Grapevine, Texas-based Praxis Finance has secured $100 million in capital and will use that funding to secure loans down south, the company told Auto FInance News. The one-year-old company, founded by former Exeter Finance Corp. executives, finalized the closing of an investment partnership with Värde Partners, on Friday, Jan. 16. The deal with Värde, a $9-billion alternative investment manager, will give the company capital to purchase auto finance receivables.The receivables will be purchased as a joint venture.
Daniel Parry, chief executive of Praxis Finance, told AFN that the deal with Värde has been in the works since June of 2014. “We wanted to partner with a respected company that is aligned with our company goals,” Parry said.“Värde wanted to enter the auto finance market and they understand the importance of controlling credit and a strong compliance culture.”
Praxis will focus on purchasing auto receivables in the southern United States and expand to the rest of the country over the next year. Praxis was founded in early 2014 to focus on non-prime loans by auto finance industry veterans Daniel Parry and Steve Moses. Parry was the co-founder and chief credit officer for Exeter until 2014 and prior to that worked at AmeriCredit. Moses served as Exeter CFO until 2013 and had worked at Bank of America previously. Exeter had $2.5 billion of loans outstanding at midyear 2014, according to Standard & Poor’s.