STARTUP VETERAN AND STRUCTURED FINANCE PIONEER LARS NORELL JOINS EDLY AS EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Former Altus Power Co-CEO Adds to the Leadership of Rapidly-Growing Student Finance Firm

NEW YORK, June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Edly, Inc. – a leading fintech platform that allows investors to participate in funding solutions for students and college athletes – today announced the appointment of Lars Norell as Executive Chairman. In this capacity, Norell, the founder and former co-CEO of Altus Power (NYSE: AMPS), will provide added leadership to Edly as it continues to rapidly expand its innovative funding solutions to capital providers, students, athletes and schools.

Norell brings more than three decades of experience in building and growing businesses in capital markets and asset origination, and will apply his knowledge and expertise to help further scale Edly's offering among users on each side of its two-sided marketplace.

"We are thrilled to welcome Lars to the Edly team," said Chris Ricciardi, CEO of Edly, "As the Edly platform continues to attract significant interest from capital providers, students and schools, this is the ideal moment to more fully leverage Lars' decades of unique experience. Having grown multiple successful businesses from startup to large scale – including going public – there is perhaps no one better suited to help lead our team as we continue our mission to provide flexible and attractive funding to students and student-athletes."

In prior executive roles at Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Cohen & Company, Norell pioneered multiple unique structured credit products that ultimately became industry staples. Most recently, Norell co-founded Altus Power, helping grow the company from a startup to a public company with a market cap of more than $500 million. Before being appointed Executive Chairman, Norell was an early investor in Edly through his investment company, Start Capital. He has also been a non-executive director on the Edly board since the company's inception in 2019.

"Chris has built an incredible platform and assembled a very strong team at Edly, and our board looks forward to providing additional leadership and support for the significant growth that lies ahead," said Norell. "Edly is recognized as being both investor-friendly to capital providers and accessible and attractive to students and college athletes. With our current growth of asset flow we will look to capture a greater share of the market going forward."

About Edly

Edly is a thought leader in helping shape a better way to provide education financing. Edly pioneered the concept of "outcomes-based" lending for private student loans, which aligns the interests of students, schools and investors. In 2023, Edly also introduced an innovative Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) funding solution (NILLY) for student-athletes that utilizes the Edly platform. Co-founded by NBA champion and ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, NILLY has already provided NIL funding for multiple athletes and has garnered significant attention from high-profile athletes, investors and the media.

About Start Capital

Start Capital invests in re-industrialization, supporting growth and innovation in the power, industry, and education sectors.

SOURCE Edly, Inc.