Upgrade is a bank startup that provides its clients with credits and mainstreams them through cards and personal loans. Among other features are free credit monitoring and education tools for better understanding finances and their management.
The Series F round was led by Coatue Management and DST Global. Other investors were Dragoneer Investment Group, Gopher Asset Management, G Squared, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Old Well Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital, Ventura Capital, and Vy Capital.
Upgrade, San-Francisco, was founded in 2016 by Adelina Grozdanova, Jeff Bogan, Matt Wierman, Renaud Laplanche (CEO), Soul Htite, Visar Nimani. Upgrade focuses on offering responsible credits with encouragement to pay on time by rewarding. The company helps those who cannot pay out the debt with a special program. Upgrade also has checking accounts and debit cards with no fees and no minimum balance. In total, the company has already provided its customers with more than $10 billion. “Consumers are discovering the benefit of a product that gives them all the convenience of a credit card but doesn’t push them further into debt,” Laplanche said.
