Renaud Laplanche has announced the launch of a new online consumer lending platform called Upgrade; the firm's investors include Apoletto, CreditEase, FirstMark Capital, Noah Holdings, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Union Square Ventures, Uprising and Vy Capital; the firm will partner with WebBank for loan originations and plans to sell its loans to institutional investors; it is working with Jefferies on its capital markets strategy and a loan securitization program; the firm also has plans to use blockchain for data management and transactions. Source
Upgrade has launched for consumer lending; Lend Academy provides details on the platform's fundraising, lending criteria and lending structure; Renaud Laplanche has raised $60 million for the new company; its loans will focus on high credit quality borrowers with low debt-to-income and minimum monthly free cash flow of $1,000; loans range from $2,000 to $50,000; the platform will be partnering with WebBank for loan originations and will then acquire the loans and sell them to institutional investors with some portion of the loans retained on the firm's balance sheet. Source
Renaud Laplanche's new consumer lending platform, Upgrade, has announced a new executive hire; John Dye will be joining the executive team as general counsel; John brings experience from Western Union and has also worked at Freddie Mac, Citigroup and Salomon Smith Barney; John Dye will support the firm's legal, compliance and regulatory operations; he is joined by Louis Shansky who has also been hired as deputy counsel. Source
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SuperMoney reviews the new US consumer lending platform founded by Renaud Laplanche; firm is an online lender focused on personal loans, also offering consumer credit monitoring and education for its customers with benefits for high quality borrowers; SuperMoney outlines the platform's underwriting standards, application process, and pros and cons versus competitors. Source