ARLINGTON, TX, MARCH 19, 2024
Agora Data, Inc., a fintech company with its mission to ‘enable any car dealer to be a finance company’ by providing technology, capital, and guidance with predictable loan performance and analytics, began 2024 with the successful closing of multiple company financial milestones. In three transactions that closed in 2024, Agora added nearly $200 Million in new funding capacity from numerous new and repeat equity investors, a revolving asset-backed credit facility provided by a large global money center bank, and a new corporate debt facility provided by Phoenix Merchant Partners. Combined with additional transactions that closed in late 2023, these capital raises and commitments result in $400 Million in funding capacity to support Agora’s dealer partners.
“To match our growing demand, we increased capital capacity to help independent and franchise auto dealers become their own captive finance companies. Auto dealers can benefit from our program by keeping customers in their ecosystem and increasing their bottom-line revenue without changing processes,” said Chris Hawke, CFO of Agora. “These most recent initiatives were accomplished through incredible teamwork in an astonishingly short time. As a result of the efforts between Agora and our partners, Agora is now extremely well positioned to support our dealers.”
“Agora continues to raise the bar in its offerings, and we are pleased to provide this credit facility to help diversify its funding capacity to better serve the auto industry at a time when other companies are pulling back,” said Art Mbanefo, Phoenix Founder, CEO and CIO. “Agora’s cutting-edge business model and growth trajectory is remarkable, validating its mission to provide much needed capacity to any multi-point auto dealer that wants to be its own captive finance company and grow their non-prime portfolio, and we believe there is significant runway to enhance the company’s reach and accelerate its growth.”
Agora uses advanced AI modeling and unique structures to provide capital for a turnkey captive finance company, allowing multi-point dealerships to benefit from financing revenue by setting up their own captive finance companies, similar to large national dealer groups. Agora’s capital program does not change the F&I process in a dealership, making it easy to add significant income to the dealership’s bottom line.
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About Phoenix Merchant Partners
Phoenix Merchant Partners is an independent investment firm focused on providing broad financing solutions to the middle-market universe of companies. The Firm was founded by Art Mbanefo, formerly CIO of Barclays Bank PLC, CIO, and head of asset management of ORIX USA and CIO/co-CEO of Paloma Partners. Leading the firm alongside Mr. Mbanefo is Tim Throsby, President, CRO and CCO, who previously served as CEO of Barclays Bank PLC, Global Head of Equities at JP Morgan and CEO and President of Citadel Investment Group’s Asian business. The team of fifteen includes ten experienced investment personnel and five seasoned business professionals. The Firm leverages an integrated approach, leaning heavily on structuring skills to build long-term partnerships and bring the experience and track record of a leading team of investment professionals to lending solutions in underserved markets. For more information, please visit https://phoenix-merchant.com.
About Agora Data, Inc.
Agora Data, Inc. is an automotive industry fintech revolutionizing financing for car dealers and finance companies. Car dealerships can secure affordable capital to build their own non-prime captive finance company, obtain actionable loan performance data to improve their lending portfolios, and use a wide range of solutions to grow their business safely. Powered by patent pending artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology, car dealers can access real-time data analytics and planning resources to help optimize the performance of their portfolios. Agora Data made history by closing the first-ever crowdsourced non-prime auto securitization in 2020 and continually brings groundbreaking financing solutions to an underserved market. For more information, visit www.agoradata.com.