Upstart's Partnerships Surge: Will it Ignite Revenue Rocket?

Upstart UPST has partnered with Tech CU, enabling the credit union to offer personal loans and auto refinance loans to more consumers. Tech CU began providing personal loans via the Upstart Referral Network in September 2025, with plans to expand into auto refinance loans in early 2026.

Qualified applicants for personal loans on Upstart.com who meet Tech CU's credit policies receive customized offers through the Upstart Referral Network as they smoothly transition to a Tech CU-branded experience to finish the membership application and loan closing process.

In October 2025, Peak Credit Union and Corporate America Family Credit Union (CAFCU) joined the roster of financial institutions adopting Upstart’s artificial intelligence platform. Peak Credit Union is using Upstart’s platform to deploy personal loans, while CAFCU uses it across personal loans, auto refinancing and HELOCs. These moves show growing confidence in Upstart’s technology from community lenders seeking faster approvals and smarter underwriting.

As of Sept. 30, 2025, Upstart had more than 100 lending partners participating on its marketplace, and the company expects to continue to expand its lending partnerships to new participants.

Upstart enables lending partners to originate credit through its proprietary, cloud-based AI lending marketplace. As the company’s technology advances and more partners adopt the platform, consumers gain better access to affordable, seamless credit. The company’s top lending partners originate a significant portion of loans on its marketplace. In the first nine months of 2025, its top three lending partners collectively originated 85% of the Transaction Volume and Number of Loans and accounted for 63% of its total revenue.

UPST: Peer Moves

LendingClub Corporation LC partnered with Wisetack in November 2025 to enter home improvement financing, leveraging Wisetack's network of 40,000 contractors for loan purchases starting in 2026. In August 2025, LendingClub signed a deal with BlackRock for up to $1 billion in loan transactions through 2026 via its LendingClub marketplace program, following a $100 million initial transaction.

SoFi Technologies, Inc. SOFI partners with Lightspark in August 2025 to power blockchain-enabled international money transfers. The company secured a $5 billion loan agreement with Blue Owl Capital in March 2025 to grow its loan platform business through borrower referrals and originations.

Upstart’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of Upstart have declined 19.5% in the past three months, underperforming both the broader industry and the S&P 500 composite.

From a valuation perspective, we note that Upstart shares are currently overvalued, as suggested by the Value Score of D.

In terms of forward 12-month Price/Sales (P/S), Upstart is currently trading at 3.97X, which is at a premium to the industry average of 3.36X.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2025 EPS has been revised marginally upward over the past months. The figures suggest significant increases year over year.

Currently, Upstart carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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