EJF Acquisition Corp. (EJFA) Expands PIPE for Pagaya Deal to $350M

EJF Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:EJFA) has upsized the PIPE for its combination with Israeli fintech Pagaya from $200 million to $350 million.

New investors in the PIPE include Tiger Global, Whale Rock, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and G Squared. The new share purchases came at the enterprise value as initially announced with the deal but EJF has not yet filed an 8-K detailing other terms on the move.

The new funding does not appear to be designed to shore up its completion risk as the original PIPE covered the deal’s $200 million minimum cash condition and it has not yet set a vote date. But, the changes did free up some more money by EJF and its affiliates, which reduced a portion of their own PIPE commitments to accommodate the interest.

Sponsor affiliates accounted entirely for the original $200 million PIPE and EJF’s press release stated that $220 million in new money is entering the PIPE. This suggests that $70 million is going out at the same time, but the forthcoming 8-K should clear that up.

EJF initially announced its $8.5 billion combination in Pagaya on September 15. Pagaya provides an AI-powered platform matching customers with third-party credit products both applying for loans and at the point-of-sale in partnership with SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) among others.

It recently announced that its $320 million in revenue in through the third quarter of 2021 represented roughly 220% growth over full-year revenue in 2020.