ultimately means we can serve more businesses, faster, without compromising on the discipline that underpins our underwriting models.”
Bart Stankiewicz, managing director in asset-based finance at Fortress, said the deal will allow it “to source assets that provide compelling risk-adjusted returns across market environments”.
Wayflyer became the sixth home-grown Irish tech unicorn after raising $150 million (€134 million) from investors in 2022.
The company recently secured a $250 million, two-year credit facility with Atlas Partners, a warehouse finance firm majority-owned by Apollo funds.
Wayflyer said the Fortress deal extends its “total funding capacity, positioning the company to deploy up to $4.5 billion in capital to small businesses over the next 24 months”.
