Octane Lending Announces Investment Led by Berenson and IA Ventures
NEW YORK, NY – Octane Lending, Inc. (“Octane” or the “Company”), a technology-enabled powersports finance company, today announced the closing of its Series A round led by Berenson Capital Partners (“Berenson”) and IA Ventures. This capital will be used to support Octane’s rapid growth in powersports and adjacent verticals.
“Our goal is to simplify the consumer powersports financing process, creating an efficient and integrated marketplace of lenders, dealers, and consumers,” said Jason Guss, co-founder and CEO of Octane. “We are delighted by the growth that we have achieved over the past two years, and thrilled to partner with Berenson and IA Ventures as we strive to take our business to the next level.”
“We are very pleased and excited to partner with Octane’s exceptional management team,” said Berenson’s Gary D. Nusbaum and IA Ventures’ Roger Ehrenberg, both of whom have joined Octane’s Board of Directors, in a joint statement. “We have great confidence in the business, and look forward to working with the management team and high-quality existing investor base to build on the tremendous progress that Octane has made in a short period of time.”
About Octane Lending
Founded in 2014, Octane Lending is a technology-enabled finance company based in New York with three flagship offerings: The Octane Marketplace, Octane Lending Loan Origination System, and Roadrunner Financial. The Octane Marketplace enables powersports dealers to secure loans, insurance, and warranties on behalf of their customers. Octane Lending Loan Origination System is a cutting edge tool that helps lenders score consumer loan applications. The Company’s subsidiary, Roadrunner Financial, seeks to provide banks and other financial institutions with an efficient means of gaining exposure to esoteric secured consumer asset classes with attractive risk adjusted returns such as powersports originations.
About Berenson
Founded in 1990, Berenson & Company is an independent merchant-banking firm based in New York. The firm provides bespoke investment banking services to clients around the world, as well as managing its own and 3rd party capital for investments in a range of public and private enterprises. Berenson’s current fund, Berenson Capital Partners, LP, invests across sectors opportunistically with a focus on specialty finance and TMT. The fund makes growth equity investments, co-investments and sponsors successful asset management teams.
About IA Ventures
IA Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York that invests in companies creating competitive advantage through data. IA Ventures believes that using data as a core asset will drive innovation in everything from storage and processing infrastructure to analytics to data-driven products and services. Its portfolio companies operate in every vertical touched by valuable data assets, including financial services, advertising, security, real estate, healthcare and life sciences.