Figure - Strategic Capital
Undisclosed Amount
Imagine a world where Wall Street fumbles with PDFs and wet signatures while a blockchain native fintech rewires the lending infrastructure from Charlotte to crypto’s edge. That’s where Figure is operating, in the code and the data. Now, with a strategic financing from Victory Park Capital Advisors, they’ve just executed the first institutional sale of crypto-backed consumer loans. Not a demo. Not a concept. A closed transaction. That’s not just fintech news, it’s a milestone in the institutionalization of decentralized finance.
Founded by Mike Cagney and June O. in 2018, Figure didn’t pivot into blockchain, they built with it. This isn’t another Web3 vapor dream; this is real infrastructure. In March 2024, the company broke off from its parent, Figure Technologies Inc., spinning into an independent powerhouse focused on capital markets and lending tech. And then came the chess move: Michael B. Tannenbaum, ex-COO at Brex and revenue architect at SoFi, stepped in as CEO. Mike Cagney moved into Exec Chairman, and still in the game. June Ou, meanwhile, remains an essential node in the ecosystem, sitting on the board of Provenance Blockchain, Inc., the rails under this velocity.
So why does Victory Park Capital hit different? Because VPC, now under Janus Henderson Investors’s global umbrella, doesn’t back just anything. And what they’re backing here is Figure’s evolution of private credit: loans collateralized with BTC and ETH, all settled on Provenance Blockchain. Faster execution. Lower costs. No middlemen. And that first sale? Industry-first. Institutional-grade. Operational, not hypothetical.
This isn’t just about unlocking equity, though they’ve done that to the tune of $14B for 490,0k+ homeowners. It’s about reprogramming access. With HELOC tech embedded across 135+ financialvinstitutions, including Movement Mortgage and CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC, Figure isn’t chasing consumers. They’re equipping it. And Figure Connect, their blockchain marketplace that powered 40% of December’s loan volume and is now setting sights on $2B+ in mortgage liquidity via a joint venture with Sixth Street.
Let’s not sleep on the tech either. They’re using GPT-4 to “stare and compare” 1.7M+ loan docs, cutting 93% of manual review labor. That’s augmentation. It’s AI in a suit, clocking hours underwriters can’t match. And with 17 patents filed and SEC-grade compliance built in, Figure is balancing regulatory fidelity and reinvention.
Crypto-backed consumer lending got institutional. And Figure isn’t asking for permission, they’re building what’s next. Congrats to the Figure team. This isn’t about disruption for disruption’s sake. It’s about building new foundations with coders and conviction. The next chapter in decentralized finance started with Figure.
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