Financeit Recapitalizes Majority Share to Goldman Sachs and Acquires Centah

Financeit Canada has undergone a major ownership restructuring.

The Toronto-based Financeit has announced the closing of a recapitalization round with the massive financial entity Goldman Sachs. The shake-up will result in Goldman Sachs owning a majority share in Financeit, though the U.S. based financial institution has been a minority shareholder since 2015. Financeit is a leading point-of-sales provider.

The recapitalization was done so that Financeit could acquire Centah, a global SaaS company that serves the home improvement industry. Centah’s platform and call centre infrastructure will allow Financeit to increase their own overall offering in the marketplace and provide merchants with an end-to-end solution.

“The increased support from our existing shareholder, Goldman Sachs, reflects their continued confidence in our leadership team, our business model, our platform and the ability to grow our service,” said Michael Garrity, CEO and President of Financeit. “With the Centah integration, we will now be able to expand our offerings with a complete solution for the home improvement industry, from lead generation to closing the sale.”

Financeit was founded in 2011 and has worked with more than 7,000 merchants, processing over 41.9 billion USD in loan applications. Their cloud-based technology lets merchants easily increase close rates on potential customers and improve transaction sizes with different kinds of payment structures.

“Centah had been looking for the right partner for quite some time, specifically in the technology space,” said Paul Sorrentino, CEO and President of Centah. “Combining the home improvement solutions offered by both Centah and Financeit will make business easier for big-box retailers and manufacturers, and drive growth.”

Last year, Financeit raised $17 million to support the extended growth of their platform, mainly for the acquisition of TD Bank’s indirect home improvement financing assets—a deal involving $339 million worth of assets that also saw Concentra take part. That foray into the home improvement world most likely gave Financeit a direct view of Centah and an early indication that they would be a company to target for acquisition.