Renaud Laplanche is Co-Founder and CEO at Upgrade, a leading fintech platform providing credit and mobile banking products that has delivered over $42 billion in affordable credit and is valued at $7.3 billion.

Renaud holds an MBA from HEC Business School and London Business School and a law degree from Montpellier University, and previously worked as a securities lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Paris and New York.

Renaud holds the Newport-Bermuda sailing speed record with the only crossing ever achieved under 24 hours, and has been recognized on Bloomberg Markets' Most Influential List as one of the world's top 50 leaders in technology, finance, and politics.

Before Upgrade, Renaud co-founded and led LendingClub for 10 years, taking it public in 2014 at a $10 billion market cap in the largest US-based internet IPO that year. He also co-founded TripleHop Technologies, which was acquired by Oracle in 2005 for a reported $10 million.

Upgrade has served over 7.5 million customers, raised $750 million in total funding including a recent $165 million Series G, and was named the fastest growing company in the Americas by the Financial Times. The Upgrade Card was recognized by Nilson Report as the fastest growing credit card in America, making Upgrade the only fintech among the top 25 US card issuers.