The Company consolidates VIEs in which the Company has a variable interest and is determined to be the primary beneficiary. This determination is based on whether the Company has a variable interest (or combination of variable interests) that provides the Company with (a) the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance and (b) the obligation to absorb losses or right to receive benefits that could be potentially significant to the VIE. The Company continually reassesses whether it is the primary beneficiary of a VIE throughout the entire period the Company is involved with the VIE.

The Company also determines whether decision-maker or service-provider fees are variable interests. Decision-maker or service-provider fees are not considered variable interests when the arrangement does not expose the Company to risks of loss that a potential VIE was designed to pass on to its variable interest holders, the fees are commensurate, the arrangement is at market, and the Company does not have any other interests (including direct interests and certain indirect interests held through related parties) that absorb more than an insignificant amount of a VIE’s potential variability. This determination can have a significant impact on the Company’s consolidation analysis, as it could affect whether a legal entity is a VIE and whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of a VIE. When the Company’s decision-maker or service-provider fee is not a variable interest, the Company is viewed as acting as a fiduciary for the potential VIE.

The Company established Upstart Loan Trust to enter into warehouse credit facilities for the purpose of purchasing Upstart-powered loans. See “Note 7. Borrowings” for additional information. The entity is a Delaware statutory trust that is structured to be bankruptcy-remote, with third-party banks operating as trustees.

Under the risk retention requirements in Title 17 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 246, Credit Risk Retention, promulgated by Securities and Exchange Commission (“RR”), the Company is required to retain at least 5% of the economic risk in securitization transactions in which the Company is the retaining sponsor. The Company elected to satisfy the RR requirements by holding Eligible Horizontal Retained Interests (“EHRIs”) in the form of subordinated certificates within the established MOA.

Concurrently with the closing of the 2018-1 securitization transaction, while maintaining its status as the primary beneficiary of the related MOA, the Company sold 80% of its interests in the MOA to an institutional investor in exchange for cash of approximately $8.0 million based on the fair value of the residual certificates held in the MOA as determined on the pricing date. As a result of the sale, the Company maintained a 20% interest in the MOA and its status as the managing member, while the investor became a non-voting limited member. As of December 31, 2020, no noncontrolling interests were recognized due to deconsolidation of the 2018-1 securitization during 2020.

Upon closing of the securitization transaction, the Company determined that the servicing fees represented a variable interest in the securitization entities due to the EHRIs held by the Company’s MOA to satisfy the RR requirements. The EHRIs held by the MOA were deemed to potentially absorb more than an insignificant amount of the VIEs’ expected losses or expected returns at the inception of the securitization transaction. The Company also

Subsequent to the expiration of the RR requirements for 2018-1 in June 2020, the residual certificates held by the MOA was distributed based on the proportional equity held by Upstart and the investor. This distribution required the Company to reassess whether its servicing fee is a variable interest. Although the Company maintains a reduced level of variable interests in the 2018-1 securitization transaction through the EHRIs, the Company’s other interests subsequent to these distributions are no longer expected to absorb more than an insignificant amount of the VIE’s expected losses or expected returns. Therefore, the Company concluded that the fees for servicing the securitization transaction are no longer considered variable interests, and as such the powers the Company possesses through the servicing arrangement is no longer considered in the primary beneficiary determination. As a result, the Company concluded it was no longer the primary beneficiary of the 2018-1 securitization transaction. The Company deconsolidated the legal entities associated with the 2018-1 securitization as of June 30, 2020. The Company recorded an immaterial net gain on the deconsolidation of the entities. The Company maintained its role as servicer of these securitization transactions.

