Koch Disruptive Technologies, an investment subsidiary of chemical and energy conglomerate Koch Industries, led a $105m series E round for US-based consumer credit provider Upgrade on Wednesday at a pre-money valuation above $3.3bn.
The round also included BRV Capital and Ventura Capital, which were advised by Julius Baer, while FT Partners was financial and strategic adviser to Upgrade.
Founded in 2017, Upgrade offers an online credit banking service that provides affordable credit through cards and personal loans, alongside free credit monitoring and education tools to help consumers better understand and manage their finances. It has provided more than $7bn of credit to its customers since inception.
Santander InnoVentures, the strategic investment subsidiary of financial services firm Santander since spun off as venture capital firm Mouro Capital, led a $40m series D round for Upgrade in June 2020, valuing the business at about $1bn.
Ribbit Capital, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Uncorrelated Ventures, Union Square Ventures (USV), Ventura Capital and Vy Capital also took part in the series D round.
Online lender CreditEase’s Fintech Investment Fund led a $62m series C round for the company in 2018 that valued it at $500m and which included financial services firm Noah Holdings, Apoletto, USV, FirstMark Capital, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, SVB and Vy Capital.
Upgrade had previously collected $60m in debt and series A equity financing in a 2017 round featuring Noah Holdings, CreditEase, USV, Ribbit Capital, Vy Capital, SVB, Apoletto, FirstMark Capital, Sands Capital Ventures and Uprising.