Fintech Upgrade has raised $165 million in new equity investment. Upgrade’s Series G preferred round was led by Neuberger, with participation from LuminArx Capital Management. Existing shareholders, including DST Global, Ribbit Capital and several others, also increased their investment in the company. Peter Sterling, head of specialty finance at Neuberger, is joining Upgrade’s board of directors.
Upgrade has delivered more than $42 billion in credit to more than 7.5 million customers since its inception in 2017. The company offers a wide range of banking and credit products, including mobile banking; buy now, pay later; credit cards, personal loans; home improvement financing and auto financing. Upgrade has established unique distribution channels with hundreds of airlines, cruise lines and other travel brands, as well as thousands of home improvement contractors and car dealerships across the country.
“Upgrade presents an unmatched opportunity in fintech,” said Sterling. “As many companies in the space struggle with acquisition costs and monetization strategy, (it) has sustained profitable growth through a multi-product, multi-channel strategy that relies on low-cost, proprietary distribution channels to acquire new customers and its ability to monetize users through multiple products. We have known Renaud and the founding team for over a decade and are very excited to expand our partnership.”
The fintech recently achieved significant growth milestones, including $2 billion in cumulative home improvement financing and $1 billion in auto financing.
“We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Neuberger and welcome Peter as a new board member,” said Upgrade co-founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche. “We are planning to use the new equity capital to keep developing new products and expand distribution to achieve our goal of helping more mainstream consumers get the banking and credit products they need today, while improving their financial and credit standing in the long run.”
The company has raised $750 million in equity capital since its inception. Last August, Upgrade shared with CI that it was considering an initial public offering at some point in the not so distant future.