A Texas company that specializes in supporting car leasingthrough credit unions has acquired GrooveCar Family of Brands, aLong Island, N.Y., company that provides credit unions with onlineand mobile platforms that allow members to pick cars and arrangeloans.

The buyer, Fusion Auto Finance of Bedford, Texas, and GrooveCarof Hauppauge, N.Y., announced the deal Aug. 10, but did notdisclose the price.

Fusion and GrooveCar had previously worked together to create CUXpress Lease as a joint venture. GrooveCar provided the indirectlending platform, marketed the program to dealers, acted as aliaison on behalf of the credit union, and managed the dealerrelationships.

Fusion owns each leased vehicle, bears the value risk when thevehicle leases mature, paying the credit unions full residualvalue. CU Xpress Lease has a portfolio exceeding $5 billion andmore than 100,000 vehicles.

Jim Calvert, Fusion's CEO and majority owner, founded the Dallas-Ft. Worthcompany in 2004 to offer a leasing option to credit unions. He saidacquiring CU Xpress Lease will allow Fusion to make the programmore efficient and competitive.

“GrooveCar provides an exciting opportunity for us to strengthenour relationships with our credit union partners and to accelerateour growth plans into new markets,” Calvert said. “We're excited towelcome the GrooveCar team to our organization and look forward toworking together to further enhance our product offering.”

The GrooveCar Family of Brands also includes GrooveCar Direct,an online auto buying platform for credit union members. Theacquisition also includes CU Xpress Lease CA, CUAutoCoupon andGrooveCar, Inc.

GrooveCar announced on July 31 that it had gained alliances with22 credit unions encompassing assets of $5.7 billion and 550,121members during the second quarter. The largest were Bay Ridge ofBrooklyn, N.Y. ($200 million in assets, 8,139 members), EducatorsCredit Union of Waco, Texas ($397.9 million in assets, 27,848members), Justice Federal Credit Union of Chantilly, Va. ($713.5million in assets, 58,106 members), Money One Federal Credit Unionof Largo, Md. ($124.9 million in assets, 12,544 members) and StateEmployees Federal Credit Union of Albany, N.Y. ($3.5 billion inassets, 354,607 members).