Exclusive: Carrington to acquire Valon Mortgage, adopt ValonOS, add $197B in UPB to servicing book

Carrington Mortgage Services and mortgage technology firm Valon announced on Thursday a strategic partnership that includes Carrington adopting Valon’s servicing platform and acquiring Valon Mortgage, adding to its servicing portfolio of about 800,000 loans.

The companies said the deal is aimed at modernizing Ginnie Mae servicing technology and expanding Carrington’s position as one of the nation’s largest independent mortgage servicers. According to Inside Mortgage Finance’s Top Primary Servicers, Carrington ranked 19th nationally as of the fourth quarter of 2025.

Carrington’s current portfolio contains more than 998,000 loans, representing more than $211 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB), according to the company. The 800,000 loans being added represent approximately $197 billion in UPB, Valon confirmed to HousingWire. The portfolio is “primarily made up of loans for which Valon serves as the subservicer.”

The acquisition of Valon Mortgage is in partnership with a private equity investor, Carrington said, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. The company declined to confirm the investor.

Under the partnership, Carrington will implement ValonOS as its core servicing platform.

The transaction builds on Carrington’s recent acquisition of Reliance First Capital, and it reflects the company’s broader strategy to grow its servicing platform and expand relationships with mortgage owners and investors. Financial terms of the transaction with Valon were not disclosed.

ValonOS is a modern alternative to legacy servicing technology that consolidates workflows, loan data and compliance logic into a single, AI-enabled system of record. For Carrington, the platform is expected to reduce manual reconciliation, speed borrower resolutions and streamline compliance across both government and conventional loan portfolios.

“We’ve seen what Valon has accomplished in a remarkably short period of time, and we believe they represent the future of Ginnie Mae servicing technology,” Andrew Taffet, CEO of The Carrington Companies, said in a statement. “Combining Carrington’s operational depth and government lending expertise with Valon’s technology will produce not just the most sophisticated Ginnie Mae servicer in the country, but the most efficient.”

Government mortgage servicing has long been viewed as one of the industry’s most operationally complex businesses because of agency requirements, investor reporting obligations and borrower assistance programs.

Carrington said its Ginnie Mae expertise will help shape how ValonOS supports government servicing workflows, agency reporting and loss-mitigation programs. The companies confirmed that the portfolio is not exclusively tied to Ginnie Mae but includes a mix of loan types across Valon’s subservicing platform, including conventional loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).

“The Valon platform is not just Ginnie, so the focus is not specifically Ginnie, but broader servicing operations. Carrington is going to help Valon to further develop their Ginnie Mae servicing technology as ValonOS is implemented, given their expertise with these loans,” the companies told HousingWire.

Valon CEO and co-founder Andrew Wang said the partnership would help establish ValonOS as a leading platform for government mortgage servicing.

“Their expertise will make ValonOS the definitive platform for the most complex corner of the industry, and our technology will give Carrington the infrastructure to do what they already do best — at even greater scale,” Wang said.

For Valon, the transaction marks a shift away from operating a mortgage servicer and toward an exclusive focus on technology development.

Valon president and co-founder Linda Du said the company built Valon Mortgage to validate its servicing technology under real-world conditions before expanding into a broader software provider.

“This transaction is structured to let us do what we always intended: go all-in as a technology company,” Du said. “We’re not exiting the mortgage industry. We’re choosing to power it.”

In February, Rithm Capital announced an expanded partnership with Valon Technologies and said it will use Valon’s AI-native mortgage servicing platform to service more than 4 million homeowners.

A spokesperson from Valon said that the acquisition does not impact Rithm’s partnership.

“Carrington’s acquisition of Valon Mortgage allows Valon to turn its full focus towards operating as a technology company serving the broader mortgage ecosystem. This means continuing to develop ValonOS and seeing broader adoption of it across the industry,” the spokesperson clarified.