- Company — LendUp Loans, LLC
- Sector — Fintech / consumer lending
- Founded / Died — 2012 / lending ordered to cease December 2021; company wound down 2022
- Lifespan — ~10 years
- Capital raised — ~$360M in equity and debt (Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal's Peter Thiel, QED)
- Peak scale — More than 4 million loans issued; the credit-card spin-out (Mission Lane) was separated in 2018 and survives.
- What it built — Short-term consumer loans marketed as a socially responsible alternative to payday lending, with a "LendUp Ladder" that promised cheaper credit as borrowers repaid.
- Stated cause of death — The company did not publish an account. It settled with the CFPB and ceased originating loans.
- Evidenced cause — Regulatory, following repeat violations. The CFPB fined LendUp in 2016, then brought a further action in 2020 over military-lending violations, then in September 2021 sued for violating the 2016 order, alleging the "Ladder" did not deliver the cheaper credit it advertised. A December 2021 stipulated judgment permanently barred new lending and imposed a $100,000 penalty reduced from a much larger figure on inability to pay.
- Warning signs visible earlier — Being fined by your regulator in 2016 and then found in violation of that same order is about as clear a warning as the record produces.
- Money outcome — Equity investors largely wiped out, partially offset for some by the Mission Lane spin-out. Borrowers received redress. Employees dispersed.
- Post-mortem quality — None. The CFPB's filings are the record.
- Transferable lesson — In regulated consumer finance the marketing claim is the regulated product.
- Sources — CFPB enforcement action · CFPB announcement · Banking Dive
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