San Francisco-based fintech Upgrade plans hiring in Phoenix as it seeks to double its workforce of 750 over the next 12 months after raising $105 million in fresh capital.
The new hires will be based in the company’s offices in downtown Phoenix, San Francisco and Montreal, while some may work remotely, CEO Renaud Laplanche told the Business Journals on Wednesday. Upgrade plans to embrace a hybrid workforce post-pandemic, with customer-facing employees working at one of the company’s offices.
Upgrade said Wednesday that it raised $105 million in a Series E round that tripled the company’s valuation to $3.325 billion.
“I was delighted to reach this milestone, tripling our valuation in just one year,” Laplanche said. “This is great recognition for the team, which worked hard to keep delivering products and services to our customers in difficult conditions throughout the pandemic.
“We have experienced unprecedented growth and profitability this year,” Laplanche said, without disclosing numbers. The company, which has extended $7 billion in credit since its founding in 2017, is on track to lend $7 billion in 2021 alone.
The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, or KDT, which is the investment arm of Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc.
BRV and Ventura Capital, advised by Julius Baer, also participated in this latest round.
“We are seeing rapid innovation in banking and believe fintech — and neobanks in particular — will profoundly transform the banking industry to the greater benefit of consumers,” Byron Knight, managing director at KDT, said in a statement.
Growth in Phoenix
The company's Phoenix office was its first outside of California, when it expanded into an operations center in 2017 on two floors of the Renaissance Square Building One at 2 N. Central Ave. The following year, the company expanded that two-floor office onto another floor after another funding round. At the time, Upgrade had 200 Phoenix employees and planned to hire 100 more.
Upgrade offers personal loans as well as a Visa credit card that allows purchases to be paid in installment plans with fixed rates and fixed monthly payments. The company has tapped into the growing consumer interest to buy now and pay later, paying for purchases through installment plans.
“Many consumers are now coming to understand that credit cards are bad for you,” Laplanche said.
Earlier this year, Upgrade debuted a rewards checking account that offers an unusual 2% cash back on debit card purchases. In July, Upgrade introduced the Upgrade Bitcoin Rewards Card, a credit card that offers rewards in bitcoin.
Upgrade is competing in a hot sector. Square made a big splash this month with its $29 billion stock-swap deal to acquire Afterpay, which pioneered the buy now pay later space. Visa is offering a new feature to help card issuers offer BNPL programs.
