Chesswood Group Limited, a publicly traded North American commercial equipment finance provider for small and medium-sized businesses, announced the formation of a consumer home finance unit, Vault Home Credit Corporation.

Vault Home Credit Corporation will provide home improvement and other consumer financing solutions in Canada. Vault Home will be managed by John Stout and Kyle Wenn, the former founders of SNAP Financial Group, a leading Canadian home improvement and premium finance company that was sold in 2020. Prior to the sale, SNAP had gross receivables of approximately $750 million and annual originations exceeding $250 million.

Vault Home will leverage the brand and existing infrastructure of Vault Credit Corporation.

“The formation of Vault Home will expand Chesswood's footprint outside of equipment leasing, diversifying our portfolio and increasing our addressable market in Canada. We are particularly excited to be partnering with John Stout and Kyle Wenn, both of whom have strong track records in the home improvement market in addition to being industry veterans in Canada's specialty finance sector,” said Chesswood Group CEO Ryan Marr.

Stout added, "We are excited to be back in the consumer financing business and in partnership with Chesswood Group. Our teams share a common culture and vision to build a specialty finance platform in Canada. Working with Chesswood, we look forward to providing best in class service and financial products to our network of dealers and partners."

Vault Home has already signed dealer contracts and is targeting first year originations of $60 million.

Chesswood has a 51 percent ownership interest in Vault Home. It has committed to provide (including the amount contributed for its ownership interest) $2.5 million of capital.

Chesswood also announced Tobias Rajchel has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of Chesswood Group. Rajchel has been serving as interim Chief Financial Officer since March 2021.