Upstart Holdings Inc (UPST) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Upstart Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Jason Schmidt, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

大家好，歡迎參加 2020 財年第四季度財報電話會議。今天的電話正在錄音。在這個時候，我想把會議交給投資者關係副總裁 Jason Schmidt。請繼續，先生。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Upstart's fourth quarter and 2020 financial results. With us on today's call are Dave Girouard, Upstart's Chief Executive Officer; and Sanjay Datta, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

下午好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議，討論 Upstart 的第四季度和 2020 年財務業績。 Upstart 的首席執行官 Dave Girouard 與我們一起參加今天的電話會議；和公司首席財務官 Sanjay Datta。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that shortly after the market closed today, Upstart issued a press release announcing its fourth quarter and 2020 financial results and published an Investor Relations presentation. Both are available on our Investor Relations website, ir.upstart.com. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements. Please refer to our Form 8-K dated March 17, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，在今天市場收盤後不久，Upstart 發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了其第四季度和 2020 年的財務業績，並發布了一份投資者關係報告。兩者都可以在我們的投資者關係網站 ir.upstart.com 上找到。今天的討論包括前瞻性陳述。請參閱我們於 2021 年 3 月 17 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的 8-K 表格，討論可能導致公司實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述產生重大差異的因素。

I would also like to remind you that during the call, we will discuss some non-GAAP measures related to Upstart's performance. You can find the reconciliation of those measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measure in the press release. (Operator Instructions) Now I'd like to turn it over to Dave Girouard, CEO of Upstart.

我還想提醒您，在電話會議期間，我們將討論一些與 Upstart 業績相關的非 GAAP 指標。您可以在新聞稿中找到這些措施與最接近的可比 GAAP 措施的對賬。 （操作員說明）現在我想把它交給 Upstart 的首席執行官 Dave Girouard。

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on upstart's inaugural earnings call covering our fourth quarter and full year 2020 results. I'm Dave Girouard, Co-Founder and CEO of Upstart.

大家下午好。感謝您參加 upstart 的首次財報電話會議，該電話會議涵蓋了我們 2020 年第四季度和全年的業績。我是 Upstart 的聯合創始人兼首席執行官 Dave Girouard。

Last quarter was monumental for us as we took the company public in the midst of a historically complex and challenging time for the U.S. and for the world. We began trading on December 16 on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol UPST. I'm excited to present our quarterly and full year results for the first time as a public company.

上個季度對我們來說具有里程碑意義，因為我們在美國和世界歷史複雜且充滿挑戰的時期將公司上市。我們於 12 月 16 日在納斯達克開始交易，股票代碼為 UPST。作為一家上市公司，我很高興首次展示我們的季度和全年業績。

Upstart has a unique combination of scale, rapid growth and profits driven by our underlying AI technology. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the elevated economic risk resulting from it, Upstart grew revenues 42% in 2020 compared to 2019 and was GAAP profitable as well. Our Q4 2020 revenues were up 39% year-on-year.

Upstart 在我們的基礎 AI 技術驅動下，擁有獨特的規模、快速增長和利潤組合。儘管發生了 COVID-19 大流行以及由此導致的經濟風險升高，但與 2019 年相比，Upstart 在 2020 年的收入增長了 42%，並且也實現了 GAAP 盈利。我們 2020 年第四季度的收入同比增長 39%。

Upstart is a fee-based business. We don't make loans and we aren't exposed to material balance sheet risk. But despite this, we care a lot about how Upstart loans perform. So we're happy to report that the COVID-19 pandemic had no material impact on the returns that our bank partners and loan investors experienced this past year.

Upstart 是一家收費業務。我們不提供貸款，也沒有面臨重大的資產負債表風險。但儘管如此，我們非常關心新貴貸款的表現。因此，我們很高興地報告說，COVID-19 大流行對我們的銀行合作夥伴和貸款投資者在過去一年中所經歷的回報沒有實質性影響。

We're also excited to announce that we've entered into an agreement to acquire Prodigy Software, a leader in cloud-based automotive commerce. Toward the end of last year, we originated the first AI-enabled auto loan on our platform. In this initial phase, Upstart is enabling consumers to refinance expensive and mid-priced car loans, saving them on average $72 per month. With the acquisition of Prodigy, we aim to accelerate upstart's presence in one of the largest buy now, pay later opportunities. Prodigy is bridging the gap between how dealerships operate and the new way that people shop for cars.

我們還很高興地宣布，我們已達成協議，收購基於雲的汽車商務領域的領導者 Prodigy Software。去年年底，我們在我們的平台上發起了第一筆支持人工智能的汽車貸款。在這個初始階段，Upstart 使消費者能夠為昂貴和中等價位的汽車貸款再融資，平均每月節省 72 美元。通過收購 Prodigy，我們的目標是加速新貴在最大的現在購買，以後付款的機會之一中的存在。 Prodigy 正在彌合經銷商運營方式與人們購買汽車的新方式之間的差距。

More than $2 billion in vehicle sales have been powered by Prodigy at franchise dealers from top brands such as Toyota, Honda and Ford. This acquisition is our first and signals our excitement about the long-term potential of our auto lending initiative.

Prodigy 在豐田、本田和福特等頂級品牌的特許經銷商處推動了超過 20 億美元的汽車銷售額。此次收購是我們的第一次收購，表明我們對汽車貸款計劃的長期潛力感到興奮。

To step back for a moment, Paul, Anna and I founded Upstart 9 years ago with the idea that modern technology and data science could improve access to affordable credit. Each of us came from extremely modest backgrounds, where access to credit was essential to our every step. Credit, both for consumers and businesses, is not just important personally, it's a cornerstone of our economy and essential to the growth and prosperity that Americans expect.

退一步說，Paul、Anna 和我在 9 年前創立了 Upstart，其理念是現代技術和數據科學可以改善獲得負擔得起的信貸的機會。我們每個人都來自極其普通的背景，獲得信貸對我們的每一步都至關重要。對消費者和企業而言，信用不僅對個人很重要，而且是我們經濟的基石，對美國人所期望的增長和繁榮至關重要。

There's broad consensus that the credit economy is highly inefficient, if not broken. Models for quantifying risk and pricing loans are not far from a roll of the dice. Millions of consumers don't have access to credit, pay too much for it or take on credit that they can't ultimately afford. On the other hand, banks in 2021 are swimming in deposits and are looking for more sophisticated tools to lend them out in a responsible and profitable manner. There's far less consensus that modern data science, namely artificial intelligence, can remedy the situation, but Upstart is validating this thesis every day. In a 2018 study, Upstart demonstrated to several large U.S. banks that our AI-based lending platform could almost triple their approval rates while holding losses constant compared to their current risk models.

人們普遍認為，信貸經濟即使沒有被打破，也是非常低效的。量化風險和定價貸款的模型離擲骰子不遠。數以百萬計的消費者無法獲得信貸，為此付出了太多，或者獲得了他們最終無法承受的信貸。另一方面，2021 年的銀行正在大量存款，並正在尋找更複雜的工具以負責任和有利可圖的方式將其借出。對於現代數據科學（即人工智能）可以糾正這種情況的共識要少得多，但 Upstart 每天都在驗證這一論點。在 2018 年的一項研究中，Upstart 向幾家美國大型銀行證明，與當前的風險模型相比，我們基於人工智能的貸款平台幾乎可以將其批准率提高三倍，同時保持損失不變。

And that was in 2018. Upstart's AI models have improved constantly and dramatically since then. This is an important point. One way to grasp the potential for AI lending and how different it is from traditional approaches that we look back at our own models from just a few years ago and shake our heads at how simplistic and rudimentary they were compared to our current capabilities. As a public company, our financial results will ultimately speak to how unique and differentiated our AI models are. But it's worth a quick refresher on how the underlying technology actually works.

那是在 2018 年。從那時起，Upstart 的 AI 模型不斷得到顯著改進。這是很重要的一點。一種了解 AI 貸款潛力的方法以及它與傳統方法的不同之處在於，我們回顧幾年前的自己的模型，並對它們與我們當前的能力相比多麼簡單和初級而搖頭。作為一家上市公司，我們的財務業績最終將說明我們的人工智能模型是多麼獨特和差異化。但值得快速回顧一下底層技術的實際工作原理。

Our AI models, like all AI systems, are fueled by incredible amounts of data and sophisticated software to interpret that data, while most lenders consider only a handful of variables as part of a lending decision, Upstart's model considers more than 1,000 variables about each applicant. You can think of these as the columns in a spreadsheet. And as of December 31, 2020, our model was trained on more than 10.5 million unique repayment events. These are like the rows in the spreadsheet. And we continually upgrade the machine learning software that interprets this data, enabling us to price the next loan on our platform just a bit more accurately.

