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

• 🔍 Rethinking Risk in Private Credit: Stu Wall, Setpoint’s Co-Founder & CEO, joined FINTECH.TV’s Market Movers to discuss how operational discipline is reshaping private credit, and where AI will create the most value in finance. Watch the full conversation.

💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

AI, Infrastructure & Energy

• FirstLight Fiber, a telecom infrastructure provider, closed a $1.1B ABS issuance backed by contracts for communications, fiber infrastructure, and connectivity. 

• Spearmint Energy, a developer and operator of utility scale battery storage systems, raised a $325M debt facility with Nuveen EIC, Elda River, Harrison Street Asset Management, and Aiga Capital Partners to advance its operating portfolio.  

• Terrawatt Infrastructure, a charging infrastructure platform for EVs, raised up to $300M in debt from a bank syndicate led by RBC to support acquisition and development of charging facilities in the US and abroad.

Aviation, Rail & Transportation

• Aquila Air Capital, an aircraft lessor backed by Wafra, closed a $400M refinancing and upsizing of its warehouse facility with ATLAS SP. 

Real Estate & Mortgage

• Axonic Capital, a real estate focused asset manager, announced a partnership with Deutsche Bank to originate and securitize multifamily loans in the alt-agency space, targeting $500-600M in volume. Axonic also closed a $400M multi-family securitization. 

• Balbec Capital, a global asset manager focused on asset-based credit and real estate strategies, acquired Funding 365, a UK-based specialist property lender. 

• Figure, a blockchain-native capital markets platform and HELOC originator, closed a $300M prefunded securitization for loans trading on Figure Connect. 

• Trovy, a consumer fintech offering a HELOC-based card product, raised $15M Series A equity financing led by Left Lane Capital, bringing total funding to $25M. 

Auto & Consumer Finance

• Arra Finance, a nonprime auto finance company, closed its inaugural ABS issuance co-sponsored by Obra Capital. 

• Digitt, a Mexico-based credit card debt refinancing platform, closed a $50M credit facility from Victory Park Capital to finance originations for its fixed-rate installment loan product. 

• Financeit, a Canada-based consumer finance platform, closed its inaugural C$201M Term ABS transaction backed by a portfolio of home improvement loans. 

• Foundation Finance, a home improvement financing platform, closed a $399.3M ABS issuance backed by consumer loans financing home improvement projects. 

• Karta, a US-issued credit card for global travelers, closed a $125M senior credit facility from CIM alongside a $15M Series A equity financing led by Galaxy Ventures. 

• Republic Finance, a consumer finance platform, entered an agreement to be acquired by an investor ground led by J.C. Flowers & Co. 

• Upstart, an AI lending marketplace and consumer finance platform, closed a forward flow agreement with Neuberger Specialty Finance to sell up to $600M of consumer loans originated through the Upstart platform.

Commercial Finance

• Commercial Credit Group, a commercial equipment finance platform, closed its latest term ABS deal of $517.93M, backed by a pool of receivables from CCGs equipment finance platform. 

• Float Financial, a Canadian neobank and spend management platform, closed a CAD $85M Series C equity financing led by Inovia Capital alongside GS Alternatives, Northleaf, and others. 

• Funding Circle, a UK-based SME finance platform, completed its 10th public securitization with SBOLT 2026-1, surpassing £2.5b in securitized issuance since 2016. 

• InSoil, an Lithuania-based SME finance platform focused on equipment and working capital financing in agriculture verticals, closed a €120M credit facility with Pollen Street. 

• Liberis, UK-based embedded SME finance platform, was acquired by Nordic Capital, a private equity firm, and will merge with Qred to form a unified SMB lending platform. 

• OakNorth, a UK-based digital bank for entrepreneurs, partnered with Fintex Capital to grow OakNorth’s specialty finance business. 

• Parafin, an embedded lending platform for SMEs, closed a new credit facility with Goldman Sachs and One William Street. 

• Zintra Capital, a Spanish private credit platform providing short-term financing to SMEs, closed a credit facility from Pollen Street to finance Vera, a Spanish securitization vehicle that acquires Promissory Notes Programs.

