Fair Square Financial, seen here at the 2019 ribbon cutting in Wilmington, was acquired by lending giant Ali and is now planning an expansion project. | Photo Courtesy of the Governor’s Office
Wilmington – Out of it Acquisition of fintech startup Fair Square FinancialAuto lending giant Ali now plans to expand to Wilmington with up to 150 high-paying positions.
established Six years ago With a handful of banking veterans from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Citigroup and others, Fair Square launched its subsidiary and near-major credit card. eye In 2017
Ali, the new Fair Square Financial, plans a $500,000 expansion in Wilmington’s Brandywine Building. | DBT photo by Jacob Owens
The startup, led by CEO Rob Habgood, quickly secured the backing of well-known investors and secured $300 million from investment firms. In the year Backed by a $779,000 state taxpayer-funded Strategic Fund grant in 2017, Fair Square expanded its office at the Brandywine Building in downtown Wilmington and hired more employees.
In December, Detroit-based Ali acquired Fair Square for $750 million and has been thinking about how to grow the business ever since.
While Ali has options for moving credit operations — it has multiple offices spread across the country — the company chose to invest in the Fair Square expansion in Wilmington. It will invest $520,000 to outfit an additional 7,000 square feet of offices in the Brandywine Building and increase employment by up to 200% over the next few years. The average salary for the new positions will be $170,000 and will include analysts, managers and directors, Habgood said.
“Partner To support this significant growth opportunity, our credit card business has the ability to significantly accelerate growth,” said Habod. “We chose Wilmington to do business first because it offers a deep pool of credit card talent.”
In support of that expansion, the state’s Board of Investment, Development Finance Council on Monday unanimously approved $20,000 in capital support and $2.64 million in performance support to create new jobs over the next three years. Ali currently employs 75 people in Delaware and a few more out of state.
When council members questioned whether any of the roles could eventually be outsourced and moved out of state, state officials assured them that the grant terms would require roles created to serve Delaware’s income tax. He pointed out that Fair Square has more than fulfilled the first support contract.
Habgood explained that Fair Square employees are working a mixed schedule after the pandemic, but that in-person communication is an important part of their culture.
“Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and we have been successful as a business because of the integrated nature of bringing all people together and working through problems,” he said.
Olo – a name without a specific meaning selected The name is easy to pronounce – it offers two different cards, one with no annual fee and one with unlimited cash back on purchases. He worked with Wilmington-based design company Bounteous on the products, adding to his commitment to the area.
Like other close or low-credit lenders, Fair Square goes beyond traditional credit report metrics to identify good customers, evaluating tenure, long-term credit history and other information to determine whether they can reliably repay debts. To date, Fairgrounds has over 1 million customers with approximately $1 billion in loans.
In 2020, successfully Safe $300 million in credit card debt, along with good ratings from credit rating agencies, shows that the modeling process has produced reliable customers.
