2024 at Percent: From Strength to Scale in Private Credit
A Year of Strategic Excellence
Dear Percent Community,
As I reflect on 2024, I’m struck by how this year represented not just growth, but a profound maturation in Percent’s journey to transform private credit markets. While 2023 laid the foundation, 2024 was the year we truly hit our stride – focusing on our core strengths while achieving unprecedented scale.
The numbers tell a compelling story. Our assets under management grew 1.75x year-over-year, nearly tripling our growth rate from 2022-2023. This exceptional growth wasn’t just about volume – it reflected our strategic focus on what we do best: facilitating asset-based securities (ABS) deals in established jurisdictions where we’ve built deep expertise. This focus paid off dramatically, with record ABS issuance volumes and outstanding AUM demonstrating the market’s confidence in our platform.
What’s particularly gratifying is seeing how this strategic clarity benefited our entire ecosystem. We expanded to over 100 active borrowers and 20+ underwriters, significantly enhancing diversification opportunities for investors. More importantly, we saw remarkably low borrower turnover, meaning investors gained longer exposure to established names growing their programs on our platform. This stability, combined with our highest-ever implied returns after losses at 14.9%, validates our approach to building lasting relationships in the lower-middle market, where we’re emerging as a leader in ABS and Lender Finance for sub-$10M deals.
Innovation remained core to our mission, with our Blended Note program emerging as a particular highlight. These products, both public and bespoke versions tailored to specific investors, now represent 22% of our total invested AUM – a 2.6x increase year-over-year. This growth reflects our commitment to providing sophisticated diversification vehicles that meet the evolving needs of our investor base.
The results speak for themselves: record numbers of investments, principal returned, and interest paid to investors. But perhaps most meaningfully, we achieved sixteen consecutive months of net AUM growth, speaking to the sustainable, long-term value we’re creating for our community.
To our 45,000+ investors: thank you for your trust and partnership in building the future of private credit markets. Whether you’ve been with us since our founding in 2018 or joined more recently, you’re part of a transformation that’s making private credit more accessible, efficient, and transparent than ever before. Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to expanding opportunities for investors while maintaining the focus and discipline that defined our success in 2024. The private credit market continues to evolve, and Percent is positioned better than ever to lead that evolution.
With gratitude,
Year-Over-Year Statistics
Assets Under Management
Investor Performance
Marketplace Metrics
*Individual return performance on the investor portfolio page is calculated differently and uses the XIRR formula. More information here.
Beyond Volume: Decoding Percent's 2024 Performance
2024 marked a transformative year for Percent, characterized by strategic focus, unprecedented scale, and sustainable growth across all key metrics. Our platform facilitated over $333 million in investments across 223 deals, representing record-breaking issuance volumes that reflect both growing investor confidence and our expanding market presence.
Strategic Growth in Asset-Backed Securities: The headline story of 2024 was our remarkable AUM growth of 1.75x year-over-year, nearly tripling our 2022-2023 growth rate. This expansion was primarily driven by our strategic focus on asset-based securities, where our AUM more than doubled from $65.4 million to $145.8 million. This achievement reflects our deliberate emphasis on what we do best: facilitating and structuring ABS deals in established jurisdictions where we’ve built deep expertise and strong relationships.
Marketplace Maturation: The platform’s evolution was evident in both the breadth and stability of our marketplace. We expanded to 82 active borrowers and 22 active underwriters, a significant increase from 54 and 12 respectively in 2023. More notably, we saw decreased borrower turnover, indicating that established names are choosing to grow their programs on our platform over time. This stability contributed to our strongest annual performance yet, with implied returns after losses reaching 14.9%.
Innovation Through Blended Products: Our commitment to innovation was particularly evident in the growth of our Blended Note program. These managed funds, including both public Percent Blended Notes (PBNs) and Bespoke Blended Notes (BBNs), grew 2.6x year-over-year to represent a whooping 22% of total AUM outstanding. This rapid adoption demonstrates the market’s appetite for sophisticated automated diversification vehicles that combine the benefits of private credit with professional portfolio management.
Institutional Validation: Throughout 2024, we saw institutional asset allocators and retail investors alike consistently oversubscribe our offerings, validating our position as a leader in sub-$10M ABS in the lender finance space. This unprecedented level of investor engagement resulted in record numbers across key metrics: 34,594 total investments, $246.2 million in principal returned, and $26.8 million in gross interest paid to investors.
