More About OppFi’s Big Equity Investment in Bitty

Publicly-traded OppFi announced it has acquired a 35% stake in Bitty Advance for a cash payment of $15.25M and stock valued at $2.7M. OppFi says this was a 6x valuation multiple based on Bitty’s $8.5M of adjusted net income for the trailing 12 months ending March 31, 2024. Bitty originated approximately $165M in revenue based financing deals in 2023.

The transaction enables OppFi, already well known in consumer lending, to enter the small business financing market. OppFi cited Bitty’s operating metrics being bolstered by an industry experienced CEO (Craig Hecker) and an established team. Bitty has funded $420M to 29,000+ merchants since inception. Bitty will remain majority controlled by Hecker. OppFi has the option to acquire a majority stake in the company in 2027. OppFi has a current market cap of $389M and more than 400 employees.

“We’re excited by this acquisition, as we believe Bitty provides the foundation for OppFi’s new vertical in small business financing,” said Todd Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of OppFi. “Bitty facilitates credit access to small businesses that are not served by traditional banks, aligning with our mission to facilitate credit access to everyday Americans. Small business financing is increasingly being originated online, and we believe Bitty’s digital platform is well-positioned to capture this growth. We look forward to working with Craig and his team to further scale Bitty with OppFi’s data analytics, automation, and marketing expertise.”

Bitty is well-known to deBanked. Hecker’s investment in Bitty Advance (which led to an eventual takeover) was first covered in early 2020. Hecker has been known to the Editor through the industry for even longer than that, since before deBanked’s inception in 2010. Hecker sat for an on-camera interview in January and has been a signature sponsor of both Broker Fair, deBanked CONNECT, and the upcoming B2B Finance Expo.

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.