Obra Capital, an asset management firm, partnered with the Solera Auto Finance (SAF) team in a management buyout from Solera. SAF will be rebranded as Arra Finance. The company will leverage these relationships for an expected Q3/24 market re-entry to provide a subprime auto financing solution for used car buyers.
As part of the transaction, industry veteran Kenn Wardle will continue as CEO and chief revenue officer, and Steven Lackowski will continue as chief financial officer. In addition, Allan Thompson will continue to serve as chief of staff, Cinde Perales will remain as head of compliance and Eugene Sims will remain as head of underwriting and funding operations. The leadership team has an average 25 years of auto finance experience with deep and relevant experience scaling finance platforms. Arra Finance will continue to be based out of Irving, Texas.
“This company is a compelling addition to Obra’s capabilities and asset-based finance strategy,” Blair Wallace, president and CEO of Obra Capital, said. “The current economic and competitive environment makes this an opportune time to have a focused financing platform for the growing auto finance market. Combining the company’s skills with Obra’s existing structuring and credit expertise enables us to jointly work with securitization market participants and forward flow purchasers to create highly rated assets. Arra Finance’s platform is scalable, and we believe it will produce attractive risk-adjusted unit economics and is an opportunity that provides Obra’s investors with exposure to the U.S. auto finance market at a cyclically attractive entry point. We look forward to working with Kenn and the executive management team as they lead the company going forward.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Blair and the Obra team,” Wardle said. “Our auto-financing platform merges the dealer-focused finance experience with technology that streamlines the car-buying experience while delivering economic value to the dealer customer which we believe provides the basis for long term customer success. We are excited about working with Obra to grow Arra Finance’s origination business, lever our proprietary credit scorecard and capitalize on prior automation and infrastructure investment to open additional dealer relationships.”
