Affinity Partners, the private equity firm founded by Jared Kushner, has acquired an 8% stake in UK-based digital bank OakNorth, according to a report by Reuters citing sources familiar with the matter.
The investment was reportedly made through a secondary transaction involving an undisclosed existing shareholder. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Miami-based Affinity Partners, launched by Kushner in 2021, is backed by sovereign and institutional capital from the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
Founded in 2015 by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, OakNorth has grown into a significant player in the UK’s challenger bank space. The SoftBank-backed lender reported nearly £215m in pre-tax profit in 2024 and continues to scale operations in the US, where it established a representative office in New York last year.
OakNorth, which operates a business-focused bank with more than £7.5bn in assets and a lending portfolio exceeding £2.1bn in 2024, also licenses its credit analysis and monitoring platform to financial institutions globally. Clients include F1 Arcade and Ultimate Performance.
The lender was last valued at approximately $2.8bn in a 2019 funding round. Sky News first reported news of Affinity’s investment. OakNorth and Affinity Partners declined to comment on the transaction.
The deal comes amid renewed scrutiny of business activities linked to Donald Trump and his associates, with increased investor attention on cross-border private capital flows.
