Wholesaler Western Bancorp acquired by Eli Global

Western Bancorp, a wholesale mortgage originator based in San Jose, Calif., was acquired by Eli Global, a privately held investment company.

The management team at Western Bancorp, including CEO and founder Rick Soukoulis, are remaining with the company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"With Eli Global as our new capital partner, we will grow our wholesale origination footprint, enter into new channels, and make strategic investments in technology that will allow us to become a leading innovator in the wholesale mortgage fintech revolution," Soukoulis said in a press release.

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The company currently originates in 12 Western states, but plans to be a national lender by 2018, he said in a follow-up email.

Soukoulis, along with the owners of Intero Real Estate, founded Western Bancorp in late 2008, according to the company's website. He acquired sole ownership in Western Bancorp in 2014.

Prior to that, he started one of the early technology-focused wholesale lenders, Loancity.com, in 1999. It rebranded as LoanCity in 2005. However, the company was one of many that shut down because of the housing crisis, going out of business in March 2007 because of capital problems.

Eli Global, of Durham, N.C., owns over 50 companies across several industries, including financial services, insurance, health care, marketing and sales.