與所有 AI 系統一樣，我們的 AI 模型由大量數據和用於解釋這些數據的複雜軟件推動，而大多數貸方在貸款決策中只考慮少數幾個變量，Upstart 的模型考慮了每個申請人的 1,000 多個變量.您可以將這些視為電子表格中的列。截至 2020 年 12 月 31 日，我們的模型已針對超過 1050 萬個獨特的還款事件進行了訓練。這些就像電子表格中的行。我們不斷升級解釋這些數據的機器學習軟件，使我們能夠更準確地在我們的平台上為下一筆貸款定價。

Upstart goes far beyond a singular AI model predicting default risk. We have discrete AI model that improve the entire lending process, including identity fraud, income misrepresentation, loan stacking, prepayment risk, fee optimization and more. But of course, our model that targets default risk is the centerpiece of our system. It predicts not just the likelihood that a loan will default, but when that default can be expected to happen. The advantages Upstart's AI model offers our bank partners is obvious: higher approval rates, lower loss rates and a highly automated digital experience. Upstart enables lending programs that are more predictable, more profitable and more inclusive.

Upstart 遠遠超出了預測違約風險的單一 AI 模型。我們擁有離散的人工智能模型，可以改善整個貸款流程，包括身份欺詐、收入虛假陳述、貸款疊加、提前還款風險、費用優化等。但當然，我們針對違約風險的模型是我們系統的核心。它不僅可以預測貸款違約的可能性，還可以預測違約發生的時間。 Upstart 的 AI 模型為我們的銀行合作夥伴提供的優勢是顯而易見的：更高的批准率、更低的損失率和高度自動化的數字體驗。 Upstart 支持更可預測、更有利可圖和更具包容性的貸款計劃。

For consumers, the advantages of AI-based lending are equally compelling: higher approval rates, lower APRs and fully automated approval, with more than 70% of Upstart loans approved in near real-time with 0 documentation or phone calls required. In fact, 58% of the loans on our platform in 2020 happened on a mobile device. Consumer expectations for a seamless digital experience have never been higher, and Upstart helps our bank partners meet and beat that expectation.

對於消費者而言，基於人工智能的貸款的優勢同樣引人注目：更高的批准率、更低的 APR 和完全自動化的批准，超過 70% 的 Upstart 貸款近乎實時地獲得批准，無需任何文件或電話。事實上，2020 年我們平台上 58% 的貸款發生在移動設備上。消費者對無縫數字體驗的期望從未如此之高，Upstart 幫助我們的銀行合作夥伴滿足並超越了這一期望。

It's also important to say that AI lending can be and should be inclusive, fair and unbiased, in fact, more so than traditional systems. As a company dedicated to improving access to credit, fairness and inclusion are central to our mission. We test every single loan application on our platform for fairness and share the results of these tests quarterly with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It's also worth noting that we do this rigorous testing on behalf of each of our bank partners. This level of rigor and transparency and fairness testing is quite unique in the personal lending industry. The results of these tests say it all, Upstart's platform offers significantly higher approval rates and lower interest rates to every demographic group tested. That is an outcome we believe every bank should strive for in its lending programs.

同樣重要的是，人工智能貸款可以而且應該是包容性、公平和公正的，事實上，比傳統系統更是如此。作為一家致力於改善獲得信貸的公司，公平和包容是我們使命的核心。我們在我們的平台上測試每一個貸款申請的公平性，並每季度與消費者金融保護局分享這些測試的結果。同樣值得注意的是，我們代表每個銀行合作夥伴進行了嚴格的測試。這種嚴格、透明和公平的測試水平在個人借貸行業中是獨一無二的。這些測試的結果說明了一切，Upstart 的平台為每個測試的人口群體提供了顯著更高的批准率和更低的利率。這是我們認為每家銀行都應在其貸款計劃中爭取的結果。

While better AI models are the primary lever we use to create a more inclusive platform, it's not the only lever. Very soon, we'll release a Spanish language version of our product that we believe is the first of its kind among digital lending platforms in the U.S. While restaurants and retailers routinely offer a Spanish language alternative, online lenders, unfortunately do not. Taking out a loan is a big decision and it comes with important obligations. So it's clearly better for the consumer if the entire experience, including disclosures, the loan agreement and customer support are available in their preferred language.

雖然更好的 AI 模型是我們用來創建更具包容性的平台的主要手段，但它並不是唯一的手段。很快，我們將發布我們產品的西班牙語版本，我們認為這是美國數字借貸平台中的第一個此類產品。雖然餐館和零售商通常會提供西班牙語替代品，但不幸的是，在線貸方沒有。貸款是一個重大決定，它伴隨著重要的義務。因此，如果整個體驗（包括披露、貸款協議和客戶支持）都以他們喜歡的語言提供，那麼對消費者來說顯然更好。

In closing, I want to say that while we're in the first stages of adoption of AI lending, we're confident that this transformation will play out for years and decades to come. Virtually all lending will be AI-enabled in the future because the economics are so compelling to all participants. We aim to be the category leader in AI lending and a partner to banks who share our vision. Thank you. And now I'd like to turn it over to Sanjay, our Chief Financial Officer, to walk through our financial results and guidance. Sanjay?

最後，我想說的是，雖然我們處於採用人工智能貸款的第一階段，但我們相信這種轉變將在未來幾年和幾十年內發揮作用。未來幾乎所有的貸款都將啟用人工智能，因為經濟對所有參與者都非常有吸引力。我們的目標是成為人工智能貸款領域的領導者，並成為與我們有共同願景的銀行的合作夥伴。謝謝你。現在我想把它交給我們的首席財務官 Sanjay 來介紹我們的財務業績和指導。桑傑？

Thanks, Dave. Happy St. Patty's Day to everyone, and thank you for joining today. We're very grateful to have you with us. I'm Sanjay Datta, Upstart's CFO, and I'll cover our financial results of our first quarter as a public company as well for full year 2020 before touching on forward guidance.

謝謝，戴夫。祝大家聖帕蒂節快樂，感謝您今天的加入。我們非常感謝您與我們在一起。我是 Upstart 的首席財務官 Sanjay Datta，在談到前瞻性指導之前，我將介紹我們作為上市公司的第一季度以及 2020 年全年的財務業績。

Our revenues in Q4 were $86.7 million, up 39% from the same quarter of the prior year. Of that amount, revenue from fees represented $84.4 million or 97% of the total. Underpinning this fee-based revenue was the origination of 123,396 loans by all of the bank partners across our platform, up 57% from the same quarter of the prior year and a 17.4% conversion rate on rate requests, up from 14.9% in the prior year. Our contribution profit, a non-GAAP metric, which we define as revenue from fees minus variable costs for borrower acquisition, verification and servicing, was $41 million in Q4, up 77% year-over-year and representing a 49% contribution margin, up from a margin of 38% in the year prior.

我們第四季度的收入為 8670 萬美元，比去年同期增長 39%。其中，收費收入為 8440 萬美元，佔總收入的 97%。支撐這一收費收入的是我們平台上所有銀行合作夥伴提供的 123,396 筆貸款，比去年同期增長 57%，利率請求的轉換率為 17.4%，高於去年的 14.9%年。我們的貢獻利潤是一個非 GAAP 指標，我們將其定義為費用收入減去借款人獲取、驗證和服務的可變成本，第四季度為 4100 萬美元，同比增長 77%，貢獻率為 49%，高於去年同期的 38%。

The margin improvement was driven by increases in marketing and operating efficiency as well as a rise in the percentage of loans fully automated to 71%, up from 69% in the prior year. This level of contribution margin is slightly above our expected longer-term trend line and we expect it to normalize downwards mildly over the coming few quarters.

利潤率的提高是由營銷和運營效率的提高以及全自動貸款比例從去年的 69% 上升到 71% 推動的。這一貢獻率水平略高於我們預期的長期趨勢線，我們預計其在未來幾個季度將溫和向下正常化。

Q4 operating expenses were $76.3 million, up 29% year-over-year or 25% when netting out the impact of stock-based compensation. Investment in engineering and R&D was our priority over the past year, growing 94% year-over-year to $14.1 million in Q4. However, general and administrative spend grew more slowly than revenue in Q4, increasing 29% year-over-year to $14.8 million, partially benefiting from savings in office and travel costs due to the pandemic. The other expense categories of sales and marketing and customer operations was largely driven by the variable cost increases in borrower acquisition, verification and servicing previously discussed.

第四季度運營費用為 7630 萬美元，同比增長 29%，扣除股票薪酬的影響後增長 25%。過去一年，工程和研發投資是我們的首要任務，第四季度同比增長 94%，達到 1410 萬美元。然而，第四季度一般和行政支出的增長速度慢於收入，同比增長 29% 至 1480 萬美元，部分受益於疫情導致的辦公和差旅成本節省。銷售和營銷以及客戶運營的其他費用類別主要是由前面討論的借款人獲取、驗證和服務的可變成本增加驅動的。

Our Q4 GAAP net income was $1 million, down from $6.1 million in Q4 of 2019. This year-over-year decrease is almost entirely attributable to changes in the fair value of warrants that were granted in our first year as a company and carried on our balance sheet as liabilities up until their exercises in Q4, coinciding with our December IPO. Adjusted EBITDA, in which we adjust for this warrant fair value expense as well as for stock-based compensation, came in at $15.5 million in Q4, up from $7 million in Q4 of 2019. Adjusted net income per share for Q4 was $0.07 based on a diluted weighted average share count of 80.3 million.

