JG Wentworth acquires the digital lending platform from Stilt Inc.

By Edlyn Cardoza

JG Wentworth announced that it has acquired the digital lending platform from Stilt Inc., a San Francisco-based FinTech and personal loan lender. Stilt was backed by leading venture capital firms and raised $322 million in debt and equity to build a robust end-to-end digital lending and servicing platform.

The acquisition combines JG Wentworth’s nationally recognised brand with a FinTech platform, accelerating its entry into the consumer lending space and supporting its mission to provide financial solutions for millions of everyday Americans looking to improve their situation.

“We’re excited about this new direction for JG Wentworth, and the possibilities it unlocks in our mission to become the leading provider of financial solutions that help everyday Americans,” said Randi Sellari, CEO of JG Wentworth. “The Stilt platform will provide industry-leading digital capabilities to JG Wentworth’s customers with a user-friendly experience and rapid underwriting decisions. We are now uniquely positioned to provide products that meet the personal finance needs of millions of our customers.”

The acquisition adds Stilt’s robust and proprietary data sets with over $5 billion in loan applications and more than 2.5 million bank transactions to JG Wentworth’s existing database of over 25 years of customer engagements – all of which will power deep data analytics providing superior risk insights into consumer behavior.

“JG Wentworth’s strong brand awareness and its unique position amongst consumers provide a powerful customer acquisition engine. With Stilt’s complementary digital platform, and proprietary consumer credit data, the Stilt team is excited to be part of JG Wentworth and help launch its lending business,” noted Rohit Mittal, CEO of Stilt Inc. and now SVP of Lending at JG Wentworth.

The acquisition also enables JG Wentworth to offer customers a hybrid loan origination model ranging from an all-digital, fully automated experience to the more personalised customer service capabilities of JG Wentworth’s national call center, allowing consumers to choose the user experience that works best for them. JG Wentworth expects to begin originating loans in the first half of 2023.

“This exciting acquisition and our entry into the consumer lending space will allow us to provide more products to the many customers that are already engaging with JG Wentworth daily. Stilt’s digital platform will allow our customers to interact through a mobile app, our website, telephonically or a combination of these options. The Stilt acquisition also provides unique historical customer credit data to JG Wentworth’s data analytics team that, through robust data analysis and credit modeling, will help us make better underwriting decisions that will provide our investors with strong risk-adjusted returns,” said Joseph Toms, President, and Chief Strategy Officer at JG Wentworth.