Idea Financial Closed on Their Inaugural $100M Asset-Backed Securitization

Idea Financial just closed its inaugural $100 million securitization. The technology-enabled lender offers term loans and lines of credit to small businesses.

“…it’s a deeply personal moment because reaching this milestone for our company, it’s something that we aspired towards since we started the company,” said Larry Bassuk, co-founder and president of Idea Financial, to deBanked. “To get to this point where we have access to the securitization markets, it means that we’ve taken the company to the next level.”

Founded in 2017, Idea Financial has frequently been featured by deBanked for its accomplishments. A decade ago, asset-backed securitizations in this market were still relatively new. Today, they have become more common, though they remain the domain of the market’s most sophisticated, top-performing lenders. Idea now joins that group.

In the two years leading up to the transaction, the company spoke with numerous institutions about the asset class. “I would say that the majority of them are familiar with the space at this point,” said Idea Financial CFO Santiago Rubio.

Idea did more than $300 million in originations in 2025 and has done more than $1.5 billion since inception. The securitization comprises three classes of notes, with the senior Class A notes rated A+ by KBRA. The transaction includes a three-year revolving period, providing committed, long-term funding to support continued growth.

KeyBanc Capital Markets, led by Andrew Yuder, served as sole placement agent, and the notes were placed privately with institutional investors. Idea credits Yuder with helping bring the transaction together.

“He has been working with us for in excess of two years on this, very patiently,” said Justin Leto, co-founder and CEO of Idea. “We were taking our time to make sure that it was the right moment for us, that the rates were in the position that they needed to be, that the spreads were where they needed to be, and he was with us the entire way. That type of partnership is extremely important to us.”

That emphasis on long-term relationships also shapes the company’s approach to its small business customers.

“[Our customers] have an ongoing relationship with us,” said Bassuk. “We still have customers that we work with who we lent money to the first year of our operations. So our retention rates, the satisfaction of our customers, it is by virtue of the relationship that we form with them, the relationships that they have with individuals who work here at the company, who know them, know their businesses.”

With the securitization complete, Idea now has the capacity to do more.

“Now we have a total of three warehouse facilities plus this ABS issuance,” said Rubio. “They’re all expandable. Like really sky’s the limit when it comes to our core product.”

“There’s no guarantee when you start a company like this that you’ll ever even get here,” said Bassuk. “And for us to get here at this very moment, we’ve celebrated as a moment that Idea Financial is now going into a whole other realm of possibilities.”

“For us, it really just shows that Idea Financial now is a true competitor in this market,” said Leto. “And I think it’s really just the beginning of many other milestones that we will achieve.”

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.