我們的第 4 季度 GAAP 淨收入為 100 萬美元，低於 2019 年第 4 季度的 610 萬美元。這一同比下降幾乎完全歸因於我們作為公司的第一年授予並繼續進行的認股權證公允價值的變化我們的資產負債表作為負債，直到他們在第四季度行使，與我們 12 月的首次公開募股一致。調整後的 EBITDA（我們針對此認股權證公允價值費用以及基於股票的薪酬進行調整）在第四季度為 1550 萬美元，高於 2019 年第四季度的 700 萬美元。第四季度調整後的每股淨收益為 0.07 美元，基於稀釋加權平均股數為8030萬股。

Quickly now turning to a few full year highlights. Our fiscal 2020 full year revenue came in at $233.4 million, growing 42% year-over-year despite a severe adverse impact from COVID. Contribution profit was $105 million on the year, up 115% over 2019 and representing a 46% contribution margin. GAAP net income came in at $6 million for the full year and adjusted EBITDA was $31.5 million, representing a 13% adjusted EBITDA margin versus 3% a year earlier.

現在快速轉向一些全年的亮點。儘管受到 COVID 的嚴重不利影響，我們 2020 財年的全年收入為 2.334 億美元，同比增長 42%。當年貢獻利潤為 1.05 億美元，比 2019 年增長 115%，貢獻利潤率為 46%。 GAAP 全年淨收入為 600 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 3150 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 13%，而去年同期為 3%。

On the balance sheet side, we ended with $311 million in restricted and unrestricted cash, largely flowing from the proceeds of our December IPO and which was up from $80 million at the end of 2019. In terms of loan assets, we carried an aggregate balance of loans, notes and residuals of $98 million at the end of 2020, down from $266 million at the end of 2019, reflecting the continued reduction in the percentage of platform loans funded through our own balance sheet. This $98 million of loan assets represents the totality of the direct exposure we have to credit risk.

在資產負債表方面，我們以 3.11 億美元的受限和非受限現金結束，主要來自 12 月 IPO 的收益，高於 2019 年底的 8000 萬美元。就貸款資產而言，我們的總餘額截至 2020 年底，貸款、票據和殘差為 9800 萬美元，低於 2019 年底的 2.66 億美元，反映出通過我們自己的資產負債表融資的平台貸款比例持續下降。這 9800 萬美元的貸款資產代表了我們面臨的信用風險的全部直接風險。

So we turn our attention to 2021, we would highlight a few dynamics which are impacting how we currently forecast the balance of the year. The first is that part of the growth we have been and are currently experiencing is simply the business catching up to where the technology has improved to over the past year. So in a sense, we are recovering to where we otherwise would have expected to be absent the impact of the pandemic. The second is that our contribution margins remain slightly above their historical trend as we emerge from the recovery phase. And we expect them to mildly contract as we return to our normal operating equilibrium.

因此，我們將注意力轉向 2021 年，我們將強調一些影響我們目前預測今年餘額的動態。首先是我們已經和目前正在經歷的部分增長只是業務趕上技術在過去一年中改進的地方。因此，從某種意義上說，我們正在恢復到原本預計不會受到大流行影響的地方。第二個是，隨著我們從復蘇階段走出來，我們的邊際貢獻仍略高於歷史趨勢。我們預計它們會在我們恢復正常運營平衡時溫和收縮。

A final note is that we are currently planning to voluntarily repay the PPP loan, which we received in 2020 shortly after the onset of COVID, even though our conclusion remains that it fully meets the eligibility requirements for forgiveness. This decision will have the effect of reducing Q1 '21 net income, adjusted net income and adjusted EBITDA, followed by $5.3 million. With these points in mind, for Q1 of 2021, we are expecting total revenues of $112 million to $118 million, representing a growth rate at midpoint of 80% year-over-year; contribution margin of approximately 44%; net income of $7.8 million to $8.3 million; adjusted net income of $13.4 million to $14.2 million; adjusted EBITDA of $14.6 million to $15.3 million; and a diluted weighted average share count of approximately 92.4 million shares.

最後一點是，我們目前正計劃自願償還我們在 2020 年 COVID 發病後不久收到的 PPP 貸款，儘管我們的結論仍然是它完全符合寬恕的資格要求。這一決定將減少 21 年第一季度的淨收入、調整後的淨收入和調整後的 EBITDA，然後是 530 萬美元。考慮到這些要點，我們預計 2021 年第一季度的總收入為 1.12 億美元至 1.18 億美元，同比增長 80%；貢獻率約為 44%；淨收入 780 萬至 830 萬美元；調整後的淨收入為 1340 萬美元至 1420 萬美元；調整後的 EBITDA 為 1460 萬美元至 1530 萬美元；稀釋後的加權平均股數約為 9240 萬股。

For the full year of 2021, we now expect revenue of approximately $500 million, representing a growth rate of 114% year-over-year; contribution margin of approximately 41%; and an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 10%.

對於 2021 年全年，我們現在預計收入約為 5 億美元，同比增長 114%；貢獻率約為 41%；調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 10%。

In closing, we feel it is worth reiterating how proud we are of how our company has navigated what was a very challenging environment in 2020 and we feel that we are entering 2021 as a much stronger company for it. Our business model has proven to be resilient, the accuracy of our AI models has continued to improve steadily. And most importantly, the credit underwritten by our platform has performed unimpeachably through the turbulence of the past year. We continue to be excited about the sheer magnitude of the opportunity ahead of us in applying our technologies to the broader landscape of risk across financial services. And we look forward to sharing our results with you in the coming quarters.

最後，我們認為值得重申的是，我們為公司如何度過 2020 年極具挑戰性的環境而感到自豪，並且我們認為我們正在進入 2021 年，成為一家更強大的公司。我們的商業模式被證明是有彈性的，我們的人工智能模型的準確性不斷提高。最重要的是，我們平台承保的信貸在過去一年的動盪中表現得無可挑剔。在將我們的技術應用到更廣泛的金融服務風險領域中，我們面前的巨大機遇讓我們繼續感到興奮。我們期待在未來幾個季度與您分享我們的成果。

With that, Dave and I are now happy to open the call to any questions. Operator?

有了這個，戴夫和我現在很高興打開電話詢問任何問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And it looks like, first, we'll go to Pete Christiansen from Citi.

（操作員說明）看起來，首先，我們要從花旗去找 Pete Christiansen。

Congratulations on your IPO, fantastic. I wanted to -- Dave, I wanted to talk about the auto opportunity here. Certainly, the Prodigy acquisition will accelerate the front end of the business. But as we think about building up the financing partners and customizing the model to suit the auto market per se, how should we think about the timing of scaling that product, I guess, over the next 12 or so months? And I have a quick follow-up.

祝賀你的首次公開募股，太棒了。我想——戴夫，我想在這裡談談汽車的機會。當然，收購 Prodigy 將加速業務的前端。但是當我們考慮建立融資合作夥伴並定制模型以適應汽車市場本身時，我們應該如何考慮在未來 12 個月左右的時間裡擴展該產品的時間？我有一個快速跟進。

Sure. Thanks for the question. This is Dave. I'll just say quickly, we are just entering the auto lending space over the last few months and started this year in 1 state, have expanded to 14. But we're still really in the formative stages of establishing this product and refining it, so we don't expect it to contribute materially in 2021. This is really a year of building out, testing, improving the funnel, bringing on bank partners, et cetera. And this is kind of a process that took several years for our personal loan product to really reach the state it's gotten to. Certainly, we expect this to happen much faster. But 2021, from our perspective with auto, is really a building year. And the acquisition of Prodigy, we certainly view as an accelerator toward the point of sale, the majority of the market that happens at the dealership. But still, that guidance would hold, which is we don't expect it to be material to our 2021 results.

當然。謝謝你的問題。這是戴夫。我會很快說，過去幾個月我們剛剛進入汽車貸款領域，今年從 1 個州開始，已經擴展到 14 個。但我們仍然處於建立和完善這個產品的形成階段，所以我們預計它不會在 2021 年做出實質性貢獻。這確實是建設、測試、改進渠道、引入銀行合作夥伴等的一年。這是一個過程，我們的個人貸款產品需要幾年時間才能真正達到它所達到的狀態。當然，我們希望這種情況發生得更快。但從我們汽車的角度來看，2021 年確實是建設年。而收購 Prodigy，我們當然將其視為銷售點的加速器，這是發生在經銷商處的大部分市場。但是，該指導仍然會成立，即我們預計它不會對我們 2021 年的業績產生重大影響。

That's helpful. And then as we look at the credit profile of your average consumer, I mean, average credit card debt came down 12% in 2020. You certainly have stimulus distributions going out now. How much do you see that as a factor in growth in the personal loan side, considering #1 use cases is really debt consensual headwind? And how do you guys think about that?

