Dive Brief:

• Pagaya Technologies said it’s kicked off a search to find a permanent successor for CFO Michael Kurlander, who is stepping down from his role as CFO after 2.5 years in the job “to pursue an outside opportunity,” according to a Friday release. 

• The New York and Tel Aviv, Israel-based technology company uses AI-driven credit and analysis technology to provide real-time credit evaluations. Pagaya named Evangelos Perros, who became deputy CFO in September, to act as interim CFO until a permanent replacement can be found. The company, which has hired an executive recruitment firm to find a permanent replacement for Kurlander, will consider both internal and external candidates. 

• Gal Krubiner, co-founder and CEO of Pagaya, said in a statement that Kurlander was “a tremendous partner to Pagaya’s leadership team over the last two and a half years, helping drive our company to the next phase of our mission, while building a strong financial foundation to deliver profitable growth well into the future.” 

Dive Insight:

In the wake of the news Friday, Pagaya’s shares fell 8.2% to $1.255 in late afternoon trading Monday. The departing Kurlander came to Pagaya In June of 2021, roughly a year before Pagaya shares began trading on Nasdaq in June of 2022 after completing a business combination with a special purpose acquisition company. 

Kurlander brought strong finance credentials to the firm that was founded in 2016. Prior to Pagaya, Kurlander served as deputy global treasurer for the hedge fund Citadel and for 17 years prior to that held numerous senior roles at Goldman Sachs, according to his LinkedIn profile.

His exit follows a number of other leadership changes. Last month, Pagaya named Sanjiv Das, who most recently served as CEO of Caliber Home Loans, as its president, replacing Ashok Vaswani, who served as president since June of last year, according to a company release. And earlier this month the company named Abhijit Chaudhary, formerly of Green Dot, as Pagaya’s new chief product officer. 

Prior to being named deputy CFO last month, Perros served as head of strategic finance at Pagaya since joining the firm in November of 2021 from Apollo Global Management, where he was a managing director and head of business planning and analysis for just over five years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also previously held multiple senior finance roles at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The technology company, which uses machine learning and AI to provide consumer credit and residential real estate products to its partners, reported that total revenue and other income rose 4% to $211 million in the third quarter from the year-earlier period, while it reported a narrower net loss attributable to Pagaya shareholders of $21.8 million in the period, compared to $74.8 million in the comparable prior year period, due primarily to improvement in operating results and lower non-cash expenses.

On Monday Pagaya announced the closing of its 46th asset-backed securitization, a $300 million auto loan ABS transaction, rated by KBRA.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.