JG Wentworth Buys Stilt’s Digital Lending Platform

JG Wentworth has acquired FinTech and personal loan lender Stilt’s digital lending platform.

With the acquisition, JG Wentworth, a consumer financial services company, will accelerate its entry into consumer lending, the company said in a Monday (Dec. 5) press release.

“The Stilt platform will provide industry-leading digital capabilities to JG Wentworth’s customers with a user-friendly experience and rapid underwriting decisions,” JG Wentworth CEO Randi Sellari said in the release. “We are now uniquely positioned to provide products that meet the personal finance needs of millions of our customers.”

The acquisition combines JG Wentworth’s nationally recognized brand with a FinTech platform built by Stilt while raising $322 million in debt and equity, according to the press release.

The purchase also adds Stilt’s proprietary data sets from $5 billion in loan applications and 2.5 million bank transactions to JG Wentworth’s database of 25 years of customer engagements, the release said.

In addition, JG Wentworth will now allow consumers to choose a loan origination model that is all digital and fully automated as well as one that is aided by the company’s national call center, per the release.

Stilt CEO Rohit Mittal will now serve as senior vice president of lending at JG Wentworth, according to the press release.

“JG Wentworth’s strong brand awareness and its unique position amongst consumers provide a powerful customer acquisition engine,” Mittal said in the release. “With Stilt’s complementary digital platform, and proprietary consumer credit data, the Stilt team is excited to be part of JG Wentworth and help launch its lending business.”

Almost two out of every three consumers are comfortable opening new accounts digitally, compared to less than half saying they prefer to manage their existing loan accounts that way, according to “Account Opening And Loan Servicing In The Digital Environment,” a PYMNTS collaboration with Finicity, a Mastercard company.