這很有幫助。然後，當我們查看您的普通消費者的信用狀況時，我的意思是，平均信用卡債務在 2020 年下降了 12%。您現在肯定有刺激分配。您認為這是個人貸款方面增長的一個因素，考慮到＃1用例真的是債務雙方同意的逆風嗎？你們怎麼看？

Pete, this is Sanjay. Thanks for your question. I'll jump in on this. So I think that the -- sort of the impact of the pandemic and all the stimulus that's been injected in the economy, we think of the impact of that maybe on 2 levels. One is we believe it's been constructive to credit performance. On the other hand, it's been adverse to volume. So -- and put another way, with the stimulus in the economy, the economy is at sort of record savings rates, at least in recent memory, low amounts of consumer spend. That has manifested, as you said, in sort of record low credit card balances. And then on our end, it sort of shows up as smaller -- lower demand for loans and smaller loan sizes.

皮特，這是桑傑。謝謝你的問題。我會加入這個。因此，我認為大流行的影響以及注入經濟的所有刺激措施，我們認為其影響可能在兩個層面上。一是我們認為這對信貸表現具有建設性。另一方面，它對成交量不利。所以 - 換句話說，隨著經濟的刺激，經濟處於創紀錄的儲蓄率，至少在最近的記憶中，消費者支出較低。正如你所說，這體現在信用卡餘額創紀錄的低水平上。然後在我們這邊，它有點小——對貸款的需求較低，貸款規模較小。

And so that's been a headwind through the past year as we've recovered. And it continues to be with another round of stimulus. You might imagine that, that will be propagated a little bit. On the other hand, as the effects of the pandemic do unwind and as consumers return to the economy and the savings has normalized, you might imagine that, that would, in fact, become a tailwind on the volume side. So those are the sort of sandboxes effects that we think about when we think about the stimulus.

所以在過去的一年裡，隨著我們的恢復，這是一個逆風。它繼續伴隨著另一輪刺激。您可能會想像，這將被傳播一點。另一方面，隨著大流行的影響逐漸消退，隨著消費者重返經濟，儲蓄已經正常化，您可能會想像，這實際上會成為交易量方面的順風。因此，當我們考慮刺激時，這些就是我們所考慮的沙盒效應。

And congrats again on the IPO.

並再次祝賀 IPO。

And next, we'll go to Ramsey El-Assal from Barclays.

接下來，我們將從巴克萊前往 Ramsey El-Assal。

Congratulations on a very strong quarter. I wanted to ask in the context of the commentary on the 2021 guidance. I think, Sanjay, you mentioned that a key growth driver is the business sort of catching up to where the tech has improved over the past year, kind of catching up to where you would have been. Can you elaborate that in a little bit? Like what exactly are you talking about there in terms of the underwriting models in terms of other aspects of the business? Just curious for a little more color there.

祝賀一個非常強勁的季度。我想在對 2021 年指南的評論中提出問題。我認為，桑傑，你提到一個關鍵的增長驅動力是業務趕上技術在過去一年中的進步，有點趕上你本來應該達到的水平。你能詳細說明一下嗎？就業務其他方面的承保模式而言，您到底在談論什麼？只是好奇那裡有更多的顏色。

Yes. Sure. Great to hear from you, Ramsey. So I would not call this as the key driver, but it certainly is a factor in how we think about the recent path of growth and the path forward. But just to kind of briefly describe it, our underlying technology has been improving steadily over the past year. The AI models have gotten more accurate, our ability to underwrite risk on behalf of our bank partners has improved. And it hasn't necessarily shown up directly in the business because as you know, the business has undergone a lot of volatility for a lot of extraneous factors.

是的。當然。很高興收到你的來信，拉姆齊。因此，我不會將此稱為關鍵驅動因素，但它肯定是我們如何看待近期增長路徑和前進道路的一個因素。但只是簡單地描述一下，我們的基礎技術在過去一年中一直在穩步改進。人工智能模型變得更加準確，我們代表銀行合作夥伴承保風險的能力得到了提高。而且它不一定直接出現在業務中，因為如您所知，業務經歷了很多外部因素的波動。

But as the sort of the impact of COVID itself subsides, the business is now catching up to where we otherwise would have expected it to be had there never been an impact of the pandemic. And so as rates of return for investors normalize, as the risk in the economy normalizes, we're sort of converging to that sort of -- you can imagine a trend line had COVID never happen and we're converging to that trend line.

但是，隨著 COVID 本身的影響逐漸消退，該業務現在正在趕上我們原本預期的情況，如果沒有大流行的影響的話。因此，隨著投資者的回報率正常化，隨著經濟中的風險正常化，我們正在趨同於那種——你可以想像一條趨勢線，而 COVID 從未發生過，而我們正在趨同於該趨勢線。

So part of what is propagated our sequential growth quarter-over-quarter is that dynamic. And of course, that's not going to last throughout the entire year. But there are other things that are creating tailwinds as well that have to do with the ongoing sort of performance of our marketing campaigns, the ongoing improvements we are making this year to the model. And some of the things I described around how -- as the effect of the pandemic does subside, we do imagine some tailwinds as the consumers return to the economy. So I think what we're doing is calling out one impact of the sequential quarterly growth in particular. And to the extent that that's moderated in our guidance going forward, that's one of the factors.

因此，傳播我們的環比增長的部分內容就是這種動態。當然，這不會持續一整年。但還有其他一些事情也在創造順風，這與我們營銷活動的持續表現有關，我們今年對模型進行的持續改進。我描述的一些事情是關於如何 - 隨著大流行的影響確實消退，我們確實想像隨著消費者回歸經濟會出現一些順風。因此，我認為我們正在做的是特別指出連續季度增長的一個影響。在我們未來的指導中緩和的程度，這是因素之一。

Okay. That makes a ton of sense. I wanted to ask a follow-up on the Credit Karma relationship. I just kind of wanted to get an update there in terms of [Lightbox], and it seems like you more than maybe backfilled some headwind there. What's going on there? Did things play out the way you thought? And then just a quick bolt-on there is, what is Prodigy contributing to revenues and EBITDA in 2021? And I'll hop back in the queue.

好的。這很有意義。我想詢問有關 Credit Karma 關係的後續情況。我只是想在 [Lightbox] 方面獲得更新，而且看起來你可能不止是在逆風。那裡發生了什麼事？事情的發展和你想像的一樣嗎？然後快速補充一下，Prodigy 對 2021 年的收入和 EBITDA 有何貢獻？我會跳回隊列中。

Sure. This is Dave. Credit Karma is a really important partner of ours, has been for a while, and we expect will continue to be there now part of Intuit, who we've had a relationship with previously. Our -- the scale of our partnership continues to grow. I mean, we see ourselves as co-leaders in kind of adjacent areas. So as they've been successful, we've been successful, the relationship continues to become more meaningful to both of us. We don't anticipate that changing. There's certainly a lot of different approaches they take and ways we can work with them. And we will, over time, make decisions about where it makes sense for us to work with them or not. But we view those as squarely tactical decisions. It is a great partnership. We anticipate it will continue to be a great partnership.

當然。這是戴夫。 Credit Karma 是我們非常重要的合作夥伴，已經有一段時間了，我們希望現在將繼續作為 Intuit 的一部分，我們之前與之有過合作關係。我們——我們的合作規模不斷擴大。我的意思是，我們將自己視為相鄰領域的共同領導者。所以當他們成功了，我們也成功了，這種關係對我們雙方都變得更有意義。我們預計不會發生這種變化。當然，他們採取了很多不同的方法，我們可以與他們合作。隨著時間的推移，我們將決定在哪裡與他們合作是否有意義。但我們將這些視為純粹的戰術決定。這是一個很好的伙伴關係。我們預計它將繼續成為一個偉大的伙伴關係。

Our goal, as much as we have talked about having a lot of our loan sort of lead volume coming through Credit Karma, it's actually important for us to continue to build other channels. We have no desire to reduce the scale of the partnership we have with Credit Karma. In fact, we want to keep building it. We don't essentially view this as a real issue for us. We are a unique company in that we have a proprietary product. Most people in fintech or in lending fintech don't really have a proprietary product so they seek out proprietary distribution. We actually do have a proprietary product, so we're very happy to have a partnership with somebody like Credit Karma to take advantage of that.