In Q4 2024, we welcomed several notable additions to our borrower network, including:
- Cadi ($1.2M across 2 deals): Miami-based private investment firm established in 2014 that focuses on the financial sector including the purchase of merchant cash advances.
- FAT Brands ($6.4M across 6 deals): Leading global franchising company that strategically acquires, markets, and develops fast-casual, quick-service, casual dining, and polished casual dining concepts around the world.
- New Silver ($1.2M across 1 deal): Tech-driven direct lender based in Connecticut specializing in originating short-term mortgages secured by residential real estate across the United States, with a primary focus on “fix and flip” single-family investment properties.
- Iron Horse Credit ($1.1M across 1 deal): Asset-based lender located in Florida that provides stand-alone inventory, accounts receivable, purchase order financing solutions, and asset-based lending solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in the US and Canada.
- Lendswift ($0.5M across 1 deal): Florida based company that specializes in providing consumer installment loans and lines of credit to individuals facing financial emergencies.
- Golden Lion ($0.5M across 1 deal): Michigan-based tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) distillate producer.
- Fenchurch Legal ($0.5M across 1 deal): Litigation funder, specializing in providing litigation finance to small to medium-sized law firms in the UK.
- Nera Capital Funding ($2.6M across 1 deal): United Kingdom domiciled special purpose vehicle established to originate or acquire consumer litigation financing that is active in the United Kingdom.
- Scan.com ($8.2M across 1 deal): Scan.com is a US based subsidiary of a London, England based data-driven lender providing financing of personal injury medical receivables established in November, 2021. Scan.com is active in the United States and has offices in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Additionally, we also introduced two new underwriters to our marketplace in Q4 2024, including:
- Fusion ($1.2M across 2 deals): Fusion Network was born in 2017 with a mission to offer financial solutions to dynamic private companies. They partner with specialty finance companies and lower middle market borrowers to structure, arrange, and secure debt financings that meet their needs.
- Stoke ($0.5M across 1 deal): Stoke Inventory Partners Inc. (“Stoke Canada”), an Alberta corporation, provides lending services to Canadian SMEs across Canada, especially in the cannabis supply chain.
For a more comprehensive review of all of Q1, Q2 and Q3 2024 new underwriters and borrowers please navigate to the respective Quarterly Review Reports located on our Track Record of Performance page.
Looking ahead, our focus remains on leveraging our established expertise in the lower-middle market while continuing to innovate in ways that benefit our growing investor community. The remarkable growth and stability demonstrated in 2024 positions us well to maintain our leadership in unlocking access to private credit markets.
Built for Scale: Platform Innovations in 2024
Throughout 2024, Percent focused on enhancing our platform to deliver a more seamless, transparent, and efficient investment experience. From improved portfolio management tools to enhanced deal discovery features, each upgrade reflected our commitment to making private credit more accessible for our growing investor community.
Interest-Bearing Accounts We introduced interest-bearing accounts, allowing investors to earn passive returns on uninvested cash. This feature has already generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payments.
Monthly Investor Statements Our new comprehensive monthly statements provide visibility into portfolio performance, including detailed breakdowns of portfolio value, income, inflows, outflows, holdings, and transaction history.
Deal Roadshows To increase transparency during the marketing process, we launched deal roadshows featuring presentations and video content from management teams. With over 50 roadshows completed, these resources provide deeper insights into marketplace opportunities and borrower strategies.
Enhanced Blended Notes Visibility The new Holdings tab for Blended Notes offers increased visibility into investment holdings and performance. Investors can now track key metrics including principal outstanding, cash balance, and total value, along with detailed breakdowns of fund composition and monthly interest earned.
Redesigned Deals Page Our updated deals page features intuitive “card” views that present key deal information at a glance, complemented by enhanced filtering and sorting capabilities. New promotional banners keep investors informed about important platform updates and opportunities.
Revamped Onboarding Process We launched a completely redesigned onboarding experience featuring an intuitive step-by-step flow that simplifies account creation, particularly for entity investors. The mobile-responsive design ensures a seamless experience across all types of devices.
These enhancements reflect our ongoing commitment to building the most sophisticated and user-friendly private credit platform available. As we look ahead to 2025, we remain focused on introducing innovative features that further improve the investment experience while maintaining the highest standards of transparency and efficiency.
