Dive Brief:
- Oportun CEO Raul Vazquez will step down as the fintech’s chief executive and as a member of the company’s board, according to a press release issued last week.
- Vazquez will continue in his roles through April 3 or until a successor is found, and will serve as an adviser to the company until July 3, Oportun said in its release.
- Vazquez’s departure follows a lengthy battle with Oportun’s second-largest shareholder, Findell Capital Management. Findell blamed a “series of costly, unforced errors” for a precipitous drop in Oportun’s stock price between 2021 and 2023.
Dive Insight:
Alongside the C-suite announcement, Oportun reported preliminary fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings. The company estimated its revenue at between $246 million and $248 million for the fourth quarter, and between $955 million and $957 million for the year.
In a statement last week, Oportun’s lead independent director, Louis Miramontes, contrasted the latter figure against the $30 million Oportun reported in 2012, when Vazquez began his tenure as CEO.
“As we embark on this next phase, the Board is focused on identifying another proven leader with a track record of operating at scale, driving profitable growth and value creation, and a deep commitment to our mission of expanding access to affordable, responsible credit,” Miramontes said.
Miramontes credited Vazquez for guiding the fintech over 14 years as it “evolved from a regional lender into a national financial services company.”
But Findell blamed Vazquez, saying he “ballooned [Oportun’s] cost structure” and engaged in “disastrous acquisitions,” according to an open letter to the fintech’s board in March 2025.
Findell’s gripe is rooted in Oportun’s 2021 purchase of the neobank platform Digit.
In its open letter, Findell said the Digit deal went through because Vazquez “was overseen by a board of directors … of what appear to be mostly handpicked associates – none of whom have any experience in lending let alone specialty non-prime lending.”
Just ahead of the Digit deal announcement, Oportun’s stock price reached a high of $27.95. But by early 2023, it had dropped to around $3 per share.
Around then, Oportun cut 185 jobs and discontinued its investment and retirement products. It also ended its embedded finance partnership with buy now, pay later player Sezzle and sold its credit-card portfolio. Oportun’s stock price doubled and Findell asserted, in a follow-up letter to the fintech’s board, that it felt under-credited in Oportun’s resurgence.
Oportun and Findell settled their rift in July, when the fintech agreed to expand its board to include a Findell-nominated member, Visa alum Warren Wilcox, in exchange for the investor’s continued support of Vazquez.
But Oportun’s troubles didn’t begin with the Digit deal.
The fintech, conceived as an alternative to payday lending geared toward low- to moderate-income Spanish-speaking Americans, went public in 2019 and applied for a national banking charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency the following year.
But its COVID-era collection practices drew an investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ProPublica and the Texas Tribune, at the time, reported the company sued thousands of low-income Latinos to collect on debts during the pandemic. Nearly two dozen consumer advocacy groups urged the OCC, which was evaluating Oportun’s charter application at the time, to wait until the CFPB wrapped its probe before making a decision on the banking license. Oportun withdrew its application in 2021.
Vazquez, in his own statement Jan. 21, said Oportun “is well positioned for continued success.”
“It has been an honor to lead Oportun and to work alongside such a talented, dedicated and mission-driven team,” he said. “Together, we have built a disciplined, resilient and profitable business that has also delivered a meaningful and lasting impact to the communities we serve.”
Vazquez will receive $1.1 million in cash severance, equal to 18 months of his base salary, Oportun disclosed in a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He will also receive a prorated lump sum for his service in 2026. Oportun will accelerate the vesting of his restricted stock units.