我們的目標，儘管我們已經談到通過 Credit Karma 獲得大量貸款類型的潛在客戶，但對於我們來說，繼續建立其他渠道實際上很重要。我們不希望減少與 Credit Karma 的合作規模。事實上，我們想繼續建造它。我們基本上並不認為這對我們來說是一個真正的問題。我們是一家獨特的公司，因為我們擁有專有產品。大多數金融科技或借貸金融科技的人並沒有真正擁有專有產品，因此他們尋求專有分銷。我們確實有一個專有產品，所以我們很高興與像 Credit Karma 這樣的人建立合作夥伴關係來利用它。

Next, we'll go to John Hecht from Jefferies.

接下來，我們將介紹來自 Jefferies 的 John Hecht。

Congratulations. You guys gave some good stat about the growth on kind of the bank platforms and the volume tied to that. And I saw you announced the Apple Bank adoption and some other credit unions over the course of the last few months. Maybe can you give us an update on, call it, the penetration and momentum there and pipeline. And any details you can give around that component of the business?

恭喜。你們提供了一些關於銀行平台的增長以及與之相關的交易量的良好統計數據。我看到你在過去幾個月宣布採用 Apple Bank 和其他一些信用合作社。也許你能給我們一個更新，稱之為，那裡的滲透和勢頭以及管道。您可以提供有關該業務組成部分的任何詳細信息嗎？

Yes, sure. This is Dave. Let's just say, I think our momentum has continued since our IPO. We've signed agreements with 3 additional banks. We've had 2, including Apple Bank, as you referenced, go live on our platform. There's today a total of 15 banks on our platform.

是的，當然。這是戴夫。讓我們說，我認為我們的勢頭自首次公開募股以來一直在持續。我們已經與另外 3 家銀行簽署了協議。正如您所提到的，我們已經有 2 個，包括 Apple Bank，在我們的平台上上線。今天，我們的平台上共有 15 家銀行。

I think there's a lot of interesting things happening in the market. First of all, COVID has clearly accelerated the digitization efforts and projects that banks are undergoing because, of course, there's pretty dramatically reduced traffic to their branches, which is a trend that's been going on for years regardless, but accelerated during COVID. So the importance of digital is there. And certainly, there's a lot of more interest for that reason in our platform.

我認為市場上發生了很多有趣的事情。首先，COVID 顯然加速了銀行正在進行的數字化工作和項目，因為當然，其分支機構的流量大大減少了，儘管這種趨勢已經持續了多年，但在 COVID 期間卻加速了。所以數字的重要性就在那裡。當然，出於這個原因，我們的平台引起了更多的興趣。

It's also clear that banks have excess deposits these days and a shortage of loans, and that is true almost across the board for banks. One sort of reaction that we've taken to that is we're a little more focused on helping banks get loans from our platform really referred from upstart.com to the banks. This is something we can readily do. Our volumes are growing, as can be seen, very quickly. And so it's really the fastest way to solve a very acute problem that banks have, which is, again, surplus deposits and a lack of demand for loans, particularly through branches, which for a large time, have been closed or likely traffic.

同樣清楚的是，如今銀行存款過多，貸款短缺，這幾乎對銀行來說都是如此。我們對此採取的一種反應是，我們更加專注於幫助銀行從我們的平台獲得貸款，這些平台實際上是從 upstart.com 轉介給銀行的。這是我們很容易做到的。可以看出，我們的銷量增長非常迅速。因此，這確實是解決銀行面臨的一個非常嚴重的問題的最快方法，即存款過剩和貸款需求不足，尤其是通過分行，這些分行在很長一段時間內已經關閉或可能出現交通問題。

So this is really the state of it. We're definitely seeing increased interest from larger banks. I think both because of this excess deposit issue as well as the fact that our entry into auto is into a category that larger banks are much more familiar with, have a lot more history with and a lot more confidence in. So we would anticipate continuing to grow our pipeline of banks.

所以這真的是它的狀態。我們肯定會看到大型銀行的興趣增加。我認為這既是因為這種超額存款問題，也是因為我們進入汽車行業是大型銀行更熟悉的一個類別，擁有更多的歷史和更多的信心。所以我們預計會繼續擴大我們的銀行渠道。

I'll also add, we did something super interesting, which has signed an agreement recently with a very small bank. Interesting only because it was, from start to finish, in about a 90-day process. And that, for us, is fairly groundbreaking. We don't expect all of our agreements to come together that quickly by any stretch. But one of our goals is certainly to make it faster and easier for banks to join our platform and be onboarded. So that's something we're very excited about.

我還要補充一點，我們做了一些非常有趣的事情，最近與一家非常小的銀行簽署了協議。有趣只是因為它從開始到結束大約需要 90 天的時間。這對我們來說是相當開創性的。我們不指望我們所有的協議都能如此迅速地達成一致。但我們的目標之一當然是讓銀行更快、更輕鬆地加入我們的平台並加入我們的平台。所以這是我們非常興奮的事情。

Okay. That's very helpful color. And then I know I look at things from a different lens, but just looking at the momentum you guys were exhibiting through the second part of last year, I guess, post the shelter-in-place period when things started to normalize. And looking at our forecast, the guidance is clearly -- it's significantly ahead of that. And I'm wondering -- so I guess I understand we look through different lens, but can you guys characterize where you -- maybe where some of this improved momentum has come from despite stimulus maybe knocking down a little bit of secular loan demand? Is it the bank channel? Is it more of the consistent credit fund channel? Is it the new product channel? Is it all of the above? Or is there any kind of -- where you can steer us to where some of the upside is coming from, maybe in a more meaningful way?

好的。這是非常有用的顏色。然後我知道我從不同的角度看待事情，但只是看看你們在去年下半年表現出的勢頭，我猜，在事情開始正常化的就地庇護期之後。從我們的預測來看，指導很明顯——它明顯領先於此。我想知道——所以我想我理解我們通過不同的視角看待問題，但是你們能否描述一下你們的特徵——儘管刺激措施可能會削弱一些長期貸款需求，但這些改善的勢頭可能來自哪裡？是銀行渠道嗎？是不是更一致的信用資金渠道？是新產品渠道嗎？以上都是嗎？或者有什麼方法——你可以引導我們找到一些好處的來源，也許是以更有意義的方式？

Yes. This is Dave. Let me try to maybe explain how I -- why I think our business is doing so well these days. Part of it is internal. And by that, I mean, despite all the turbulence last year in the world and the industry, we invested a lot in R&D. Our models and our team kept getting bigger and stronger. You can tell by our R&D spend last year, we did not hold back.

是的。這是戴夫。讓我試著解釋一下，為什麼我認為這些天我們的業務做得這麼好。一部分是內部的。我的意思是，儘管去年世界和行業發生了所有動盪，但我們在研發上投入了大量資金。我們的模型和我們的團隊不斷變得越來越強大。從我們去年的研發支出可以看出，我們沒有退縮。

And so the technology has been improving dramatically. And I'd even say that COVID accelerated that because a change in the environment is really a learning opportunity for an AI system. So there was just very fast forward progress in the quality of the technology. That generally means the throughput of our funnel gets much better. Now at the same time, the environment changed a lot, of course, and 2 things changed. First, the level of risk in the environment went up a lot, and that really meant that it really stressed out competing models. And we feel like we have pretty significant advantage in an environment where there's elevated levels of risk. And having a system -- an AI-based system that can discern risk and handle it properly becomes even a more important advantage.

因此，這項技術一直在顯著改進。我什至會說 COVID 加速了這一點，因為環境的變化確實是 AI 系統的學習機會。因此，技術質量的進步非常快。這通常意味著我們漏斗的吞吐量會變得更好。現在與此同時，環境發生了很大變化，當然，有兩件事發生了變化。首先，環境中的風險水平上升了很多，這確實意味著它確實強調了競爭模型。而且我們覺得我們在風險水平較高的環境中具有相當大的優勢。擁有一個系統——一個能夠識別風險並正確處理的基於人工智能的系統將成為一個更重要的優勢。

The second thing that happened, as we've mentioned, is demand for credit dropped. And this really is because people spent less, weren't traveling, weren't eating out, et cetera. Credit card balance is lower, as Sanjay mentioned. And that translates to us as demand for smaller loans. But we are a company that has invested a lot in automation. So smaller loans are something we handle really well from a profitability perspective.

正如我們所提到的，發生的第二件事是信貸需求下降。這真的是因為人們花費更少，沒有旅行，沒有外出就餐，等等。正如桑傑所說，信用卡餘額較低。這對我們來說就是對小額貸款的需求。但我們是一家在自動化方面投入大量資金的公司。因此，從盈利能力的角度來看，我們可以很好地處理較小的貸款。

When you put those 2 together, I think what you're seeing is Upstart taking pretty significant market share in a -- during a time of turbulence. When different models are handling things differently, companies are naturally reacting in different ways, whether they're pulling back, tightening credit, et cetera. But this has really presented an opportunity for a new platform to shine that is really built differently. And I think that's what we've seen play out during 2020, and we are certainly seeing it playing out as we get into 2021.

