Marathon's $30B ABL to Retail

Marathon, a leading company in asset-based lending with over $30 billion in assets and more than 20 years of experience, is now offering its investment strategy to more investors, including everyday people, through online platforms like iCapital.

The move comes at a time when private credit and alternative asset strategies are in high demand among individual investors seeking diversified income and non-correlated returns.

• Marathon’s ABL investments are secured by tangible assets such as airplanes, railcars, real estate, healthcare equipment, and other mission-critical assets.

• The strategy aims to deliver robust, contractual cash flows and all-weather investment performance, offering lower volatility and higher principal protection compared to unsecured credit.

• The retail rollout gives financial advisors and accredited individuals direct access to Marathon’s highly diversified portfolios—historically reserved for institutional investors.

• This move follows broader trends in alternatives and private credit, where managers increasingly package institutional-grade investment products for wealth management and retail platforms.

• Marathon’s expertise in underwriting and managing collateralized debt is highlighted as a factor reducing the risks normally associated with private credit, making the strategy attractive to a wider investor audience.

Key Takeaways for Alternative Business Lenders

Marathon’s capital hunt and expansion into retail ABL signals a major shift: asset-based lending is entering a new phase of scale, competition, and market diversity in the US, with implications for deal flow, underwriting, and competitive pressure for alternative business lenders.

Impact on Deal Flow

• The opening up of ABL to retail capital means more total liquidity is flooding the space, likely increasing competition for high-quality deals and compressing spreads.

• Marathon’s digital rollout to millions of individual investors and advisors can accelerate deal volume—especially in sectors like transportation, healthcare, and real estate that Marathon favors—and may lead to quicker execution timelines and greater syndication pressure for smaller lenders.

Competitive Dynamics

• The influx of retail and RIA-driven capital raises the bar for underwriting standards and operational sophistication among lenders.

• Marathon’s institutional-scale approach (machine learning analytics, in-house asset management, long-cycle portfolio experience) is likely to set new “best practices,” pushing competitors to invest in technology, data, and asset management to compete for premium borrowers.

• Smaller and mid-sized lenders may feel margin pressure unless they develop niche expertise, differentiated collateral solutions, or faster decisioning frameworks to stand out.

Macro Market Direction

• Marathon’s move confirms a trend: ABL is increasingly viewed as a defensive, all-weather strategy for both institutions and individuals, helping drive industry growth (the market is projected to reach $1.3 trillion globally by 2030).

• This creates more “hybrid” deal structures, blending ABL with cash-flow lending, especially in middle-market and private equity-backed transactions. Lenders must adapt to collaborate or compete in syndicated or club deals where asset-backed and cash-flow tranches coexist.

• As borrowers see more liquidity and creative options, underwriting discipline becomes paramount—collateral quality and valuation accuracy are now essential to mitigate risk in a crowded landscape.

Trickledown Effects for Alternative Lenders

• Deal flow will increase, but so will competition for prime borrowers; less conventional deals (special situations, distressed, unique collateral) may offer above-average returns for nimble lenders.

• Pricing discipline will tighten, and demand for creative and hybrid credit solutions will rise.

• Relationships, sector specialization, and underwriting rigor will determine long-term success as the market becomes more transparent and commoditized.

1-Minute Video: Alternative Lending Modernization & Operational Automation Insights

The winners will be those who can deliver instant decisions while maintaining superior risk management through intelligent automation.

Alternative lenders who continue to rely on manual processes will find themselves competing on price alone, which is unsustainable in today's market.

Vikar Technology CRO - Nancy Schneier's Insights

1. Dual Experience Focus is Critical

Sophisticated understanding that both customer AND employee experience must be optimized simultaneously. Most alternative lenders focus exclusively on customer-facing improvements while ignoring the operational burden on their teams.

2. Automated Risk Scoring Delivers Competitive Advantage

Automated scorecards that enable immediate decision-making represents a fundamental shift from manual underwriting processes that plague most alternative lenders with 2-5 day decision times.

3. Data Re-entry is a Hidden Profit Killer

The emphasis on eliminating manual data re-entry across systems reveals a core operational inefficiency that directly impacts unit economics and scalability for alternative lenders.

4. Same-Day Account Provisioning Sets Market Expectations

The ability to have customers "walk in the next day" with fully provisioned accounts represents the speed-to-market expectations that alternative lenders must meet to compete with fintech and traditional banks.

The technology exists today to implement these capabilities.

The question is whether your organization has the operational discipline and change management capabilities to execute the transformation successfully.

Schedule a FREE demo call

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