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

• 🤝 On the road this fall - let's connect. We’re attending a number of industry events in the coming months. Here are three upcoming conferences where we’d love to meet.

  • IMN’s HEI & Home Equity Conference | Sept 8-9, Austin, TX: Book time with our team.

  • DealCatalyst’s ABF 2025 Conference | Sept. 25-26, New York, NY. Book a time with our team.

  • ABS East 2025 Conference | Oct. 20-22, Miami, FL. Book time with our team.

• 🌆 Upcoming Setpoint Events:

  • The Capital Hour — NYC, Sept. 25: Setpoint and Citi SPRINT are coming together during DealCatalyst’s ABF Conference to host an exclusive rooftop happy hour in Midtown. This is a unique opportunity to connect with senior leaders and innovators shaping the ABF ecosystem. Apply to attend.

💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

• Access Point Financial, a $3B real estate private credit firm focused on the hospitality industry, closed a $1.1B refinancing of floating rate mortgage loans backed by 67 properties with ATLAS SP. 

• Aligned Data Centers, a data center platform, upsized its financing partnership with Blackstone to over $1B to accelerate development of planned 5+ GW of future capacity. 

• Aqua Finance, a point of sale finance platform, closed a $404.1M ABS issuance backed by a pool of home improvement installments and marine and recreational vehicles. 

• ClarityPay, an installment financing and payments platform, closed a new equity financing with TTV Capital and Vesey Ventures following the $1B capital purchase program with Neuberger Berman announced earlier this year. 

• Flexport, a supply chain technology platform, closed a $250M financing with BlackRock to fuel origination growth for Flexport Capital. 

• goeasy, a Canadian consumer finance platform, closed a $450M and a C$175M unsecured note offering. 

• Hildene Capital Management, an alternative asset manager, closed a $496.3M non-QM securitization backed by a pool of 968 non-QM residential mortgage loans originated by CrossCountry Mortgage. 

• Homeward Opportunities Fund, a real estate vehicle managed by Neuberger Berman, closed a $477.2M ABS deal secured by a pool of residential transition loans from four originators.  

• Huntington National Bank, a regional bank, is preparing to sponsor a $3.5B ABS deal secured by a pool of fixed auto rate installment sale contracts for prime borrowers. 

• Klarna, a digital bank and flexible payments platform, closed a €1.4B warehouse facility with Banco Santander SA. Klarna also announced the launch of its IPO on the NYSE under the symbol “KLAR”

• Knock, a residential buy-before-you-sell platform, closed a $100M securitization issuance with Cantor Fitzgerald. 

• Monroe Capital, a private credit firm, plans to raise $350M through a Collateralized Fund Obligation secured by cash flows from stakes in a number of its funds. 

• Nelnet, a student loan servicing platform, issued a $1.5B ABS deal secured by a pool of private student loans. 

• Oportun, a consumer finance platform, closed a $538M ABS deal backed by a pool of unsecured and secured installment loans.  

• Priority Technology Holdings, a payments and banking platform, closed a $50M residual financing credit facility with Värde alongside their acquisition of certain assets of Boom Commerce. 

• Set Financial, a consumer installment lender, closed a $5M senior credit facility with Pier Asset Management. 

• Shawbrook Group, a UK bank, acquired ThinCats Group Limited, a specialist lender that has deployed over £2B and offers £1-20M loans for acquisitions, buyouts, and refinancings. 

• Vantage Data Center, a hyperscale data center operator, closed a $22B credit facility with JPMorgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and other banks to support a data center campus buildout. 

• VFI Corporate Finance, an independent equipment finance platform, closed a $209M ABS deal.

💰️Platform Growth

• AIP Capital announced the formation of a strategic partnership with BeYoke Capital, a global aviation specialty investment platform in Japan. 

• Air Lease Corp, an aviation finance firm, is selling to a group led by Sumitomo, SMBC Aviation Capital, Apollo, and Brookfield for $7.4B. 

• Apollo completes acquisition of Bridge Investment Group, an alternative asset manager with $50B in AUM. 

