Co-Pilot Finance Buys Loanezi, Targets 100-Agency National Network

By Daniel Okafor

SME franchise brokerage Co-Pilot Finance and Insurance (CPFI) has acquired Queensland-based brokerage Loanezi, completed in September for an undisclosed sum, as it chases a target of 100 agencies nationally.

The deal, struck with Loanezi founder and managing director Renee Tocco, includes the brokerage's intellectual property, database and digital assets, alongside its brand. CPFI, founded by George Dib and Peter Magoulias in North Sydney, has built a network of 15 agencies over two years and plans a future capital raise to fund its next growth phase.

What does the deal cover?

CPFI will retain the Loanezi name, at least for now. Head office will run the business initially, before a possible transition to a Gold Coast agency. Co-founder and chief executive George Dib said the acquisition brought an established business-owner customer base and vendor referral relationships into the network.

"Loanezi is a direct-to-customer model with vendor relationships, as far as referral partners are concerned, so, for us, we don't want to muck around too much with it for the first couple years," Dib told The Adviser.

"We'd love to leave it as is. All we're going to do is expand the products as far as that business is concerned. So expand it out to be not just the vendors but to start really talking to these people about all the other products that we can eventually help them with via the Loanezi brand."

CPFI offers asset finance, business finance and insurance through its agency network. Dib said the broader proposition also covers business acquisitions and commercial property, so owners can access multiple services through one organisation.

"Co-Pilot is built for the business owner, we focus our attention on business owners. We want to be able to create that environment where a business feels like they can come to us, and all of their needs are looked after," Dib said.

Why sell to CPFI?

This is Tocco's second sale of Loanezi. She sold the business to online small-business lender Prospa in 2021, served as its northern regional manager, then bought it back in 2023 and returned to broking. She was later appointed the Finance Brokers Association of Australia's (FBAA) first national commercial and asset manager in late 2023, holding the role until late 2024.

For Tocco, the commercial logic is simple: CPFI's product range is broader than what she offered alone.

"What they have at CPFI is way more extensive than what I offered via Loanezi. I was always very niche. I believe under their model the value proposition they have to offer exceeds what I had to offer already off the front end," Tocco told The Adviser.

"I believe that all of my referral partners are going to benefit from them a lot more."

She is stepping away from operational finance broking to pursue interests in allied health and healthtech, returning to her original university studies in naturopathy after receiving a scholarship offer to continue her natural-health education. The intention is for her to join CPFI as a non-executive director as the business grows and establishes a formal board.

Tocco said she chose CPFI deliberately, on trust built over more than a decade, and would have closed the brokerage rather than sell it to a buyer she did not believe in.

"The reason I approached CPFI and George specifically is George and I have been good friends and really trusted colleagues for over a decade and really I love the way he operates," she said. "I deliberately chose them because I really believe that the model they have is viable in this changing landscape."

How will CPFI integrate Loanezi?

Head office will own and run Loanezi during the first ownership period. Dib framed the first six months as a learning exercise.

"For us, it's very much a learning experience as well over the course of the first six months to understand what these clients are looking for," he said. "But for us, it's also really important that head office owns it, maintains it, runs it, so that when we do start obviously giving opportunities to our agencies, they're very equipped with the process that's required."

Loanezi could eventually become a Gold Coast agency. Dib said a prospective operator would need an established, successful business of their own, with Loanezi complementing it.

The relationship behind the deal dates to Dib's former business, Amfin, to which Tocco referred finance applications outside her own specialisation. "Renee and I have known each other since my Amfin days, and Renee used to actually be quite an active referrer and supporter of ours," Dib said.

CPFI's model differs from a typical aggregator, according to Dib: the network owns all its business units and recruits selectively.

"We're very similar to the likes of an aggregator, the biggest difference between us and an aggregator is we own all of our business units," he said. "So whether it be asset finance, insurance, or resi, where a lot of the time they outsource that to referral partners, we own it, and more importantly, we're not trying to bring on anyone and everyone, we want to bring on highly qualified brokers who really resonate with our strategy."

With Loanezi's brand and referral base now inside the network, CPFI has added a proven asset as it works toward 100 agencies — and a planned capital raise signals that the expansion push is only beginning.