Two news items on Upstart just hit my radar.
First is that the BCU credit union has just partnered with UPST. BCU is “one of the nation’s Top 100 credit unions serving over 300,000 members in the US and Puerto Rico”. BCU has also been named to the annual Forbes list of Best-In-State Credit Unions, ranking #1 in Illinois and #5 in Minnesota for 2020.
“As an Upstart lending partner since June 2021, BCU will be part of the Upstart Referral Network. With the Upstart Referral Network, qualified personal loan applicants on Upstart.com who meet BCU’s credit policies receive tailored offers as they seamlessly transition into a BCU-branded experience to complete the online member application and closing process.”
The above was announced at UPST’s investor relations microsite at https://ir.upstart.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bc…
Also, the VP of Investor Relations, Jason Schmidt, confirmed in an email today that “7 banks have signed up for auto loans when they launch”. Note that no revenue from auto loans have been included in their forward guidance for 2022. However, that revenue could potentially exceed $500M, according to this tweet:
https://twitter.com/matrixanalytix/status/146106719949010534…
For me, personally, I never let my UPST allocation exceed 10% of my portfolio, and as I said here immediately after their earnings, I’m quite comfortable holding at this level. We are at an inflexion point in the S curve of AI-driven lending, and this will play out over multiple years.
-Ron
Long UPST