Wharton Fintech Podcast

Building Unicorns and Redefining Online Banking - Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade CEO/Co-Founder I sat down with Renaud Laplanche, co-founder and CEO of Upgrade, a neobank that offers affordable and responsible credit to mainstream consumers. Since inception in 2017, Upgrade has surpassed $100 million in revenue run rate and a billion-dollar valuation. The company is backed by some of the best VCs in the industry and has raised over $200M dollars in debt and equity, including Mouro Capital, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures, FirstMark Capital, CreditEase, and many more. Prior to Upgrade, Renaud founded and ran Lending Club, a company that pioneered consumer fintech and that he took public in December 2014 at a 10B dollar valuation. There’s no doubt Renaud and Lending Club inspired a generation of fintech founders around the world and countless of fintech founders repeatedly cite Lending Club as an inspiration for their companies. Renaud is also in a select and exclusive club of founders that have started not