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

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💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

AI, Infrastructure & Energy

• Aypa Power, a battery energy storage developer, was acquired by Brookfield from Blackstone Energy Transition Partners for $7B. 

• Ezee Fiber, a fiber network operator, closed an $880M ABS issuance secured by customer connection contracts. 

• General Compute, an AI inference cloud platform, closed a $400M debt facility with Upper90 secured by inference-chips and contractual cash flows. 

• Nebius, an AI cloud platform, closed a $755M senior secured debt facility secured by GPU infrastructure and contracted cash flows. 

• PaleBlueDot AI, an AI infrastructure platform, closed a $255M credit facility with Brookfield Asset Management and Tor Investment Management. 

• Redaptive Sustainability, an energy-as-a-service provider for renewable energy, closed its second ABS issuance of $105.8M secured by a pool of energy equipment loans and leases. 

• Strata Clean Energy, a renewable energy infrastructure company, closed a $450M revolving loan and letter of credit facility with Nomura and First Citizens.  

• Zeta Global, an AI infrastructure platform, closed a $1B credit facility from a bank syndicate led by Bank of America.

Aviation, Rail & Transportation

• AIP Capital, Bridgepoint expanded their JV and signed a purchase agreement to acquire 11 LEAP-1B engines from CFM international.

Real Estate & Mortgage

• Fidelis, a real estate asset manager, closed a $191.5M ABS issuance secured by a pool of 381 RTL loans. 

• New Silver, a real estate lender, acquired Mayflower Venture Partners, a fix and flip and construction lender based in New England. 

• Point, a home equity investment platform, closed a $508.6M ABS issuance secured by a pool of home equity investment contracts. 

• Spreo Capital, a nonbank real estate investor, launched Spreo Capital Investment Fund, an alternative asset management vehicle focused on RTL assets, and closed a forward flow agreement with Fortress to acquire up to $750M of loans originated by Spreo.  

• Temple View Capital, a private mortgage lender, closed a strategic partnership with Oaktree to support the origination of RTL loans.

Auto & Consumer Finance

• Arivo Acceptance, an auto finance platform, closed a $221.8M ABS issuance backed by a pool of subprime auto loan contracts. 

• Avant, a consumer finance platform, closed a $300M asset-based financing facility with Aperture Investors. 

• Cashea, a Venezuelan financial technology platform, raised $100M in equity across two financing rounds alongside a $20M debt facility from Architect Capital. 

• CPS, a consumer auto finance platform, closed a $716.88M ABS issuance secured by a pool of retail installment contracts. 

• Klarna, a consumer BNPL platform, partnered with Apple to power Apple Upgrade, a leasing program for iPhone, Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch models. 

• OppFi, a consumer finance platform, shared an FAQ related to its bank charter application. 

• Pagaya, a consumer finance and residential real estate platform, closed a $750M auto ABS deal in its fourth pre-funded issuance of 2016 and largest to date. 

• Pier Asset Management, an asset-based credit fund, closed a $10M credit facility to a specialty finance company that provides patient financing for elective healthcare procedures. 

• Plend, a UK-based consumer finance platform, closed a £20M senior credit facility with Triple Point, with an additional £30M uncommitted accordion. 

• Upstart, an AI lending marketplace and consumer finance platform, received conditional OCC approval to establish Upstart Bank.

Commercial Finance

• Amur Equipment Finance, an equipment finance platform, closed its 16th term securitization of $406.02M secured by a pool of equipment loans and leases. 

• BasicBlock, a freight factoring platform for owner-operators and small fleets, announced its acquisition of TrueNorth, a free loadboard and AI dispatch platform for carriers. 

• Empire Asset Finance, an equipment financing platform, closed its first institutional warehouse facility with Bank OZK to scale origination capacity. 

• Forward Financing, a small business finance platform, closed a $350M VFN and a $175M ABS issuance. 

• Island CEF, a subsidiary of Gordon Brothers, is preparing for its inaugural ABS issuance of $265.5M secured by a pool of equipment loans and leases. 

• iwoca, a UK-based SME financing platform, closed a £250 million credit facility with a leading UK bank and Waterfall Asset Management to scale originations. 

• Kapitus, a small business financing platform, was acquired by InterVest capital partners. 

• Northbase Finance, an equipment finance platform, closed a $300M revolving credit facility with Oaktree to scale financing capacity. 

• Parafin, an embedded B2B lending platform, closed a $300M forward flow with a NY-bassed alternative asset manager. 

• The FundWorks, a small business financing platform, extended and upsized a $40M IG corporate note, where proceeds will be used to refinance debt, extend maturity, and scale origination.

Payments

• Pex, a corporate card and spend management platform, raised $160M in debt and equity, led by Bluff Point Associates.

💰️Platform Growth

Fundraises

• Balbec Capital, an alternative asset manager, raised $930M in commitments for its latest asset-based finance flagship fund. 

• Barings, an alternative asset manager, raised $2.1B from the North Carolina Investment Authority to invest across multiple asset classes spanning property-backed debt, financing deals, and CMBS. 

• GCM Grosvenor, an alternative asset manager, announced the final close of its inaugural Credit Secondaries Fund with $1.2B in commitments.

