The Latest in ABS and Debt Markets

Welcome to The Data Tapes—your biweekly snapshot of private credit and ABS markets. In each edition, we bring you concise updates on debt financings, platform fundraises, data insights, market trends, and the latest from Setpoint.

🚀 What’s New at Setpoint

• 🏙️ Upcoming Setpoint Events:

  • The Capital Hour with Setpoint & Mesirow tomorrow 9/24: Join Setpoint and Mesirow for an evening with NYC’s asset-backed finance community. Space is limited, apply to attend.

• 🤝 We're on the road — let's connect:

  • DealCatalyst ABF US, September 24, New York, NY | Meet with us.

  • UK Mortgage Finance Conference, September 28, London UK | Meet with us.

  • Auto Finance Summit, October 5-7, Las Vegas, NV | Meet with us

💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

AI, Infrastructure & Energy

• Accelerate, an infrastructure investor backed by CBRE Investment Management, closed a $450M ABS issuance backed by a portfolio of digital infrastructure sites. 

• Crusoe, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider, announced the initial close of an anticipated $3.9B Series F at a $30.9B post-money valuation, co-led by Atreides, Mubadala Capital and Valor, with Founders Fund, GIC, NVIDIA, QIA, TPG, and Upper90 participating.

• Form Energy, an energy storage developer and operator, closed a $270M credit facility from a bank syndicate led by Barclays.  

• Generate Capital, an investor and owner of critical infrastructure, closed a $117M debt facility with MUFG to finance a portfolio of solar projects. 

• GridStor, a developer and operator of utility-scale battery energy storage systems, closed a $220M tax equity bridge, construction, and term debt financing with ING, KeyBank, and Zions to complete the development of GridStor’s White Tank facility in Arizona. 

• Heron Power, an advanced power electronics manufacturer, closed a $60M senior credit facility from JPMorgan and TriplePoint following a $140M Series B equity financing led by a16z and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. 

• Lambda, an AI cloud provider, closed a $926M Asset-backed term loan B with Morgan Stanley and a bank syndicate secured by GPUs and contracted cash flows, priced at SOFR+300 and issued at 99.5%. 

• nScale, an AI cloud infrastructure platform, filed its S1. 

• Suniva, a merchant manufacturer of monocrystalline silicon solar cells, closed $835M in financing across equity and debt, with senior credit facilities provided by GSAM and I Squared Capital. 

• Vantage Data Centers, a data center operator, closed a $2B facility for early-stage North American development, structured as a five-year revolving platform with an initial collateral pool of three development assets that can grow over time.

Auto & Consumer Finance

• Affirm, a BNPL platform, closed a $750M ABS issuance backed by a pool of unsecured point of sale consumer loans. 

• Avant, a consumer finance platform, closed a new forward flow agreement with InterVest to sell up to $1B in personal loans over a two-year period. 

• Enova, a consumer finance platform, withdrew its OCC applications related to the proposed acquisition of Grasshopper Bank. 

• GoodLeap, a home improvement finance platform, closed a $389M ABS issuance backed by a pool of residential home improvement loans. 

• JPMorgan Chase, a global bank, is exploring a second look program for card applications it denies with a number of card program managers and credit funds, including Blue Owl, KKR, Blackstone, and Sixth Street.  

• Pagaya, a consumer finance and residential real estate platform, closed a new forward flow with Neuberger Specialty Finance to purchase up to $700M of auto loans sourced through Pagaya’s platform. 

• Reach Financial, a consumer finance and debt settlement platform, closed a $440M ABS issuance backed by a pool of consumer loans and debt relief assets. 

• SoFi, a consumer finance platform and digital bank, closed a $460M ABS issuance backed by a pool of unsecured, fixed-rate consumer loans. 

• Sungage, a solar finance platform, closed a new forward flow program with Carlyle to sell up to $425M newly originated residential solar loans. 

• Tesla, an auto OEM, closed a $750M ABS issuance backed by a pool of auto leases. 

• Truist, a superregional bank, agreed to sell a $5.5B portfolio of auto loans to Apollo as part of an exit of the near-prime auto lending business.

Commercial Finance

• 36th Street Capital, a commercial finance company for large and mid-sized businesses, closed a $60M Class B term loan with Monroe Capital. 