當你把這兩個放在一起時，我認為你看到的是 Upstart 在動盪時期佔據了相當大的市場份額。當不同的模型以不同的方式處理事情時，公司自然會以不同的方式做出反應，無論是撤退還是收緊信貸等等。但這確實為一個真正以不同方式構建的新平台提供了一個大放異彩的機會。我認為這就是我們在 2020 年看到的情況，而且我們肯定會在進入 2021 年時看到這種情況。

(Operator Instructions) Next, we'll go to Ron Josey from JMP Securities.

（操作員說明）接下來，我們將介紹 JMP 證券公司的 Ron Josey。

Both David and I have a question here. I'll kick off, and David will follow. So Sanjay, just wanted to maybe understand a little bit more about the acquisition channels and, David, your comments there on risk. But total funded loans accelerated in the quarter on the toughest comps of the year. Rate requests also accelerated. So clearly, things are going well. Can you just talk a little bit more about the acquisition channels that you used this quarter? And most importantly, just the strategy going forward? I get Credit Karma, but maybe things besides Credit Karma is the first question. And David, I don't know if you want to ask your second one.

大衛和我都有一個問題。我會開始，大衛會跟著。所以桑傑，只是想了解更多關於收購渠道的信息，大衛，你對風險的評論。但在今年最艱難的情況下，本季度總融資貸款加速。費率請求也加快了。很明顯，事情進展順利。你能多談談你本季度使用的獲取渠道嗎？最重要的是，只是未來的戰略？我得到了信用業力，但也許除了信用業力之外的事情是第一個問題。大衛，我不知道你是否想問第二個。

Sure, Ron. Thanks for the question. I guess I would say the overall mix or spread between channels has not evolved greatly. We continue to improve all of our channels. And really, the dynamic that we think about is when the underlying strength of the model improves, it improves our ability to convert loans in the funnel. And when that happens, it just -- it creates expansiveness. It allows us to send larger campaigns at better unit economics. And so there has been a growth across channels. I wouldn't really point to any one specific channel as having an outsized impact in the expansion that we're seeing.

當然，羅恩。謝謝你的問題。我想我會說渠道之間的整體混合或傳播並沒有太大的發展。我們將繼續改進我們所有的渠道。實際上，我們考慮的動態是，當模型的潛在強度提高時，它會提高我們在漏斗中轉換貸款的能力。當這種情況發生時，它只是 - 它創造了擴展性。它使我們能夠以更好的單位經濟性發送更大的活動。因此，各個渠道都出現了增長。我真的不會指出任何一個特定的渠道對我們所看到的擴張產生了巨大的影響。

Next, we'll go to Nat Schindler from Bank of America.

接下來，我們將介紹美國銀行的 Nat Schindler。

I know it's been talked about a bunch of times on this call, but it's a -- I'm trying to figure out the difference. You did talk about changes that Credit Karma did in November affecting your ability to take on that incremental -- that do that last loan through getting that last lead through them because of their change in the ability for you to get that at the right price. Yet you accelerated in the quarter, and it looks like you're going to accelerate rather dramatically for the year -- the coming year. What changed there? And how easy is it for you to just repurpose marketing dollars from one platform to another?

我知道在這次電話會議上已經討論了很多次，但這是一個 - 我試圖找出區別。你確實談到了 Credit Karma 在 11 月所做的改變，影響了你承擔增量的能力——通過他們獲得最後的領先優勢來完成最後一筆貸款，因為他們改變了你以合適的價格獲得貸款的能力。然而，你在本季度加速了，看起來你將在今年 - 來年大幅加速。那裡發生了什麼變化？您將營銷資金從一個平台轉移到另一個平台有多容易？

Sure, Nat. This is Dave. So yes, let's see. I mean, there was a little noise about back and forth with Credit Karma last -- in the fall in terms of them having a program that we had elected not to participate in. But frankly, that was all sort of a small matter and sort of demand for our product and through all channels, including Credit Karma, frankly, overwhelmed it. And you sort of -- as we said, sort of like back and forth between us and Credit Karma deciding how we work together is a little bit of, I don't know, a side show compared to what is really just the emergence of a product that is distinct in the market. Our ability to model and help our banks successfully underwrite the torso of the market, the breadth of the market is really what is unique.

當然，納特。這是戴夫。所以是的，讓我們看看。我的意思是，上次與 Credit Karma 的來回有點吵——在秋天，他們有一個我們選擇不參與的計劃。但坦率地說，這都是一件小事。坦率地說，對我們產品的需求以及通過包括 Credit Karma 在內的所有渠道的需求壓倒了它。你有點——正如我們所說，有點像我們和 Credit Karma 之間來回決定我們如何合作，我不知道，與真正只是出現在市場上與眾不同的產品。我們建模和幫助銀行成功承銷市場主體的能力，市場的廣度確實是獨一無二的。

And Credit Karma is an important partner. But as Sanjay said, our channel mix has not really changed. And what I think that really means is, increasingly, consumers find their way to the best product. And that's our belief. We don't believe in the notion of a captive fintech that owns its customers. We believe that like the sort of origins of the Internet itself, the foundations of Google and Amazon that consumers find their way to what they want, the best product for them. And I think that's what you really see happening here is, particularly in this challenging time, Upstart has the best product for most consumers. And whether it's through Credit Karma or whether it's through other channels, they're finding their way to it.

Credit Karma 是重要的合作夥伴。但正如桑傑所說，我們的渠道組合併沒有真正改變。我認為這真正意味著，消費者越來越多地找到最好的產品。這就是我們的信念。我們不相信擁有客戶的專屬金融科技的概念。我們相信，就像互聯網本身的起源、谷歌和亞馬遜的基礎一樣，消費者可以找到他們想要的東西、最適合他們的產品。我認為這就是你真正看到的情況，尤其是在這個充滿挑戰的時期，Upstart 為大多數消費者提供了最好的產品。無論是通過 Credit Karma 還是通過其他渠道，他們都在尋找自己的方式。

So I think that's really the summary of it. I think it is an important and great partnership. But our growth in what we're kind of showing and what we're demonstrating for the coming year, what we're guiding towards is really a cross-channel thing. It's not particular about one channel. And we're growing on all fronts, basically.

所以我認為這就是它的總結。我認為這是一個重要而偉大的伙伴關係。但是我們在展示的內容和來年展示的內容方面的增長，我們所引導的實際上是跨渠道的事情。它不是特別針對一個頻道。基本上，我們在各個方面都在增長。

Okay. And then just a second question on a kind of longer-term basis, and this goes to -- you did talk about your bank source loans going up quite a bit from the worst parts of COVID when the banks weren't really all that active. But just longer term, and you did add some banks, said -- I think you were up to 15 now. Why wouldn't most small banks -- why isn't small, medium banks just running to this platform if it's largely a very high-margin origination fee for them for a product that they did not have and could not do on their own and services their customers as well?

好的。然後是關於長期基礎的第二個問題，這就是 - 你確實談到了當銀行並不是真的那麼活躍時，你的銀行來源貸款從 COVID 最糟糕的部分上升了很多.但就長期而言，你確實增加了一些銀行，說 - 我想你現在已經 15 歲了。為什麼大多數小型銀行不會——如果中小型銀行對於他們自己沒有也無法自行生產的產品來說，這在很大程度上是一個非常高利潤的創始費用，那麼為什麼中小型銀行不只是跑到這個平台上？也為他們的客戶服務？

Sure. Right. Nat, it's a great question. We ask ourselves that sometimes admittedly. But banks are built on a conservative structure. They are conservative by nature, and AI is a very new technology from their perspective. So they tend towards making sure everything is as it should be, that their regulators are supportive of it, that they've seen it through cycles. So I think this is almost a perfectly expected adoption rate for banks. They are not purely driven by incremental profits or desire to grow, probably a little different than most businesses in many ways. But it is happening, and the pipeline is growing.

當然。對。納特，這是一個很好的問題。誠然，我們有時會這樣問自己。但是銀行是建立在一個保守的結構之上的。他們本質上是保守的，從他們的角度來看，人工智能是一項非常新的技術。因此，他們傾向於確保一切都是應有的，他們的監管機構支持它，他們已經通過週期看到了它。所以我認為這對於銀行來說幾乎是一個完全可以預期的採用率。它們並非純粹受增量利潤或增長願望的驅動，在許多方面可能與大多數企業略有不同。但它正在發生，而且管道正在增長。

And fortunately, we've built our model such that we are not dependent on how many banks and how quickly these banks adopt our technology. We've developed a platform that flows loans through to capital markets and institutional buyers if banks are not ready and willing to fund them and hold them. And that's why our business can grow as quickly as it does, the models can continue improving as rapidly as they are. And the banks can come on board when they're ready to do it, when they're confident, when they've gotten the ideas through their risk committees, credit committees, compliance committees. And they have a lot of committees.

