Used-car leasing app Fair closed a $50 million debt facility financed by Silicon Valley Bank. The funds will be used to purchase more vehicles for Fair’s fleet, the company announced Jan. 24.
The new debt facility is a move for the bank to support “companies offering disruptive solutions in industries undergoing transformative change,” Zhengyuan Lu, managing director and head of SVB’s warehouse financing group, said in a press release.
Additionally, SVB’s funding contributes to Fair’s strategic move to leverage a “partnership model” to enable global expansion, said Fair Chief Executive and Co-Founder Scott Painter.
“SVB is providing an innovative and flexible debt facility that supports our specific business model,” Painter said in a press release. “Their forward-thinking approach is enabling companies like Fair to achieve scalable growth in the innovation economy and is a true blueprint for how tech companies should be able to access debt.”
The financing comes on the heels of a $385 million Series B funding led by SoftBank, which Fair is leveraging for a “major credit push,” the company noted. The Softbank-led funding included investments from Exponential Ventures, Munich Re Venture’s ERGO Fund, G Squared, and CreditEase. Additional credit lines come from Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
Fair’s partnerships include acquiring Uber’s Xchange Leasing portfolio in January 2018, which allows Fair to finance vehicles for Uber drivers. Additionally, consumers who fail to qualify for financing from Ally Financial Inc. may be funneled to Fair.
Fair raised $500 million in equity through yearend 2018. Since its inception in August 2017, Fair has provided cars for 20,000 users through its 3,000 dealer partners in 26 markets across the country, the company noted.
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