At the end of last week, US venture and growth equity investment firm Oak HC/FT reported that it had increased its stake in Israeli fintech company Pagaya Technologies (Nasdaq: PGY).
Pagaya announced in 2021 that it would be listing on Nasdaq via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger at a company valuation of $8.5 billion, which it completed in June 2022. Within a few months, Pagaya's share price soared to $30, giving it a market cap of over $20 billion and briefly making it Israel's most valuable company in August 2022. Since then Pagaya at one time lost 97% of its value and today has risen to just over $1. Pagaya's share price is today up 5.34% to $1.085, giving a market cap of $739 million, having fallen to $0.65 last year.
Oak HC/FT, a veteran investor in Pagaya, took advantage of the weakness in the company's share price to buy $566,000 worth of shares at $0.65-0.75 per share. After the latest share purchase, Oak holds a 13% stake in Pagaya. Oak began investing in Pagaya well before its flotation back in 2018 and 2019 and Oak venture partner Daniel Petrozzo sits on Pagaya's board of directors.
Pagaya had developed technological solutions that allow financial organizations to manage credit allocation procedures more precisely. Pagaya was founded in 2016 by CEO Gal Krubiner, and his partners Yahav Yulzari, and Avital Pardo. When the share price was at its peak in August, each of the founders held stakes worth over $1 billion. In the most recent report Krubiner held a 20.6% stake in Pagaya, currently worth $135 million, while Yulzari and Pardo each hold 26.1% stakes worth $181 million each.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 9, 2023.
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