幸運的是，我們已經建立了我們的模型，因此我們不依賴於有多少銀行以及這些銀行採用我們技術的速度。我們開發了一個平台，如果銀行還沒有準備好並願意為它們提供資金並持有它們，則可以將貸款流向資本市場和機構買家。這就是為什麼我們的業務可以快速增長，模型可以繼續快速改進。當銀行準備好，當他們有信心，當他們通過風險委員會、信用委員會、合規委員會獲得想法時，他們可以加入。他們有很多委員會。

But that's okay. We're going to be there and the model keeps getting better. And 15 is a great number, 30, 40, 50 will be better. But at some point, it becomes commonplace that banks who are winning market share, who are doing well, who are serving their customers with their very best product are using somebody like Upstart to help them do it. And when it becomes commonplace, there's certainly, I think, a moment of acceleration in the future where it's really a mainstream technology that most banks use. It's only a question of when that day comes.

但沒關係。我們會在那裡，模型會越來越好。 15是一個很好的數字，30、40、50會更好。但在某些時候，贏得市場份額、表現良好、以最好的產品為客戶服務的銀行使用像 Upstart 這樣的人來幫助他們做到這一點變得司空見慣。當它變得司空見慣時，我認為，在未來它肯定會成為大多數銀行使用的主流技術。只是那一天何時到來的問題。

And would you really want them to do it, to fully come on board, tons of small banks and doing this and taking customers because in the end, you make more EBITDA per funded loan if you source it yourself?

你真的希望他們這樣做，完全加入，大量的小銀行，這樣做並吸引客戶，因為最後，如果你自己採購，你會為每筆融資貸款賺取更多的 EBITDA？

This is Dave again. We're a little neutral to that, whether the customer comes to upstart.com, which is a model that has a higher revenue profile, or whether the bank sources the customer and they're only paying us what we call our platform fee, which is essentially a lower revenue profile but higher gross profit. So frankly, we're kind of neutral to them. We like both and we, of course, want Upstart and Upstart loans to be ubiquitous and customers got to find them wherever they go. So we don't necessarily have a favorite in that race. We certainly would like to see both grow rapidly over time.

這又是戴夫。我們對此有點中立，無論客戶是訪問 upstart.com，這是一個收入較高的模式，還是銀行是否找到客戶並且他們只向我們支付我們所說的平台費，這本質上是較低的收入狀況，但較高的毛利潤。坦率地說，我們對他們持中立態度。我們兩者都喜歡，當然，我們希望 Upstart 和 Upstart 貸款無處不在，客戶無論走到哪裡都能找到它們。所以我們不一定在那場比賽中有一個最愛。我們當然希望看到兩者隨著時間的推移迅速增長。

And this is Sanjay. I would just add, we always want to solve what's best for the borrower and every borrower has a different sort of combination of cost of capital and risk. But if that's the best answer for the borrowers out there, then absolutely it's in the interest of our platform. And I'll just add that we are, from a dollar perspective, somewhat EBITDA-agnostic. We will make a lower dollar per loan. But because banks tend to have better offers, we'll convert more loans and it affects each other in our financials.

這是桑傑。我只想補充一點，我們總是想解決對借款人最有利的問題，每個借款人都有不同的資本成本和風險組合。但如果這對借款人來說是最好的答案，那麼這絕對符合我們平台的利益。我只想補充一點，從美元的角度來看，我們在某種程度上與 EBITDA 無關。我們將降低每筆貸款的美元。但由於銀行往往提供更好的報價，我們將轉換更多貸款，這會在我們的財務狀況中相互影響。

Next, we'll go to David Scharf from JMC Securities.

接下來，我們將介紹江鈴證券的 David Scharf。

Ron set me up well, and I'd like to say there was some complex technological problem, but I actually hung up on the call instead of hitting the unmute button. But I'd like to -- let's follow-up with a couple of things. One is, with this increased demand, which is obviously just breathing right through any stimulus headwinds and so forth. Obviously, we need demand on the other side of the network. Can you speak a little bit about on the funding front, Sanjay, kind of what developments you're seeing in terms of maybe the number of investors that are signing up for kind of the latest securitization? Any developments on forward flow arrangements and the like? Just overall breadth of funding partners that are emerging?

羅恩給我安排得很好，我想說有一些複雜的技術問題，但我實際上掛斷了電話，而不是按下取消靜音按鈕。但我想 - 讓我們跟進幾件事。一個是，隨著需求的增加，這顯然只是通過任何刺激逆風等等。顯然，我們需要網絡另一端的需求。 Sanjay，您能否談談融資方面的一些進展，您所看到的可能是註冊最新證券化的投資者數量？前向流動安排等方面的任何進展？只是新興的融資合作夥伴的整體廣度？

Yes, David, happy to. We won't take it personally if you hang up on our call. On the funding side, I guess I would say, obviously, in the depth of the COVID impact is really Q2 of last year coming into Q3. A lot of funding sources, whether they be banks or sort of institutional investors, obviously, concerned about risk, obviously, pulled back. Risk premiums went very high, required yields have been very high. That sort of underpinned a bit of what you saw in terms of the business cycle on our side.

是的，大衛，很高興。如果您掛斷我們的電話，我們不會親自處理。在資金方面，我想我會說，顯然，在 COVID 影響的深度實際上是去年的第二季度進入第三季度。許多資金來源，無論是銀行還是某種機構投資者，顯然都擔心風險，顯然，他們撤退了。風險溢價非常高，要求的收益率非常高。就我們這邊的商業周期而言，這在一定程度上支撐了你所看到的情況。

As the sort of broader risk landscape started to clear a bit, the smoke started to clear a little bit as we got to the end of the year, people felt more comfortable. I think you saw some of the original investors sort of coming back into the fray. And then certainly, as we got towards the end of the year, you saw other funding sources that maybe were sitting on the sidelines with respect to digital, if you will, waiting to see what would happen in the first macro stock that we then were able to observe over the course of 2020. Really coming to the space and starting to participate, showing interest.

隨著更廣泛的風險格局開始有所緩解，隨著我們到年底，煙霧開始有所緩解，人們感覺更舒服了。我想你看到一些最初的投資者重新加入了競爭。當然，當我們接近年底時，你看到其他資金來源可能在數字方面處於觀望狀態，如果你願意的話，等著看我們當時的第一隻宏觀股票會發生什麼能夠在 2020 年期間進行觀察。真正來到太空並開始參與，表現出興趣。

And so our pipeline today, I'd say, is as good as it's ever been with respect to demand for loans on the funding side. Dave talked a little bit about the demand or the interest from the banking side. And that's been really sort of encouraging. On the institutional side, equally, you're seeing a lot of new names and interest. I think you probably would have seen that manifest in the securitization markets at the end of the year or in Q1, which are some of the most constructive markets we've seen, certainly since we've begun ourselves.

因此，我想說，我們今天的管道在融資方面的貸款需求方面與以往一樣好。戴夫談到了銀行方面的需求或興趣。這真的有點令人鼓舞。在機構方面，同樣，你會看到很多新名字和興趣。我認為您可能會在年底或第一季度的證券化市場中看到這一點，這是我們見過的一些最具建設性的市場，當然自我們自己開始以來。

So I think a lot of folks are a combination of starting to feel more comfortable now even though yields are still -- or required returns are still above where they were pre-COVID. There's certainly a much higher level of comfort. And there's a broader secular sort of trend where a bunch of people were just kind of waiting to see what the first macro shock did to some of these digital platforms now feel pretty good about participating and recognizing that the performance was actually very good, if not better than some of the other parts of the economy. And therefore, showing interest where they didn't before. So I think the short summary of all of that is we feel really confident on the funding side. And the rapid reconstruction of our own volume that you've seen in the results in our guidance, funding has not been an obstacle to that in any way.

所以我認為很多人現在開始感覺更舒服了，即使收益率仍然 - 或者要求的回報率仍然高於 COVID 之前的水平。當然，舒適度要高得多。還有一種更廣泛的長期趨勢，一群人只是在等著看第一次宏觀衝擊對其中一些數字平台產生了什麼影響，現在參與並認識到表現實際上非常好，如果不是的話，感覺很好優於經濟的其他部分。因此，在他們以前沒有表現出興趣的地方。所以我認為所有這一切的簡短總結是我們對資金方面非常有信心。您在我們的指導結果中看到的我們自己的數量的快速重建，資金在任何方面都不是障礙。

Got it. No, no, no, that's helpful. I mean, certainly, the ABS markets have been incredibly receptive of this paper. A quick follow-up. I think Dave may have mentioned early on in the prepared remarks about a Spanish language version coming soon. And I know there are some unsecured consumer installment lenders that have historically focused or better yet, kind of high mix of Spanish-speaking borrowers in the U.S. It's typically been a little further down the credit spectrum, higher APRs than your averages. As you contemplate that target borrower, are we expected to be looking at the same general FICO range in use of proceeds of your existing platform? Or is this a kind of potentially maybe a different kind of end market and credit profile?

