Sixth Street Invests $200 Million In Blockchain Lender Figure — WSJ

By Matt WirzPrivate fund manager Sixth Street Partners is investing $200 million in a joint venture with Figure Technology Solutions, the blockchain-based lender started by former SoFi Chief Executive Mike Cagney.Figure mostly makes home-improvement loans using an automated approval process but is looking to branch out into other types of consumer lending.The company will be able to recycle the money from Sixth Street into up to $2 billion of new loans, a person familiar with the matter said. Figure already has a small business making personal loans backed by individuals' cryptocurrency investments.The equity investment deepens Sixth Street's ties to the financial-technology industry. The firm, which manages about $100 billion of investments, said in December it had reached a $4 billion funding agreement with consumer lender Affirm.Alternative investment firms like Sixth Street are increasingly intertwining with fintech lenders.The money managers have raised massive funds targeted at "asset-based finance", a private-credit variant of publicly traded asset-backed securitization bonds. Companies like Figure and Affirm give them products to buy.Figure differs from most other new nonbank lenders in that it uses blockchain technology to track much of its lending operations.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).