• Barings Equipment Finance, an equipment finance platform, closed a $1B ABS issuance backed by a pool of large-ticket loans and lease contracts. 

• Forward Financing, a small business finance platform, closed a $1.8B forward flow commitment with a New York-based credit fund. Forward also passed the 100,000th business customer and has originated over $5.4B since inception in 2012. 

• Fox Ridge Capital, a commercial finance platform, closed a $75M revolving credit facility with DZ Bank to scale origination volume.  

• OnDeck, a small business finance platform owned by Enova, closed a $500M ABS issuance backed by a pool of small business loans. 

• Wayflyer, a working capital platform for SMBs, closed a $50M corporate debt facility with Trinity Capital. 

• Wingspire, an equipment finance platform, closed a $407M ABS issuance backed by a pool of equipment lease and loan contracts.

Crypto/Web3

• Plume, an on-chain real-world-asset platform backed by Apollo, Galaxy and Brevan Howard, launched FACTOR, a stablecoin-yield vault with Tradable and Deep Ocean Partners. It launched with $15M in committed capital and is oversubscribed and capped. Deep Ocean, a New York-based asset-based lender, originates and services the underlying working capital, receivables and infrastructure facilities, and Tradable supplies the tokenization and marketplace rails. Deep Ocean will provide liquidity by repurchasing vaulted positions through a warehouse facility.

Media

• Apollo, a global asset manager, provided $1.25B in capital to support the recent acquisition of BMG and Concord. 

• Podium Entertainment, a leading audiobook publisher and title owner, announced its acquisition by Flexpoint Ford, Shamrock Capital, and GoldState Music.  

Real Estate & Mortgage

• Angel Oak Mortgage, a non-QM mortgage lender and asset manager, closed a $228.2M RMBS issuance backed by a pool of non-QM mortgages. 

• Binomial, a mortgage loan aggregation platform, closed a $328.8M RMBS issuance backed by a pool of 683 non-prime home loans. 

• Figure, a blockchain-native capital markets platform and HELOC originator, closed a $321M ABS issuance secured by a pool of junior lien, revolving HELOCs. 

• Morgan Stanley Residential Mortgage Loan Trust, an RMBS issuer managed by Morgan Stanley, closed a $327.1M RMBS issuance secured by a pool of business-purpose residential mortgages. 

• Morningstar Properties, an investor and operator in self-storage, marinas, and specialty real estate assets, closed a $157M financing from First Citizens Bank to refinance Blue Doors Storage Fund IV, a vehicle sponsored by Morningstar. 

• Nada, a home equity investment platform, closed a $300M capital partnership with O’Connor Capital Solutions to accelerate HEA growth.

💰️Platform Growth

Fundraises

• Arini, a European asset manager, is nearing close on a $4B fundraise for its first European direct lending fund. 

• Blackstone, a global asset manager, is targeting $8B for its energy transition and digital infrastructure credit strategy. 

• Carlyle, a global investment firm, announced the final close of Carlyle Infrastructure Credit Fund II with $2.3B in commitments.  

• Fasanara, a London-based asset manager, launched StableFund, an evergreen private credit vehicle in partnership with Tether, who will source USDT-linked financing opportunities and provide stablecoin infrastructure. 

• Hines Rialto Credit Partners, a co-GP managed by Hines and Rialto Credit Partners, closed $1.1B in commitments for its US office credit strategy. 

• Stockdale Capital Partners, an LA-based real estate investment firm, launched a new real estate credit strategy with a goal of deploying $300M in the next year in the form of senior bridge loans, mezzanine loans, note purchases, and special situations investments across CRE asset classes.  

M&A & Partnerships

• Ares, PSP Investments announced a new JV to invest up to $2.4B in logistics real estate opportunities in the US. 

• Goldman Sachs, a global bank, is rumored to be the leading bidder for Palmer Square Capital Management, a $37B AUM alternative asset manager. 

• Peakline Partners (fka Cresset Partners), an alternative asset manager, acquired Kalon Capital, a mid-ticket equipment finance platform.

New Vehicles, Hiring & Structured Products

• Arena Investors, a global investment firm, rebranded as CCaventus Asset Management, while Westaim Corporation rebranded as Aventus Capital. 

• Bridgepoint Credit, a European asset manager, closed a €1.2B continuation vehicle, acquiring commitments from Bridgepoint Direct lending II. 

