Financial services holding firm Ally Financial provided $100m in equity and debt financing for US-based automotive leasing service Fair yesterday.
The ratio of equity and debt was not disclosed. Ally Bank, the digital bank subsidiary of Ally Financial, supplied the debt facility to an unspecified subsidiary of Fair.
Founded in 2016, Fair operates a mobile app where users can lease second-hand vehicles, paying through monthly installments without making a long-term commitment to buy. It has facilitated more than 45,000 car leases across more than 30 markets in the US to date.
Fair will use the debt facility to acquire cars specifically aimed at consumers who may not quality for traditional car financing or leases.
The deal with Ally Financial extends a partnership signed last year that allowed Fair to use Ally’s wholesale vehicle auction tool, SmartAuction, and its digital financing platform, Clearlane.
Fair had also secured $50m in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank in January 2019 to purchase vehicles, following a $385m series B round led by internet and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank the month before.
Exponential Ventures, the innovation arm of insurance firm MMI Holdings, also took part in the series B round, as did online lending platform CreditEase, reinsurance firm Munich Re’s Ergo Fund and growth equity firm G Squared.
The company secured $50m in a February 2018 round led by Next47, a corporate venturing unit for industrial product and appliance producer Siemens. The round also featured carmaker BMW, CreditEase’s FinTech Investment Fund, G Squared, Millennium Technology Value Partners, 137 Ventures and Upfront Ventures.
BMW’s corporate venture capital arm, BMW i Ventures, had joined automotive manufacturer Mercedes Benz and car dealership group Penske Automotive to provide an undisclosed amount of series A1 funding for Fair four months earlier.
Javelin Partners led the company’s $16m seed round, which also featured CRV, Foundation Capital, Moonshots Capital and Sherpa Capital. It was disclosed when Fair emerged from stealth in September 2017.