知道了。不，不，不，這很有幫助。我的意思是，當然，ABS 市場非常接受這篇論文。快速跟進。我認為 Dave 可能在準備好的評論中很早就提到了即將推出的西班牙語版本。而且我知道有一些無擔保的消費者分期付款貸方在歷史上一直專注於或更好，在美國講西班牙語的借款人的比例很高。它通常在信貸範圍內進一步下降，年利率高於你的平均水平。當您考慮該目標借款人時，我們是否預計在使用您現有平台的收益時會考慮相同的一般 FICO 範圍？或者這可能是一種不同的終端市場和信用狀況？

Yes, first question is...

是的，第一個問題是...

I don't -- go ahead. Go ahead, Dave.

我不——繼續。去吧，戴夫。

Yes. Maybe I'll start and hand it to -- let Sanjay add his thoughts. Yes, there really has been an unfortunate shortage of online lending platforms that have offer their product for the Spanish-speaking population. And the ones you refer to, generally, are retail base. You actually physically go into a shop or store and sit down and get a loan and generally higher rates and all that goes with that. So this is really, in our view, the first or one of the first, where it's a purely online experience, but it's just -- it is tailored for the Spanish-speaking market. And that's not a trivial matter. And there's a reason not everyone has done this because you have to go across everything from the marketing to the disclosures, the privacy policies, the loan agreement, the customer support.

是的。也許我會開始把它交給 -- 讓 Sanjay 補充他的想法。是的，不幸的是，為講西班牙語的人群提供產品的在線借貸平台確實短缺。通常，您所指的是零售基地。實際上，您實際上是走進一家商店或商店，坐下來獲得貸款和通常更高的利率以及隨之而來的一切。因此，在我們看來，這確實是第一個或第一個，它是純粹的在線體驗，但它只是 - 它是為西班牙語市場量身定制的。這不是一件小事。並不是每個人都這樣做是有原因的，因為你必須經歷從營銷到披露、隱私政策、貸款協議、客戶支持的所有事情。

So doing it, you can't do it partially. And maybe that at least somewhat explains why it hasn't happened in the market. But in our view, it's really important because being able to take out a loan is an important thing. It's a big obligation. We don't yet -- because we have not launched this product yet, we cannot yet speak to exactly how the demographic will compare to our current sort of borrower base that has gone through our platform to date. But it is the identical product in the sense of it's an online product and it's really just tailored for their language. It's -- we're not going into retail lending or anything of that nature. It is really still a purely digital product, just for clarity. I'll let Sanjay add anything, if he would like to.

所以這樣做，你不能只做部分。也許這至少在一定程度上解釋了為什麼它沒有在市場上發生。但在我們看來，這真的很重要，因為能夠貸款是一件很重要的事情。這是一個很大的義務。我們還沒有——因為我們還沒有推出這個產品，我們還不能確切地說出人口統計與我們目前通過我們平台的借款人基礎相比如何。但從在線產品的意義上說，它是相同的產品，而且它實際上只是為他們的語言量身定制的。這是 - 我們不會進入零售貸款或任何類似性質的事情。它實際上仍然是一個純粹的數字產品，只是為了清楚起見。如果他願意，我會讓 Sanjay 添加任何內容。

Sure. Yes. I mean, just on the specific point of mix, we don't anticipate that this will change our mix meaningfully. Meaning from a modeling perspective, we view this is allowing us to bring our product to a new demographic that is obviously a big and fast-growing and an important one in the U.S. But it's also a demographic that our models have typically performed very well, which is to say, a demographic that's been historically underserved by traditional lending models. So we view this as expansion of our product offering, but no real change to the underlying mix or strategy.

當然。是的。我的意思是，就特定的混合點而言，我們預計這不會有意義地改變我們的混合。從建模的角度來看，我們認為這使我們能夠將我們的產品帶到一個新的人群中，這在美國顯然是一個龐大且快速增長的重要人群，但這也是我們的模型通常表現非常好的人群，也就是說，歷史上傳統貸款模式服務不足的人群。因此，我們認為這是對我們產品供應的擴展，但對基礎組合或戰略沒有真正的改變。

Our next question comes from Pete Christiansen with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Pete Christiansen。

Dave, I want to ask you a bit of a high-level question here. Certainly in fintech, there's this concept of the super app. And you see it certainly among some payments companies, some of the challenger banks. The credit functionality isn't there yet, but we can kind of see where the evolution is going. One could think that could be a threat to Upstart just by having multiple banking products on one app. But on the other hand, I kind of think of that as potentially an opportunity for another referral distribution channel or even the opportunity to white label perhaps to challenger banks or even some of these other fintechs. Just curious to hear what you're thinking is. This is obviously a bit off in the grand scheme of things, but how do you think about how the fintech market is evolving in that way? And could Upstart play a meaningful part in that?

戴夫，我想在這裡問你一個高層次的問題。當然，在金融科技領域，有超級應用的概念。你肯定會在一些支付公司、一些挑戰者銀行中看到這一點。信用功能還沒有，但我們可以看到進化的方向。人們可能會認為，僅在一個應用程序上擁有多個銀行產品就可能對 Upstart 構成威脅。但另一方面，我認為這可能是另一個推薦分銷渠道的機會，甚至可能是給挑戰者銀行甚至其他一些金融科技公司貼上白標的機會。只是想知道你在想什麼。這顯然有點偏離了宏偉的計劃，但您如何看待金融科技市場如何以這種方式發展？ Upstart 能否在其中發揮重要作用？

Yes, that's a good question. So let me first say, I think there will be emergence of new age banks that will challenge the larger banks that have been around for decades. I think that is a good and healthy thing. And there's a whole bunch of them vying for it, and I'm sure at least some of them will be very successful in doing that with white label models, et cetera.

是的，這是個好問題。所以讓我首先說，我認為新時代銀行的出現將挑戰已經存在了幾十年的大型銀行。我認為這是一件好事和健康的事情。並且有一大群人在爭奪它，我相信至少他們中的一些人會在使用白標模特等方面取得成功。

We don't, in any way, see that as a threat to us. If anything, having banks that -- new banks, if you will, that are sort of tech-forward and very hypersensitive to the quality of experience they're giving to their customers is a good thing and we would hope to partner with them over time. We think lending is a very special and unique function. And for 9 years, we've been building these models that do it in a unique manner. So we don't at all feel threatened in any way that some of these new banks will suddenly become lenders. They have a large captive audience that will never get loans elsewhere.

無論如何，我們都不認為這是對我們的威脅。如果有的話，擁有這樣的銀行——新銀行，如果你願意的話，有點技術領先，並且對他們為客戶提供的體驗質量非常敏感，這是一件好事，我們希望與他們合作時間。我們認為藉貸是一個非常特殊和獨特的功能。 9 年來，我們一直在構建這些模型，並以獨特的方式做到這一點。因此，我們根本不會以任何方式感到這些新銀行中的一些會突然成為貸方的威脅。他們擁有大量被俘虜的觀眾，他們永遠不會在其他地方獲得貸款。

I think one of the fallacies of fintech is in some sense for banks themselves is believing you own your customers. It's a free world out there. If the Internet has done anything in the last 30-plus years, it has shown that a better product is a few clicks away. And we are firmly of the belief that consumers are going to go to the best place for the best product. And the superbank idea, we're just not believers in it. Not to say there won't be some new banks, that they won't be successful, that they won't have multiple products. But in no way do we see a world where consumers aren't going to feel -- find the best mortgage available, the best personal loan available, the best credit card available, and we'll simply take it all from one provider. It's not our view on the way the market is likely to head.

我認為金融科技的謬誤之一在某種意義上是銀行本身相信你擁有你的客戶。這是一個自由的世界。如果互聯網在過去 30 多年裡做了什麼，它表明只需點擊幾下鼠標就可以獲得更好的產品。我們堅信消費者會去最好的地方購買最好的產品。而超級銀行的想法，我們只是不相信它。並不是說不會有一些新銀行，它們不會成功，它們不會有多種產品。但我們絕不會看到一個消費者不會感受到的世界——找到最好的抵押貸款、最好的個人貸款、最好的信用卡，我們將簡單地從一個提供商那裡獲得所有這些。這不是我們對市場可能走向的看法。

Really insightful. Congrats again on the quarter.

真有見地。再次祝賀本季度。

Dave, I'll turn the call back to you.

戴夫，我會把電話轉給你。

Sure. I just want to say thanks to everybody for joining us on our first earnings call and hope it was helpful for all. And we will see you again in a few short -- in a couple of months. Thanks for joining us today.

當然。我只想感謝大家加入我們的第一次收益電話會議，並希望這對所有人都有幫助。我們將在短短幾個月內再次見到你——幾個月後。感謝您今天加入我們。

And that does conclude our call for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

這確實結束了我們今天的呼籲。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。