Vontive $150M Revolving Facility Powers Fix-Flip Loans

Vontive, a Seattle-based fintech specializing in business-purpose mortgages for real estate investors, has announced a major strategic milestone: securing an equity investment from Citibank (Citi) and closing a $150 million revolving securitization, named VNTV 2025-RTL1. Citi served as the sole lead on the securitization, underscoring its commitment to Vontive's growth and the broader private credit market.

Details of the Deal

• Equity Investment: Citi’s investment was made through its Spread Products Investment in Technologies (SPRINT) team, the strategic venture arm of Citi’s Spread Products business.

• Securitization: The $150 million securitization establishes Vontive’s securitization shelf, enabling the company to recycle capital from repaid short-term real estate loans into new loans, supporting ongoing financing for property renovations and revitalizations.

• Purpose: The securitization focuses on short-term, fix-and-flip (renovation) loans, which have an average life of about nine months. As loans are repaid, the capital is redeployed to fund additional eligible mortgages, positioning Vontive as a regular issuer in the market.

Business Model and Impact

• Vontive operates as a B2B platform, providing white-label mortgage infrastructure to banks, credit unions, and proptech firms, allowing them to offer investment mortgages under their own brands.

• The company’s technology standardizes and digitizes the origination, underwriting, and servicing of business-purpose mortgages, streamlining processes that have traditionally been manual and fragmented.

• By connecting private credit investors with real estate entrepreneurs, Vontive aims to address the urgent need for housing stock renovation in the U.S., where over 70 million homes were built before 1980 and many require modernization.

• The platform enables capital allocators to access complex credit assets, meeting the growing demand for higher-yielding alternatives to traditional bonds.

Growth Plans

• Vontive plans to use the new capital to expand its team—potentially doubling or tripling its 83-person staff over the next 12 to 18 months—and to increase its office footprint.

• The company expects to issue two or three similar securitizations annually and is developing an AI-powered dashboard for real-time loan performance reporting.

Leadership Commentary

Summary Table

Vontive’s deal with Citi positions it as a key player in the intersection of fintech, real estate, and private credit, enabling more efficient capital flow for U.S. housing revitalization.

What are the minimum requirements to replicate this securitization pathway with partners like Citi?

The main challenge for alternative lenders is operational barriers, particularly pipeline sustainability. To attract institutional attention, you need $100-150M, but maintaining a continuous flow of $200M+ annually is crucial. Many lenders fail because they can't sustain deal flow, and institutions like Citi avoid relationships with those who might dry up in 18 months.

Why Most Deals Actually Die

• Servicing infrastructure - Daily cash management systems for investor waterfalls, automated compliance reporting, integration with institutional systems, and backup systems for platform crashes. Most alt lenders use loan management systems designed for portfolio lending, not securitization, with retrofit costs often outweighing credit losses.

• Warehouse line struggles - Before considering securitization, secure warehouse financing. Many deals fail here: regional banks face regulatory pressure, national banks seek relationships over transactions, and family offices and credit funds are costly but quicker. Negotiating warehouse terms is a crucial step; without favorable terms, institutional partnerships are unlikely.

• Technology integration - 6+ months to connect with institutional systems

• Compliance team - $500K-$1M annually, not just checkboxes

The Vontive Advantage (Hard to Replicate)

• Existing institutional relationships from mortgage backgrounds

• Purpose-built tech from day one

• Perfect market timing

• Experienced management who'd done it before

So, What Actually Matters?

• Relationships over metrics - It's who takes your calls

• Pipeline sustainability - Can you feed a revolving structure?

• Operational readiness - Most lenders aren't even close

• Patient capital - 18-24 months to get operational

Most alternative lenders should focus on profitable portfolio lending with strategic warehouse relationships rather than chasing securitization deals they're not ready for.

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