Global investment firm Carlyle and Citi announced they will collaborate on asset-backed financing opportunities in the rapidly evolving fintech specialty lending space.

Carlyle and Citi have formalized a framework to exchange market intelligence and explore co-investment and financing opportunities. Their mutual strength as global leaders in asset-backed finance will be enhanced by the investment expertise and network of Citi’s Spread Products Investment in Technologies (SPRINT) team – a prominent venture equity investor in fintech specialty lenders.

“Our collaboration with Citi brings together two best-in-class platforms to unlock growth in one of the most dynamic areas of private credit,” said Akhil Bansal, Head of Asset-Backed Finance at Carlyle. “Demand for scalable and tailored asset-backed financing solutions from fintech lenders has increased as they mature and seek efficient ways to fund their growth. By combining our deep credit and structuring expertise with Citi’s leading presence in the fintech investment landscape, we’re well-positioned to capture emerging opportunities and support the next generation of financial technology leaders.”

“The strategic connectivity of our SPRINT team to our asset-backed finance business enables us to seamlessly share expertise and fulfil the financing needs of tomorrow’s fintech leaders across the entire capital structure,” said Lee Smallwood, Head of Markets Innovation & Investments.

“This collaboration leverages the best of both our firms. Through the scale of our franchise, we are uniquely positioned to unlock opportunities by bringing the dynamism of innovative tech platforms to an established global leader such as Carlyle,” said Rajiv Amlani, Head of Private Markets Coverage at Citi.

Carlyle Asset-Backed Finance (“Carlyle ABF”) is a group within Carlyle’s Global Credit platform focused on private fixed income and asset-backed investments. The highly experienced team leverages the knowledge, sourcing, structuring, and breadth of the entire Carlyle investment platform to deliver tailored asset-focused financing solutions to businesses, specialty finance companies, banks, asset managers, and other originators and owners of diversified pools of assets. Carlyle ABF has deployed approximately $8 billion since 2021 and has approximately $9 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025.

Source: Carlyle