Solera Auto Finance has new owners and branding.

Obra Capital, an asset management firm with a specialized approach to alternative investing, on Tuesday announced a buyout of the finance company from Solera Corp.

First launched at NADA Show 2022, Obra said the finance company now will be known as Arra Finance after developing relationships with 6,000 franchise and independent dealerships across 44 states.

According to a news release, the company will leverage these relationships for an expected market re-entry during the third quarter to provide a subprime auto financing solution for used-car buyers.

As part of the transaction, industry veteran Kenn Wardle will continue as chief executive officer and chief revenue officer, and Steven Lackowski will continue as chief financial officer.

In addition, Orba said Allan Thompson will continue to serve as chief of staff, Cinde Perales will remain as head of compliance and Eugene Sims will remain as head of underwriting and funding operations.

Arra Finance will continue to be based out of Irving, Texas.

“This company is a compelling addition to Obra’s capabilities and asset-based finance strategy,” Obra capital president and chief executive officer Blair Wallace said in the news release. “The current economic and competitive environment makes this an opportune time to have a focused financing platform for the growing auto finance market. Combining the company’s skills with Obra’s existing structuring and credit expertise enables us to jointly work with securitization market participants and forward flow purchasers to create highly rated assets.

Arra Finance’s platform is scalable, and we believe it will produce attractive risk-adjusted unit economics and is an opportunity that provides Obra’s investors with exposure to the U.S. auto finance market at a cyclically attractive entry point. We look forward to working with Kenn and the executive management team as they lead the company going forward,” Wallace continued.

The Arra Finance leadership team averages 25 years of auto finance experience with deep and relevant experience scaling finance platforms.

Wardle served as the chief risk officer of Open Lending before joining Solera Auto Finance. Wardle’s other professional positions include time as:

—Chief operating officer for Horizon Digital Finance Holdings
—Chief executive officer of Jet Business Loans
—Co-founder and executive vice president of Exeter Finance
—Leadership roles at AmeriCredit Corp., and Drive Financial

Prior to being with Solera, Lackowski was a director in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Banking and Capital Markets practice where he led large engagements covering consumer finance capital markets transactions, valuation, accounting, and technology services.

Previously, Lackowski was a manager in Grant Thornton’s financial services advisory practice where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, strategic financial planning and was a key part in developing their national securitization practice.

Before his time with Solera, Thompson was chief strategy officer for Sprout Funding, which acquired Jet Capital where he was co-founder and COO/CEO since inception in 2015.

Thompson also spent time as vice president of strategy and implementation at Exeter Finance where he led operations strategy and strategic initiatives to help the company grow from $200 million to $3 billion in receivables.

Perales served as the chief compliance officer of Drivrz Financial before joining Solera. Like her colleagues, Perales also was part of Exeter serving as senior vice president compliance and building its compliance management System based on the newly enacted requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Perales’ background also includes consumer finance operations experience as national funding operations leader at Sixth Gear Solutions, an independent subprime auto finance company and 19 years at AmeriCredit in various roles including controller, treasurer, policy development and various operational roles.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Blair and the Obra team,” Wardle said. “Our auto-financing platform merges the dealer-focused finance experience with technology that streamlines the car-buying experience while delivering economic value to the dealer customer which we believe provides the basis for long term customer success.

“We are excited about working with Obra to grow Arra Finance’s origination business, lever our proprietary credit scorecard and capitalize on prior automation and infrastructure investment to open additional dealer relationships,” Wardle went on to say.