Upstart Closes $358 Million Securitization

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Upstart continues to deliver on our mission to expand access to credit by using AI, machine learning, and alternative data to evaluate a borrower’s creditworthiness. Building on last week’s Congressional testimony in which we discussed how our AI lending model increases approval rates by 27% and lowers interest rates by 16% compared to a traditional model, plus the recent update from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on our No-Action Letter, we’re very excited to reach another major milestone in our growth trajectory.

We have just closed our sixth term securitization of personal loans, Upstart Securitization Trust 2019-2 (UPST 2019-2). The securities issued in this transaction, the largest to date for Upstart, were placed by a group of banks led by Goldman Sachs in the Rule 144A market for qualified institutional buyers. The transaction was well-received by both new and existing institutional investors. UPST 2019-2 issued approximately $358 million in asset-backed bonds collateralized by personal loans facilitated through Upstart’s AI lending platform.

With this transaction, capital markets continue to demonstrate their growing appetite for the superior underwriting delivered by AI-powered lending, and continue to recognize Upstart’s leadership in this area. As the only company in the space to have received a No-Action Letter from the CFPB, we are able to demonstrate that our model expands access to credit across every underserved demographic group. We have originated more than $4B through our platform, empowering more than 300,000 borrowers to receive lower priced credit.

This securitization was rated by both Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. and DBRS and includes approximately $230 million of Class A notes rated, respectively, “A- (sf)/A (low) (sf)”, $61 million of Class B notes rated “BBB- (sf)/BBB(low) (sf)” and $66 million of Class C notes rated “BB- (sf)/unrated”, as well as asset-backed residual certificates.