• Benefit Street raised $2.3B for a credit secondaries fund to extend its hold on a loan portfolio from a prior flagship fund with Coller Capital as its lead investor. 

• BlackRock completes acquisition of ElmTree Funds, a real estate private equity firm. 

• Blackstone closed $5.5B for Blackstone Strategic Partners Infrastructure Fund IV LP, its latest infrastructure secondaries fund. 

• Bow River Capital to acquire the asset-based finance business of Park Cities Asset Management.

• Desjardins Group will take Guardian Capital Group Ltd. private in a $1.2B all-cash deal to create a $200B+ Canadian fund manager.

• EAAA India Alternatives Ltd. raised $510M for its first private credit fund in India. 

• Nuveen Private Capital, which includes Churchill Asset Management and Arcmont Asset Management, announced a partnership and minority investments Hunter Point and Temasek.

• SeaTown Holdings International, a unit of Temasek, raised over $612M for its third private credit fund targeting deals across Asia.

📈 Visuals

🗣️ Market Commentary

• “What usually is a back office thing that a lot of fintechs aren’t thinking about that they should be is capital markets. Our very first warehouse line was priced at L+1000. Today, our average warehouses are inside of S+200. Our last securitization was 124 BPs. This doesn’t even talk about all of the fact that we had to give away some warrants, our advance rates our much better. That is well over 800 BPs of improvement. Our annualized loss rate is is 2%. We would have to have negative losses to see that type of improvement. A lot of problems why investors think lending is so bad is because they didn’t actually have a thoughtful capital markets strategy. So they never made money and they always needed more cash to be put in the balance sheet. But investing in capital markets in the same way you invest heavily in technology and credit is one of the secrets to being able to build a business.” - Jason Guss, Founder & CEO of Octane on the Importance of Capital Markets strategy in building durable lending businesses

• “It’s natural for credit investors to think back to the early 2000s when telecom companies arguably overbuilt and over borrowed and we saw some significant writedowns on those assets…So, the AI boom certainly raises questions in the medium term around sustainability. - Daniel Sorid, head of U.S. IG credit strategy at Citi on the credit-fueled euphoria around AI infrastructure

• “There’s tremendous scale in consumer lending across the spectrum: from large banks to regionals, credit unions and non-bank lenders. We’ve seen significant growth in non-banks and specialty finance companies offering products that go beyond what banks have traditionally provided. Often, we find the most attractive relative value in segments that were previously well-trafficked but have seen lender retrenchment. Regional banks stepping back is a good example. Additionally, some lenders are still dealing with underperformance from the post-Covid period, particularly in 2021 and 2022. Others, especially asset-light non-bank lenders, may be struggling to place loans with buyers. In those situations, we’re often able to negotiate better economics.” - Chris Gray, MD at Oaktree on the Opportunities in Asset-Backed Finance

• “Inflows into the asset class meant too much capital was committed far too quickly…Underwriting corners were surely cut; and losses will be outsized come the downturn.” - Stephen Dulake, JP Morgan on Catalysts for Private Credit Default Rates

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Reading

• A Comprehensive Guide to Private Credit (Ares)

• ABL-Induced Distress: When Minor Headwinds Turn Into Serious Issues (Pari Passu)

• Credit Fuels the AI Boom - and Fears of a Bubble (Bloomberg) 

• Data Centers to Propel Infra Securitizations past $110B by 2026 End (Bloomberg)

• NAV Finance: How Preferred Equity Can Enhance Debt Returns (17Capital) 

• Q2 2025: Private Credit Quarterly (Configure Partners)

• The ABCs of BDCs (Apollo)

• The Rise of Production Capital (Venture Desktop)

• Venture Debt Firms Tilt Towards Mature Companies (WSJ)

Podcasts & Interviews

• A Primer on Property Lending with Varde’s Jim Dunbar (Bloomberg FICC Focus)

• Jason Guss, CEO of Octane, on Building the Number One Powersports Lender (Fintech One-on-One) 

• Significant Risk Transfers Feeding Private Credit with Man’s Matthew Moniot  (Bloomberg)

• The Josh Harris Playbook: Building Cultures of Excellence in Business and Sports (McKinsey)