Upstart Holdings, Inc.
Headquarters
Burlingame, CAFounded
2012CEO / Founder
Paul GuEmployees
501-1000Funding
Public — $162.5MStock
UPSTProducts
1 product listedAvg. AI Score
6.9/10Website
upstart.com/
Profile updated
About Upstart Holdings, Inc.
Upstart Holdings, Inc. operates an artificial intelligence lending platform that helps banks and credit unions evaluate borrower creditworthiness. The company was founded in 2012 by Dave Girouard, Anna Counselman, and Paul Gu, several of whom are former Google employees, and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.
Upstart's platform uses machine learning models trained on non-traditional variables, such as education and employment history, in addition to conventional credit data to assess loan applicants. Its bank and credit union partners use the platform to originate personal loans, automotive loans, and home equity lines of credit. The company has stated that a large majority of loans processed through its platform are approved instantly and without human intervention.
Upstart went public on the Nasdaq in December 2020 through a traditional IPO, trading under the ticker UPST. The company has since expanded into auto lending through its acquisition of Prodigy Software, a dealer software platform, and has continued to add bank and credit union partners to its network.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Upstart Holdings, Inc.
All products by Upstart Holdings, Inc. reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
Competitive Landscape
Who Upstart Holdings, Inc. competes with, and how they differ.
The closest structural analog: Pagaya (NASDAQ: PGY) sells AI credit decisioning into partner lenders as a pre-screen and second-look layer instead of acquiring borrowers itself, then funds the approvals it generates through its own securitizations and institutional funds. Upstart pairs the same bank and credit-union platform with a consumer-facing marketplace under its own brand, so the two compete for lender partners and for the institutional capital that buys the loans.
MoneyLion, acquired by Gen Digital in April 2025, competes at the top of the funnel rather than in the credit model: it monetizes a consumer finance app and an embedded marketplace that refers users to third-party lenders and card issuers for a fee, plus its own small-dollar Instacash advances and credit-builder loans. Upstart underwrites the credit itself and is paid by the banks and credit unions that originate against its model.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedCompany Timeline
Key milestones in Upstart Holdings, Inc.'s history, with sources.
- Partnership
Castlelake agrees to buy up to $4B of Upstart loans
Castlelake-managed funds agreed to purchase up to $4 billion of consumer loans originated on the Upstart platform over up to 24 months through a new forward-flow arrangement, Upstart announced on July 29, 2026.
finance.yahoo.com - Milestone
Applies for a national bank charter (Upstart Bank, N.A.)
Upstart announced a plan to apply to the OCC and the FDIC to establish an insured national bank, Upstart Bank, N.A., and to the Federal Reserve for approval to become a bank holding company. Chief Risk Officer Annie Delgado is the proposed CEO of the bank.
sec.gov - Milestone
Co-founder Paul Gu named CEO, succeeding Dave Girouard
The board appointed co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Paul Gu to succeed Dave Girouard as CEO effective May 1, 2026. Girouard, who founded the company in 2012, continues on the board as executive chairman.
sec.gov - Milestone
Cuts about 20% of staff, roughly 365 employees
Upstart implemented a reorganization reducing its workforce by approximately 20%, or about 365 employees, citing lenders and credit investors that had significantly reduced or paused loan originations. It estimated approximately $15 million in related charges.
sec.gov - Milestone
Q2 2022 warning: revenue cut to about $228M from $295-305M guidance
Preliminary unaudited results put Q2 2022 revenue at approximately $228 million against prior guidance of $295-305 million, with a net loss of $27-31 million versus guidance of roughly breakeven. CEO Dave Girouard cited a funding-constrained marketplace and the conversion of balance-sheet loans to cash in a fast-rising rate environment.
sec.gov - Acquisition
Acquires Prodigy Software for $89.0M
Upstart completed its acquisition of Prodigy Software, Inc., an automotive commerce software provider, for total purchase consideration of $89.0 million, largely 568,539 shares of Upstart common stock. The deal was intended to bring Upstart AI-enabled auto loans to dealerships.
sec.gov - Milestone
IPO on Nasdaq at $20.00 per share
Upstart sold 9,000,000 shares and selling stockholders 3,015,690 shares at $20.00 in a $240.3 million offering, listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market as UPST. Proceeds to Upstart before expenses were $167.4 million.
sec.gov - Funding
Series D - $50M led by Progressive Investment Company
The round also included Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and First National Bank of Omaha, taking total funding to $160 million. More than $3.3 billion in loans had originated on the platform, and the company said it had been profitable since the second half of 2018.
venturebeat.com - Funding
$32.5M round co-led by Rakuten as Upstart begins licensing its model
Rakuten co-led the round with an unnamed US asset manager, joined by Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital, taking total funding to about $85 million. Upstart paired it with a software model licensing its underwriting to banks, credit unions and retailers for a monthly fee plus a per-loan fee.
techcrunch.com - Funding
Series C - $35M led by Third Point Ventures
Forbes reported the $35 million round following a $1.75 million seed and a roughly $6 million Series A. By then Upstart had abandoned income-share agreements, which had attracted only about 150 borrowers, for three-year personal loans aimed at credit-card refinancing.
forbes.com - Funding
Seed round - $1.75M for an income-share funding marketplace
TechCrunch reported Upstart launching with $1.75 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, NEA, Google Ventures, First Round Capital, CrunchFund and Mark Cuban. The original product let graduates raise personal capital in exchange for a capped share of their future income.
techcrunch.com - Founded
Founded in Delaware as Upstart Network, Inc.
Dave Girouard left Google in 2012 to found Upstart with Anna Counselman and Paul Gu, betting that data science could price credit better than a decades-old credit score. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in December 2013 as the holding company of Upstart Network, Inc.
sec.gov
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