Credit-focused company Upgrade raises $280 million at $6 billion valuation – TechCrunch

Fintech company Upgrade has raised a Series F round just four months after raising its previous round. Today, the company is announcing $280 million in new funding at a $6 billion pre-money valuation.

In August, the company announced its Series E round — $105 million at a $3.325 billion valuation. In other words, the company is both well capitalized and has increased its valuation by a few billion dollars in very little time.

Today’s Series F round was led by Coatue Management and DST Global. Dragoneer Investment Group also participated, as well as some existing investors, such as Gopher Asset Management, G Squared, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Old Well Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital, Ventura Capital and Vy Capital.

Upgrade is focusing on responsible credit for consumers in the U.S. It offers several credit cards that encourage you to pay your balance on time. When you make your monthly balance payments, you receive rewards.

The company offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases with its Cash Rewards card. It also lets you receive 1.5% back in bitcoin with another credit card focused on bitcoin rewards.

But what if you can’t pay your monthly balance? In order to help you get out of your credit card debt, Upgrade combines monthly charges into installment plans that you can pay back over 24 to 60 months. You pay down your balance at a fixed rate with equal monthly payments.

The company has also launched checking accounts and debit cards for people looking for an alternative to their existing bank account. In particular, there are no monthly fees and no minimum account balance. You also get rewards on debit card payments.

And if you don’t want to get a new credit card or a new bank account, Upgrade also lets you apply to personal loans with APRs ranging from 5.94% to 35.97%.

Overall, the company has delivered $10 billion in credit to consumers through its credit cards and personal loans. But Upgrade’s growth has been accelerating as the company expects to deliver $8 billion in credit in 2021 alone.