Digital consumer lending platform Upstart Holdings Inc. cut about 70 jobs in Columbus late last year, the fintech has confirmed. The company also has exited a second office in Easton just over a year after expanding there.
Upstart (Nasdaq: UPST) is seeking someone to take over its sublease from publicly traded Bread Financial Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BFH) off Stelzer Road, a spokesman confirmed in response to questions from Columbus Inno.
"Because of the shift to more hybrid and remote work, we’re no longer occupying Easton," he said via email.
Also, roughly half of the 140 employees terminated on Nov. 1 were in Columbus, the company confirmed. Based jointly in San Mateo, California, and Columbus, Upstart had not previously enumerated the locations of affected employees who processed loan applications.
The cuts were announced in a single-sentence regulatory filing, citing a drop in loan volume. Upstart's share price has fallen dramatically since it went public in late 2020, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.
“We’re eyes wide open to the challenges of the current macroeconomy and determined to make the decisions that will optimize for the long-term success of Upstart,” Dave Girouard, co-founder and CEO, said in a release the following week, when the company reported third-quarter earnings.
Although revenue increased to $695.5 million in the first nine months of 2022 from the prior year, Upstart swung to a $53.4 million loss to-date, compared with profit in 2021. The company projected further losses in the fourth quarter. It reports year-end results Feb. 14.
Upstart today has about 750 employees in Central Ohio, the spokesman said, and still has its HQ2 office in the Short North.
The company had about 500 Columbus employees, bigger than its Silicon Valley office, in October 2021, when it announced the Easton sublease and plans to double staff in coming years.
The 235,000-square-foot Easton building at 3075 Loyalty Circle, one of three in Bread's HQ complex, is among notably large spaces that recently became available for sublease in the region. Overall available sublease space in the region has doubled in recent months to 2 million square feet, Columbus Business First recently reported.
Upstart is not itself a lender. The platform uses machine learning to better assess risk, allowing its client banks and credit unions to open credit to more people at lower rates. Honda Motor Co. added Upstart Auto Retail car-buying software for its dealers late last year.
Several tech companies cut jobs over the past year, especially those sensitive to fluctuating consumer demand during high inflation and rising interest rates.
