Participated · Series F · Nov 2021

Founded in 2016 by LendingClub founder Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade began with small personal loans and has since broadened into a full suite of consumer-facing financial products including checking and savings accounts, a credit card, credit-health monitoring tools, and a travel-focused buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering. The company acquired BNPL travel firm Uplift for $100 million in 2023 to deepen its presence in that vertical. Upgrade’s lending portfolio now spans home-improvement and auto financing, which have surpassed $2 billion and $1 billion in total originations, respectively. Annualized revenue topped $1 billion in May 2024, more than doubling since its last fundraise, and the business has been cash-flow positive for three consecutive years. Management is concentrating on unifying the customer experience across products to encourage cross-selling. Laplanche indicated the firm is 12-18 months away from an IPO but sought fresh capital to buttress the balance sheet and enable employee liquidity ahead of a listing. Competition remains intense from neobanks and fintechs such as Chime, SoFi, PayPal, Block, Affirm, and Klarna.