SAN DIEGO, April 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Renovate America, a leading U.S. provider of home-improvement financing, announced today that it has sold a portfolio of $90 million of performing Benji loans to a North American regional bank. The sale was Renovate America's first involving its unsecured Benji lending product, which is designed for qualified borrowers.
Benji can finance everything from home energy and efficiency improvements – such as new HVAC systems and replacement windows and doors – to kitchen and bath remodels. Benji is already available in 19 states covering more than half the U.S. population, and Renovate America projects it to be operational in nearly all states over the next 12-18 months.
"This transaction marks a major milestone for Renovate America, confirming that our internal controls and procedures meet the high bar set by a federally regulated depository institution," said Renovate America CEO Roy Guthrie. "As Benji scales up and goes national, this deal underscores the product's value to homeowners, contractors and investors."
Benji complements Renovate America's HERO Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. HERO empowers homeowners to make energy, efficiency and resiliency improvements to their homes and repay the balance via an additional line item on their property taxes. Renovate America is the nation's largest PACE provider.
The Benji portfolio had a weighted average life of 22 months and a weighted average FICO score of 761.
About Renovate America
Renovate America offers a tech-enabled financing platform for home improvements that empowers communities to modernize and make their housing stock more efficient, while giving small businesses the tools they need to grow. In addition to financing home improvements through an unsecured lending product, Benji, Renovate America offers communities HERO financing. HERO is the leading residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program in the U.S. and has been used by the owners of over 115,000 homes to make energy and efficiency improvements. It is estimated that HERO is on track to save billions of dollars in energy and water bills, and has created over 25,000 local trade jobs that cannot be offshored or automated. Renovate America has built the world's largest green bond platform, with a volume of originations that enables securitization of HERO PACE bonds multiple times a year, attracting international investment to meet U.S. clean-energy objectives.
Contact: Greg Frost
(619) 568-6747
gfrost@renovateamerica.com
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SOURCE Renovate America