• Fortress, a global investment firm, closed a $900M managed CRE CLO backed by six whole loans and 23 loan participations spanning 33 properties in 12 states. 

• KKR, a global investment firm, launches Akrapoint Commercial Finance, a mid-ticket equipment finance company with a $350M commitment via KKR’s Asset Based Finance strategy.  

• Neuberger Specialty Finance, the asset-backed finance strategy within Neuberger, launched New Bridge AeroFinance, an aerospace financing platform to originate and acquire loans across the aerospace sector, targeting a portfolio of $2B+. 

• PennantPark, a private credit firm, closed PennantPark Credit Secondary Fund, a $745M continuation vehicle led by Pantheon to acquire a mature portfolio of private credit investments.

📈 Visuals

🗣️ Market Commentary

• “Thus far, the AI buildout has managed to attract large amounts of market finance – over $500 billion for full-year 2026, more than double last year’s total – without much of the normal market discipline.6 In the off-balance sheet structures, debt service comes primarily from lease income and is secured against the chips’ residual value. Yet clear signals of the market’s view on the economics have been obscured by credit enhancements like residual-value guarantees and wrappers on senior tranches. Rather than underwrite pre-profitability AI labs’ capacity to make good on long-term lease commitments, or the useful life of AI hardware, creditors hold puts written by a handful of investment grade credits.” - Jason Thomas, Head of Global Research and Investment Strategy at Carlyle on External Financing Trends in AI Infrastructure and Compute 

• “If we go into big data center opportunities or big GPU opportunities or other technology-focused investments, as a credit investor, you’re not getting paid for that upside and you’re stuck in the investment if it goes sideways…Not all good trends or good long-term projections will translate into good investments for every type of assets. The relative value or the relative pickup that you’re going to get by doing a credit investment in AI infrastructure or other AI investments is not so material that you can justify taking incremental risks to get that exposure.” - Jack Neumark, Co-CEO of Fortress on Risks of FOMO-driven Investments in AI & Compute Asset Classes

• “Houlihan Lokey found that default rates among private credit borrowers with less than $100M of EBITDA, the bulk of the direct lending market, ran at 3.0% on a size-weighted basis and 3.6% by count in the second quarter of 2026, according to Houlihan Lokey’s Private Credit DataBank. Size-weighted default rates are measured on the loan principal amount outstanding rather than the number of loans. These figures are based on the DataBank’s most fundamental definition of default, which captures technical defaults as well as payment defaults.Across the entire private credit market, including lower, core, and upper middle market, the picture changes sharply: Defaults represented 0.8% of outstanding loan principal, or 2.5% of borrowers by count. The gap underscores that default risk in private credit remains primarily a function of borrower scale, with the largest companies, for the most part, continuing to perform while smaller and core middle-market borrowers underperform at a meaningfully higher rate.” - Dr. Cindy Ma, Managing Director and Global Head of Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory Services at Houlihan Lokey on Heightened Stresses among Smallest Private Credit Borrowers, climbing 10x since 2023 

• “The data just doesn’t support holding assets over extended periods…After eight years, nothing good happens.” - Mitchell Mansfield, MD and Global Head of Fund Solutions at Kroll on Negative Impacts of Longer Private Equity ownership tenures for Portfolio Companies

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Reading

• Asset-Based Finance (AB CarVal)

• Business Jet Market Outlook | 2026 - 2030 (Global Jet Capital)

• Buy Now, Pay Later ABS: From Checkout to Securitization (KBRA)

• Private Equity Firms Cling to Assets for Longer, Upending Business Model (Bloomberg)

• Rules of Relevance - Jason Thomas (Carlyle)

• Shall We Repeal the Laws of Economics – Part III (Howard Marks)

• The Weight of Higher Rates on Asset Valuations (Kennedy Lewis)

• To Free or Not to Free (Cash Flow) - Michael Mauboussin

• Why Fintech Lenders Are Holding On to Their Loans (Viola Credit)

Podcasts & Interviews

• Crossroads with Bob O’Leary and Armen Panossian (Oaktree)

• KKR’s Pete Stavros - a culture of ownership (AGM)

• Seth Cohen — Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners (The HPS Cast)

• Where’s the Beef? Blackstone’s Jon Gray on the Payoff from the Enormous AI CapEx Spend (Blackstone)