US-based online lending platform developer LendUp has raised $47.5m in an equity round backed by GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet technology group Alphabet, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
Accelerator Y Combinator led the round through its venture capital fund, YC Continuity, and according to TechCrunch other participants included Thomvest Ventures, QED Investors, Data Collective, Susa Ventures, Radicle Impact, Bronze Investments and SV Angel.
The round valued LendUp at about $500m, people familiar with the matter told WSJ, while LendUp CEO Sasha Orloff said the funding was closed at the end of July.
Founded in 2012, LendUp operates an online service that lends up to $500 a time to customers with low credit scores. The more customers borrow and repay money in a timely fashion, the better loan terms they can access in future.
The funding will support the expansion of L Card, the credit card service LendUp trialled in 2015. Users can generally borrow between $300 and $1,000 through the card, and the company says there are no hidden fees and a flexible schedule for repayment.
LendUp has now raised almost $260m in debt and equity altogether. It secured $150m in a January 2016 series B round featuring $100m in debt financing from Victory Park Capital and equity funding from GV, Data Collective, Susa Ventures, QED Investors, Kapor Capital, Yuri Milner, SV Angel, Eagle Cliff and Bronze Investments.
GV had already taken part in the company’s a $14m series A round in 2013, which included QED, Data Collective and angel investor Matt Ocko, as well as its 2012 seed round.
Past LendUp investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, Thomvest Ventures, Founders CoOp and Startfund, while Victory Park also provided $50m in debt in 2014.