# Upgrade

Upgrade is an Asset Manager based in San Francisco, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Region:** Asia
- **Address:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** upgrade.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/upgradegr

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Check your rate for a fixed-rate personal loan and borrow up to $50,000. Or get started with Upgrade Card in just minutes. Check out Rewards Checking with cash back rewards and more. We're here to help you build the future you want.

## Sectors

- FinTech
- Private Credit

## Offices

- Phoenix, AZ
- Montréal, Canada
- Atlanta, GA
- Orange County, CA

## People

- Renaud Laplanche — Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer
- Adelina Grozdanova — Co-founder, Head of Investor Group
- Jeff Bogan — Co-founder, Chief Finance Officer
- Visar Nimani — Co-founder, Chief Information Officer
- Matt Wierman — Co-founder, Head of Cards and Loans

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Upgrade?

Co-founder and Head of Investor Group Adelina Grozdanova manages the capital-markets function and oversees relationships with the institutional buyers that purchase Upgrade-originated credit. CEO Renaud Laplanche sets overall strategy. The firm has not publicly disclosed a separate CIO; portfolio and credit decisions appear to flow through the risk and capital-markets teams under Grozdanova and Chief Risk Officer Tom Curran.

### How does Upgrade fund its loans?

Upgrade uses a hybrid model. It retains a portion of originated loans on its own balance sheet and sells the rest through a bank-partner network and to institutional asset managers. This structure gives it the flexibility to optimize between spread capture and balance-sheet capacity, depending on market conditions.

### Is Upgrade a bank, a marketplace lender, or something else?

Upgrade is a state-licensed lender that operates both a direct-to-consumer mobile platform and a bank-partnership marketplace. It issues loans and cards directly, holds some assets on its own book, and distributes others to bank partners and institutional buyers. It also offers deposit accounts through partner banks.

### What is Upgrade's relationship to LendingClub?

Renaud Laplanche founded LendingClub in 2006 and served as its CEO until he resigned in 2016. He then founded Upgrade in 2017 as a separate entity. While both operate in consumer credit, Upgrade was built with a different structural model that includes balance-sheet retention and a card product, whereas LendingClub operated initially as a pure peer-to-peer marketplace.

### What investment stages or asset classes does Upgrade target?

Upgrade originates consumer credit assets — primarily unsecured personal loans and card receivables structured as installment obligations. It does not operate as a venture-stage investor or a multi-asset-class manager. Its tangible deployment is concentrated in US consumer credit originated through its digital platform.

### How is Upgrade's board structured, and who sits on it?

Upgrade's board includes CEO Renaud Laplanche, venture investor Meyer 'Micky' Malka (Ribbit Capital), fintech executive Anju Patwardhan, and risk-management specialists Dr. Joseph Breeden and Joseph Huber, along with Peter Sterling, Chris Gottschalk, and Mark Ortiz. The composition reflects a mix of venture-backer oversight and deep credit-risk governance.

## Related profiles

- [Haball](https://altss.com/profile/haball)
- [Finom](https://altss.com/profile/finom)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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