Esoteric

• Hamilton Re, a pan-European insurance consolidator, announced an investment from Sixth Street. 

• TeamShares, a tech-enabled acquirer of small businesses, began trading publicly on Nasdaq under the ticker TMS.

💰️Platform Growth

Fundraises

• Blacktree Management, an asset manager, launched a new SBA and esoteric asset-backed finance platform that invests across guaranteed and unguaranteed portions of SBA loans, whole loans, and other esoteric ABS, with backing from Fortress. 

• Colbeck Capital, a middle market private credit firm, launched Colbeck Strategic Income, which does first-lien senior secured loans to middle market companies, with $400M in initial commitments. 

• Lloyds, Legal & General surpassed £1.5bn of participations since launching their fund finance partnership in December 2022. 

• Magellan Capital, a Dubai-based alternative asset manager, launched a new asset-based finance focused evergreen fund, Magellan Asset Backed Opportunities Fund, targeting $250M near term. 

• Man Group, an alternative investment firm, announced the first close of Man Opportunistic Credit Fund III, targeting $1.25B in total commitments. 

• RGREEN INVEST announced the final close of its INFRABRIDGE IV fund at nearly £500m.

M&A

• Bridgepoint, a UK-based asset manager, agreed to acquire Kayne Anderson Real Estate, a real estate investment platform, for an upfront enterprise value of $1.393B. 

• Janus Henderson, which owns Victory Park Capital, completed its take private with Trian, General Catalyst, and QIA.

New Vehicles, Hiring & Structured Products

• Aegon Asset Management expanded its partnership with Lakemore Partners to grow its CLO issuance. 

• Bridgepoint announced the pricing of Bridgepoint CLO XI, a £405m CLO. 

• Phoenix Merchant Partners, an alternative asset manager, and Texas Capital Alternative Asset Management, a subsidiary of Texas Capital Bank, announced a partnership to provide capital solutions and direct lending to middle market borrowers. 

• PIMCO launched a strategic partnership with SIMCo, an infrastructure debt manager and origination platform, to originate senior IG infrastructure debt opportunities.

📈 Visuals

🗣️ Market Commentary

• "It takes a nuanced understanding of where each music asset is in its decay curve. We are assessing the downside and ensuring full recovery of principal and interest…Music royalties have become a very investable segment. These securitization transactions took advantage of a moment when spreads were tight and rates were low to raise debt against music assets through ABS (asset-backed securitization).” - Carlos Mendez, co-founder of Crayhill Capital Management on Private Credit’s Opportunity in Music Royalties

• “We estimate that credit secondaries represented a $20+ billion market in 2025, and believe that it can grow to $80+ billion by 2030 (~$55B in GP-centered transactions vs. ~$25B in LP centered transactions).¹ This is largely driven by the continued expansion of the nearly $2 trillion private credit market and broader industry adoption of secondary solutions. What was once episodic and fragmented has quickly evolved into a scalable, repeatable market. Despite rapid growth, the market remains materially underpenetrated relative to the more mature private equity secondary market, suggesting substantial runway ahead.” - Michael Hacker, Justin Karp, Joy Xu, and Raaed Qureshi from Carlyle AlpInvest on projections and catalysts for the Credit Secondaries market

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Reading

• $2.8 Trillion Asset Management Star Is a Deal Away From Losing Its Crown (Bloomberg)

• A $100 Million Bet on Old Books (WSJ)

• Credit Secondaries: Stepping into the Spotlight (Carlyle)

• He Dared to Buy Senior Housing at Its Lows. Now He Runs a $160 Billion Empire (WSJ)

• Private Credit is Making Bets on Consumer Debt at a Precarious Time (Bloomberg)

• Semiquincententacles - latest Eye On the Market report from Michael Cembalest (JPM)

• The Bitcoin lending renaissance (SVB)

Podcasts & Interviews

• How Asset-Based Finance is Powering the AI Infrastructure Boom (Neuberger)

• Oak Hill Advisors’ Eric Muller - operating at the intersection of public and private credit (Alt Goes Mainstream)

• Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital (Invest Like the Best)