Illuminating Reality: Navigating 2024 Workouts
We believe that transparency around deal performance, including workouts and recoveries, is essential to building trust with our investor community. While 2024 saw record growth and strong overall performance, some deal faced challenges that required workout interventions.
2024 Workout Overview In 2024, our platform demonstrated resilience with no principal charge-offs, compared to approximately $0.9M in 2023 and $3.7 million in 2022 as the deals currently in workout were still in the recovery process (a deal is only fully charged-off when no more recovery is expected).
Key Characteristics of 2024 Workouts
- Corporate Loans Heavy : Majority of deals in workout as of the end of Q4 2024, by numbers and by AUM outstanding, are related to corporate loans, reflecting the higher risk these deals carry and Percent’s proactive shift away of corporate loans and renewed focus in ABS.
- Active Management: Each situation benefited from dedicated workout teams, including specialized legal counsel or liquidators when necessary.
- Continued Recovery: Several deals maintained interest accrual and/or partial payments during workout proceedings.
As of year-end 2024, nine borrowers had deals in active workout status. The total principal outstanding in workout remaining was $15.0 million, with $1.0 million recovered to date across these deals.
Transparency in Action To provide investors with comprehensive information about workout situations, we maintain detailed, regularly updated resources:
- Our quarterly Deals in Workout blog post provides current status updates on all active workout situations
- Our historical Charged Off and Recovered Deals tracker offers perspective on long-term workout outcomes
While workouts are an inherent part of private credit investing, our commitment to transparency, proactive management, and investor protection remains unwavering. We encourage investors to review these detailed resources regularly and reach out to our team with any questions about specific situations or our workout process in general.
Looking Ahead: Private Credit in 2025
As we enter 2025, private credit continues its remarkable trajectory, approaching $2 trillion in global market size. The asset class demonstrated impressive resilience through 2024’s shifting landscape, delivering consistent returns even as markets navigated the Fed’s measured pivot, a contentious presidential election, and evolving economic conditions.
The Macro Picture The economy enters 2025 from a position of strength, having found its “Goldilocks zone” in 2024 with declining inflation (2.7% as of November), moderate unemployment adjustments, and robust GDP growth. With the Fed expected to implement three additional rate cuts this year, we see compelling opportunities for private credit investors to lock in attractive yields while maintaining portfolio stability.
Key Trends Shaping Private Credit Several powerful forces are converging to enhance private credit’s role in modern portfolios:
- Asset-Based Financing Acceleration: We anticipate growing demand for secured ABS transactions offering enhanced investor protection through bankruptcy-remote structures and quality collateral.
- Yield Opportunities in a Shifting Rate Environment: As the Fed continues its easing cycle, private credit offers an attractive opportunity to secure higher yields providing a hedge against inflation.
- Enhanced Portfolio Construction: Institutional investors are increasing their alternative allocations, with major firms like BlackRock now recommending up to 19% in alternatives, including dedicated private credit allocations.
- Technology-Driven Evolution: Advanced platforms and data-driven processes are improving deal access, due diligence capabilities, and real-time performance monitoring enhancing the investor experience and transparency.
Percent’s Strategic Focus At Percent, our mission remains clear: to unlock access to private credit while driving transparency, efficiency, excellence in performance, and innovation. Building on the successes of 2024, we’re focusing on:
- Expanding Asset-Based Opportunities: Increasing the availability of high-quality, collateralized offerings to meet growing investor demand in the lender finance space.
- Innovative Diversification Tools: Enhancing products like our Blended Notes to offer seamless access to automated, curated, diversified investments.
- Empowering Investors: Delivering deeper insights into borrower performance, credit risk, and portfolio optimization through continued platform enhancements.
Want the complete picture? Download our comprehensive 2025 Private Credit Outlook for detailed analysis of market trends, opportunities, and strategic considerations for the year ahead.
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As we reflect on 2024’s achievements and look ahead to 2025’s opportunities, we’re deeply grateful to our growing community of investors who have made this year’s milestones possible. Your trust and partnership have been instrumental in establishing Percent as a leader in democratizing private credit markets. While the numbers tell a compelling story of growth and performance, they also reflect something more fundamental: the increasing recognition that private credit deserves a place in modern investment portfolios. We enter 2025 more focused than ever on our mission to make private credit more accessible, transparent, and efficient for all qualified investors.
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