• GoldenTree Asset Management, an alternative asset manager, announced the closing of its Private Credit Fund II with $2.75B to originate loans to larger companies with average EBITDA exceeding $400M. 

• NXT Capital, a direct lending platform owned by Orix, closed its Senior Loan Fund VIII with $1.8B in its initial close to originate loans to middle market companies with pretax earnings of $5-50M. 

• Partners Group, a global alternative investment manager, announced the final close of its infrastructure secondaries program at $5.5B.

• Sagard announced the first close of Sagard Credit Partners III with over $1B in commitments to provide directly originated, senior secured financing to mid-market companies in Canada and the US. 

• T. Rowe Price, GSAM launched T. Rowe Price Goldman Sachs Private Markets Fund, a new interval fund offering individual investors access to institutional private market opportunities. 

• Tailwater Capital, an energy and infrastructure private equity firm, launched Tailwater Royalties Fund II with commitments of $170M to focus on acquisition of mineral and royalty interests across Tier 1 shale basins. 

• Tikehau Capital, a Paris-based alternative asset manager, announced the final close of the sixth vintage of its European Direct Lending strategy at €5.2B. 

M&A

• PGIM acquired its remaining 25% interest in Deerpath Capital, bringing the firm’s ownership to 100% to deepen PGIM’s direct lending platform.

New Vehicles, Hiring & Structured Products

• Encina Private Credit rebrands as Encina Commercial Finance. Encina Commercial Finance (ECF) is focused on first-out enterprise value loans from $15M - 150M.

📈 Visuals

🗣️ Market Commentary

• “Market is overreacting to hyperscale credit spreads widening from my perspective. TL;DR Spot pricing for renting GPU compute materially above contracted rates implies hyperscalers are underearning while operating cash flow acceleration is an underestimated source of funds for AI capex. The fact that spot prices for GPU rentals are at least 2x higher than contracted rates is the missing piece from the discussion about hyperscaler credit, which is the only fundamental factor behind this selloff. Multiple private companies are planning on spending at least 2x more per GPU for compute as contracts roll-off and some have spoken about this publicly. As contracts roll-off, hyperscale growth rates are going to continue to accelerate as their installed bases of compute reprice higher. Hyperscale operating cash flow growth using a mix of estimates and actuals is modeled to accelerate from 31% in the first quarter of 2026 to 50% in the second quarter. This acceleration should continue for the rest of the year and this is not in estimates which incorrectly model a deceleration in the third quarter from my perspective.” - Gavin Baker, Founder & CIO of Atreides Management on Market Misperceptions of Hyperscaler Credit Spreads

• “When you think about illiquidity premiums, it needs to be on the order of hundreds of basis points, we believe, to sufficiently compensate you for that illiquidity risk. It’s also about the structures that you hold those investments in. What we’re very focused on at Carlyle is being able to very clearly explain to our investors the type of liquidity they can expect and not expect when they come into these investments, because there is a tradeoff when they come into these illiquid investments. When you cut through some of the chip financings and data center financings, what they’re ultimately supported by is cash flows and leases to IG counterparts, many of those being the hyperscalers. And so, there’s an element that you may be secured by an asset but ultimately what supports that asset is an obligation or a cash flow from an IG corporate. We don’t look at AI monolithically. We think about diversification. One of the areas we’ve been focused on is energy and natural gas. We think natural gas is going to become the next currency of AI. When you think about all of the CGT power plants that are being built to power these data centers, they’re going to need natural gas. We have a venture with Diversified Energy where we’ve been acquiring mature cash flowing, mostly natural gas wells, hedging them, and securitizing them as a way to get that exposure and benefit from those tailwinds.” - Akhil Bansal, Head of Asset-Backed Finance at Carlyle on Illiquidity Premium in ABF and Energy and Natural Gas Opportunities 

• “The managers who will endure are those who resisted the temptation to equate growing assets with creating value. In a fund that owns only loans, success is measured by return on each dollar invested — not by how many dollars you’re managing. These are not the same thing, and confusing them has cost investors dearly.” - Joshua Easterly, former CIO of Sixth Street on Three Lies in Private Credit

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Earnings & Investor Presentations

• Asset Managers: Blackstone, Blue Owl, KKR 

Reading

• 2026 Mid-Year In Focus (Blue Owl)

• Music ABS and Institutional Readiness (Standard Innovation)

• Signal vs. Noise: Q3 2026 Global Private Markets Quarterly (Carlyle)

• The Broken Anchor (Carlyle)

• The Cost of Compute: a $7 trillion race to scale data centers (McKinsey)

• What the Neoclouds Actually Own (Gus Wisanggeni)

Podcasts & Interviews

• Beyond the Private Credit Headlines: Finding Opportunity in a Noisy Market (Guggenheim)

• Golub co-CEO sees a Darwinian moment for private capital (Credit Exchange)

• Jon Winkleried on Lessons from Goldman Sachs and TPG’s Next Chapter (Talks at GS)

• Roadmap for Private Credit in Australia - Frank Danieli of MA Financial Group (Capital Allocators)

• Sagard's Paul Desmarais III - building the next generation alternative asset manager (AGM)

• Thoughts from the Road: Europe (KKR)

• Wall Street Alchemists Tap Insurers to Unfreeze Private Markets (Bloomberg)