Upgrade, Inc. Appoints Western Union Executive as General Counsel

Consumer credit platform builds up executive team as it scales loan
volume

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Upgrade, Inc. (http://www.upgrade.com),
the new consumer credit platform launched by LendingClub founder Renaud
Laplanche earlier this year, today announced the appointment of John Dye
as General Counsel. Prior to joining Upgrade, John was Executive Vice
President, General Counsel and Secretary of The Western Union Company.
He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Western Union
Foundation.

“John is a great addition to the team,” said Upgrade co-founder and
Chief Executive Officer Renaud Laplanche. “He offers a unique
combination of financial services and regulatory experience with a
desire to innovate and build better credit products that will change the
lives of millions.”

Before joining Western Union in November 2011, John was Senior Vice
President, Interim General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Freddie
Mac from July 2011. From 2007 to July 2011, John served as Senior Vice
President, Principal Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Affairs of
Freddie Mac, where he worked on corporate transactions and managed
attorneys in the areas of corporate disclosure, securities, intellectual
property, contracts and human resources.

Prior to joining Freddie Mac, John spent 13 years at Citigroup Inc. in
New York City, where he held senior leadership positions, and served as
Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel at Salomon Smith Barney (full
bio here).

“I am thrilled to join the Upgrade team and put three decades of legal,
compliance and regulatory experience to work to create innovative
solutions designed to lower the cost of credit for consumers and help
investors achieve attractive returns,” said John Dye.

Upgrade also hired Louis Shansky, a partner on the securitization team
at the law firm of Mayer Brown, as Deputy General Counsel.

Upgrade closed its Series A round of financing in March 2017, raising
$60 million in equity and convertible notes from investors including
Apoletto, CreditEase, FirstMark Capital, Noah Holdings, Ribbit Capital,
Sands Capital Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Union Square Ventures,
Uprising and Vy Capital.

Upgrade now has over 120 team members working out of its San Francisco,
California headquarters, Phoenix, Arizona operations center and
Montreal, Quebec, Canada development center.

All loans originated through the Upgrade platform are issued by WebBank,
Member FDIC. Upgrade acquires loans from WebBank, retains a
representative portion of those loans on its balance sheet and offers
whole loans for sale to institutional investors. Jefferies is advising
the company on its capital markets strategy and participates in loan
purchases to help establish the company’s securitization program.

About Upgrade

Upgrade is a new consumer credit platform that combines personal loans
with credit monitoring, alerts and credit education tools that help
consumers better understand and monitor their credit and unlock their
credit potential. Upgrade is based in San Francisco, California, with an
operations center in Phoenix, Arizona and a development center in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Upgrade does not facilitate loans to residents
of Connecticut, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and
West Virginia. More information is available at: http://www.upgrade.com.

Contacts

Upgrade, Inc.
Hillary Lazarus
press@upgrade.com