Renaud Laplanche

Renaud Laplanche is a prominent entrepreneur and fintech leader who has left a lasting impact on the financial industry. Born in Fontenay, France in 1970, Laplanche has studied business and law, earning his MBA from HEC Business School in Paris, France, and London Business School. After founding TripleHop Technologies, a software company, he successfully sold the company to Oracle Corporation. In 2006, he founded LendingClub, a peer-to-peer lending platform that quickly became one of the most successful fintech startups, going public in 2014 and raising $870 million in its IPO. Following his groundbreaking work at LendingClub, Laplanche was looking for the next frontier of improvements to be made to the financial sector. Upon determining there was a clear need for improved access to credit-building services, he founded Upgrade. Upgrade is a neobank that provides mobile banking, credit cards and lending to mainstream consumers. Since its launch in 2016, Upgrade has emerged as one of the fastest-growing US fintech startups, originating over $22 billion in loans. Laplanche's contributions to the fintech industry have earned him a reputation as a major force in the future of the industry. He has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential leaders by Bloomberg Markets.