Tricolor Launches New Software as a Service Business, Names Stephanie Alsbrooks Hanson President

DALLAS, Feb. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tricolor, a tech-enabled Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and the nation’s largest used vehicle retailer and lender for the Hispanic consumer, today announced that it has named Stephanie Alsbrooks Hanson as President of newly formed Tricolor Financial. As part of its mission to transform consumer credit for underserved Hispanic consumers, the new venture will extend the company’s proprietary AI-powered technology through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Today, Tricolor is known for providing its customers with access to affordable financing on high-quality, certified vehicles using this AI-powered model to segment risk. Since its founding, the company has disbursed well over $1 billion in affordable loans to deserving, yet underserved Hispanic customers to enhance the quality of their lives and ultimately help them to build a better future.

“This is an exciting day for Tricolor as we significantly grow our capacity to fulfill our core mission by launching a new initiative to leverage our capability to ‘score the unscoreable’,” said Tricolor founder and CEO Daniel Chu. “I am thrilled to welcome Stephanie to the team as she helps scale this endeavor nationally. Her experience as a technologist and innovator in consumer lending is unrivaled, making her the perfect person to lead this next phase of mission-driven growth.”

Hanson is the highly regarded founder and former CEO of defi Solutions, an industry-leading cloud-based solution for originating and servicing consumer loans that disrupted an established marketplace using cutting-edge technology. She successfully raised funding from Bain Capital Ventures and drew over 100 lenders to its mission and platform before merging the business with Sagent Lending Technologies in 2019.

Hanson was recognized as E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Southwest Region in 2017 and was named a ‘40 Under 40’ Honoree by Dallas Business Journal in 2014.

“I enthusiastically embrace Tricolor’s mission to drive inclusion, and am excited to be a part of Tricolor’s vision to expand its impact serving the financially underserved,” commented Hanson. “Understanding the challenges of launching and growing a business, I look forward to catalyzing new strategic relationships and opportunities to pursue this next important phase of Tricolor’s growth.”

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 26 million people in the United States are “credit invisible” and an additional 19 million are “unscoreable,” corresponding to a total of 45 million people in the United States whose lack of a credit score translates into limited options in terms of accessing financing for a major purchase such as a motor vehicle.

Tricolor’s pioneering application of AI and other advanced technologies as part of its integrated used vehicle sales and lending platform has helped to deliver high quality used vehicles at affordable loan rates for low income, credit invisible Hispanics within this market.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

For more information about Tricolor and Ganas, please visit tricolor.com and ganas.com.

About Tricolor
Tricolor is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and mission-driven company that sells and finances high quality, certified used motor vehicles through its premium brands, Tricolor Auto Group in Texas and Ganas Auto Group in California, utilizing advanced data analytics and technology to advance financial inclusion to a highly underserved market and offer responsible, affordable, credit-building auto loans to individuals with no or limited credit history.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Tricolor and its affiliate Ganas Auto Group operate over 40 retail dealerships across 14 markets in Texas, California, Arizona, and Nevada with a shared services center in Guadalajara, Mexico. On a combined basis, Tricolor and Ganas have served over 70,000 customers and disbursed over $1 billion in affordable auto loans by using their proprietary model to segment risk.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Stephanie Hicks
Cosmo PR for Tricolor
(805) 295-9455
[email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e1427641-9ce6-4eb4-960e-9cb15ca77bdb