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upstart

Overview

Total employees1652
Departments20
Locations12

Upstart is a prominent U.S.-based fintech company revolutionizing the consumer lending landscape through its AI-powered lending platform. Operating within the financial technology sector, Upstart partners with banks and credit unions to offer personal loans, auto refinance loans, and small business loans. The company distinguishes itself by utilizing sophisticated machine learning models to assess credit risk, aiming to provide more accurate and inclusive loan approvals compared to traditional FICO-based scoring systems. By expanding access to credit and reducing lender risk, Upstart has established itself as a significant technology-driven alternative in the consumer lending market, particularly targeting millennials and other demographics often underserved by conventional financial institutions. Beyond loan origination, Upstart also provides a lending-as-a-service (LaaS) platform, enabling other financial institutions to leverage its technology for their own lending operations.

upstart's headcount breakdown by department

DepartmentHeadCount
Administrative
19
Consulting
5
Service
38
Design
5
Education
5
Finance
148
Management
13
Hr
33
Legal
51
Marketing
25
Medical
0
Operations
62
Department
119
Product
50
Management
18
Estate
0
Research
76
Sales
62
Technical
350
Trades
2

Upstart's workforce distribution strongly reflects a technology-centric and data-driven business model. The substantial technical team (approximately 21% of the workforce) underscores the company's reliance on proprietary algorithms, machine learning, and software engineering for its core credit assessment and lending platform. The robust research team further reinforces this, indicating a continuous focus on improving its AI models and exploring new data sources for more accurate risk prediction. While the finance team is also significant, this is expected given the regulatory requirements and financial operations inherent to the lending industry. The balanced sales and operations teams suggest a blended approach to growth, likely focusing on strategic partnerships with banks and credit unions, supported by efficient loan servicing operations. The comparatively large legal and compliance departments highlight the crucial importance of navigating complex financial regulations and maintaining compliance standards. This department composition reinforces the idea that Upstart is primarily a technology company within the financial services space, where innovation in credit risk assessment and technological efficiencies are key to achieving competitive advantage, with a strategic focus on partnering with established financial institutions rather than building a massive direct sales force.

upstart's employees by locations

Employee Count by Country

Total: 1,080 employees

1063
United States
98.4%
6
Brazil
0.6%
3
United Kingdom
0.3%
1
India
0.1%
1
France
0.1%
1
Kuwait
0.1%
1
China
0.1%
1
Bangladesh
0.1%
1
Dominican Republic
0.1%
1
Australia
0.1%

Upstart's global workforce distribution is overwhelmingly concentrated in the United States, demonstrating a clear focus on the domestic consumer loan market. The vast majority of its employees are based in the U.S., aligning with its core business strategy of partnering with U.S.-based banks and credit unions. The minimal international presence, characterized by a small number of employees scattered across various countries, suggests a strategic approach of exploring potential future expansion or supporting existing partnerships in those regions, or potentially serving as a means to acquire talent. The limited global footprint indicates Upstart's primary focus remains on deepening its penetration within the U.S. market before actively pursuing substantial international expansion. This strategy allows the company to leverage its existing infrastructure, navigate the relatively uniform regulatory landscape of the US, and build a strong foundation before tackling the complexities of international markets.

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upstart Headcount by Region & Department | Highperform AI