Upstart, an artificial intelligence lending startup, today announced a $50 million equity investment to expand its artificial intelligence-powered platform to other types of credit beyond unsecured personal loans.

Dave Girouard, co-founder and CEO of Upstart and a former president of Google Enterprise, told Bank Innovation that the latest influx of funding — from Progressive Investment Company, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and First National Bank of Omaha — will allow Upstart to build out its engineering and data science teams.

Upstart has raised more than $160 million since inception. Girouard said that over the course of about $3.3 billion in loans originated in the last five years, Upstart has demonstrated loss rates less than half those of peer platforms for borrowers with similar FICO scores. In 2019 so far, he said more than 60% of Upstart originations were entirely automated and approved in realtime.

Girouard said while personal loans is the fastest growing segment of credit, it is far from the largest. While he didn’t provide specifics on other areas of credit Upstart is considering to expand into, beyond what’s already been announced, he did offer some examples of where in lending he thinks AI could best be put to use.

“Whether you’re talking about credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, small business lending, commercial lending, real estate or heavy equipment, there’s just so many flavors of lending where more accurate credit models, and more efficient origination, has just a huge potential,” he said.

In addition to using AI and machine learning algorithms, Upstart looks beyond traditional FICO scores and also considers consumer data points such as education history, social media information and employment history in order to make underwriting decisions.

Asked whether Upstart was considering expanding into business lending, Girouard said he expects to lean more into the consumer side, at least for now.

“I think our techniques are applicable, certainly, to most flavors of business lending, but if we’re going to jump there next, my expectation would be at the smaller end of the market,” he said.

Although the company offers a direct-to-consumer loan product, Girouard said Upstart’s business is not designed to compete with banks.

“We’re basically of the belief that credit is somewhat of an antiquated system that doesn’t treat people fairly,” he said. “But with modern data science and better technology, we can make affordable credit more broadly available, and at the same time, actually make it make lending less risky for banks and other types of lenders.”

Girouard said the company reached the conclusion about two years ago that marketplace lending, or fintech lending, was not going to be a long-term industry and that companies like Upstart were either going to have to become banks or partner with banks to survive.

“We decided, given who we are, that we don’t think it makes sense for us to become a bank, but we can become technology providers to banks, and that’s kind of led us to where we are today,” he said.

Upstart loans will be available on Progressive’s website later this month. The company also launched a partnership with Customers Bank and its BankMobile division, which announced today that it has signed “Powered by Upstart” agreements with First National Bank of Omaha, First Federal Bank of Kansas City and Accion Chicago. Girouard said Powered by Upstart allows banks and other lenders to leverage Upstart’s AI platform as a white-label solution and enforce their own credit policy and lending terms.

Upstart has also partnered with BankMobile to develop two credit cards: the BankMobile Classic Mastercard and the BankMobile Rewards Mastercard, both available now.

Girouard said Upstart has been based in the San Francisco Bay Area since its founding in 2012, but that it has become increasingly difficult to hire technical talent due to so much competition. He said the company earlier this year opened an office in Columbus, Ohio, and that he expects to have about 30 employees there by the end of the month. Upstart’s total workforce is around 200, he said.