Cardo AI & Encina Lender Finance: Transforming Asset-Based Finance for Originators and Investors

Media Contact:
Roberta Pazzini
roberta.pazzini@cardoai.com

Cardo AI and Encina Lender Finance, LLC (“ELF”) have created a partnership to revolutionize the asset-based finance (ABF) market, delivering faster, more efficient funding solutions for originators and greater capital deployment opportunities for institutional investors (LPs).

As the ABF market continues to grow, the collaboration between Cardo AI and ELF will set new industry standards, making structured credit more accessible, data-driven, and efficient.

ELF brings cutting-edge structuring and credit risk management expertise to asset-backed credit facility and forward flow purchase program investments, while Cardo AI delivers advanced technology to streamline deal execution, enhance risk monitoring, and improve transparency for all stakeholders.

“Our partnership with Cardo AI represents a major step forward in the evolution of asset-based finance,” said Geoff Beard, CEO & Chief Investment Officer at ELF. “By integrating technology-driven solutions into our investment and surveillance processes, we are accelerating transactions and enhancing overall market efficiency.”

“As we strengthen our presence in the U.S. market, we are excited to collaborate with ELF to redefine the way structured credit operates” said Altin Kadareja, Co-Founder and CEO at Cardo AI. “With our intelligent technology and the ELF team’s expertise in structuring asset-backed credit facilities and forward flow purchase programs, we are creating a more transparent, scalable, and investor-friendly ABF ecosystem."

This partnership is just the beginning of a transformative shift—one that will empower originators, institutional investors, and the broader structured finance ecosystem to capitalize on the full potential of asset-based lending in the non-bank specialty finance sector.

About Cardo AI

Intelligent technology for the asset-based finance market. Cardo AI is a global fintech company with the mission to make the market more efficient, transparent, and accessible to all players. Using proprietary technology that integrates software, data, and intelligence, Cardo AI accompanies banks, credit originators, servicers, asset managers, and asset owners throughout the entire process of asset-based finance investments: from managing data, formulating predictive analytics, and optimizing portfolios. To date, more than $40 billion are managed through its technology platforms, drawing on a team of more than 120 talents. For further information: www.cardoai.com

About Encina Lender Finance, LLC

Operating from both coasts, ELF offers delayed draw term loans and forward flow purchase programs ranging in size from $50 – $150 million to emerging and established specialty finance companies with strong junior capital sponsorship. ELF targets ABF investments in granular pools of short-to-intermediate duration asset classes in the consumer and commercial finance sectors. Targeted consumer asset classes include unsecured installment and revolving loans (direct-to-consumer and point-of-sale), secured vehicle finance, home improvement loans, rent-to-own/lease-to-own, debt consolidation loans, and student lending (in-school vocational, refi). Targeted commercial asset classes include small balance SMB lending (both direct-to-business and embedded point-of-sale), merchant cash advance, small-ticket equipment finance, corporate charge card, earned wage access, and supply chain / trade finance. In addition, ELF provides streamlined “first-out” financing to other like-minded private credit investors in the specialty finance sector. ELF utilizes a combination of cutting-edge technologies and rigorous collateral-level analysis to generate differentiated investment insights and creative solutions to its counterparties’ credit portfolio financing needs. For further information: www.encinacapital.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250212620217/en/