The Company sponsored three additional securitization transactions in August 2018 (“2018-2”), February 2019 (“2019-1”) and August 2019 (“2019-2”), respectively. As the retaining sponsor of these transactions, the Company was subject to the RR requirements and satisfied them through Eligible Vertical Interests (“EVIs”) in the form of a combination of securitization notes and residual certificates through the established MOAs. The Company concluded that it has a variable interest and is the primary beneficiary of the MOAs associated with these securitization transactions. As a result, the Company consolidated these MOAs as of December 31, 2020 and 2019. The Company determined that it is not the primary beneficiary of the trusts which hold the loans associated with these securitization transactions, primarily because the Company’s servicing fees are not considered variable interests, and that the transfer of loans as collateral into these securitization transactions met the definition of a sale under Topic 860, Transferring and Servicing. As such, the Company derecognized these loans from the condensed consolidated balance sheets upon the closing of these securitization transactions. Refer to the Unconsolidated Securitizations section below for more information.

Upstart Loan Trust 2, a Delaware statutory trust, holds personal loans facilitated through the Upstart platform that do not meet the criteria for inclusion in the warehouse credit facilities, or that were the result of the Company’s repurchases of loans for breaches of representations and warranties made to institutional investors, as described above.

The Company’s continued involvement in all of its securitizations in which it is the sponsor includes loan servicing rights and obligations for which it receives servicing fees over the life of the underlying loans. The Company monitors its status as the primary beneficiary and in case of reconsideration events, updates the analysis accordingly.

The Company’s transactions with unconsolidated VIEs include securitizations of unsecured personal whole loans and sales of whole loans to VIEs. The Company has various forms of involvement with VIEs, including servicing of loans and holding senior or residual interests in the VIEs. The Company’s transactions with unconsolidated VIEs include securitizations of unsecured personal whole loans and sales of whole loans to VIEs. The Company has various forms of involvement with VIEs, including servicing of loans and holding senior or residual interests in the VIEs.

As of March 31, 2021, the Company’s unconsolidated VIEs include entities established as the issuers and grantor trusts for the 2017-1, 2017-2, 2018-1, 2018-2, 2019-1, and 2019-2 securitization transactions (the “Unconsolidated Securitizations”). The Company’s continued involvement in the unconsolidated VIEs is in the form of its role as the sponsor and the servicer of these transactions. For each of the unconsolidated securitizations, the Company determined that it is not the primary beneficiary.

In cases where the VIEs are not consolidated and the transfer of the loans from the Company to the securitization trust meets sale accounting criteria, the Company recognizes a gain or loss on sales of loans. The net proceeds of the sale represent the fair value of any assets obtained or liabilities incurred as part of the transaction. The assets are transferred into a trust such that the assets are legally isolated from the creditors of the Company and are not available to satisfy obligations of the Company. These assets can only be used to settle obligations of the underlying securitization trusts.

Upstart Network Trust (“UNT”), also a Delaware statutory trust, was established in 2014 to facilitate Upstart’s fractional loan program. The Company is the servicer of UNT’s loan assets and previously concluded that the servicing fee represents a variable interest and that the Company is the primary beneficiary of UNT. The program was formally discontinued in 2019 and as a result of a reduction in the Company’s investment in UNT, the Company concluded that it was no longer the primary beneficiary and therefore deconsolidated UNT during 2019. The fair value of the Company’s investment in UNT is included in notes receivable and residual certificates in the condensed consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021. The Company’s continued involvement in UNT includes loan servicing rights and obligations for which it receives servicing fees over the life of the underlying loans

The carrying value of assets that relate to variable interests in unconsolidated VIEs consists of $18.9 million and $16.0 million which are included in notes receivable and residual certificates on the condensed consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021, respectively. The Company also had $7.2 million of cash deposits made to reserve accounts for related securitizations, included in other assets on the condensed consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

The Company’s maximum exposure to loss from its involvement with unconsolidated VIEs represents the estimated loss that would be incurred under severe, hypothetical circumstances, for which the Company believes the possibility is remote, such as where the value of securitization notes and senior and residual certificates the Company holds as part of the RR requirement declines to zero.

The investors and the securitization trusts have no direct recourse to the Company’s assets, and holders of the securities issued by the securitization trusts can look only to the assets of the securitization trusts that issued their securities for payment. The beneficial interests held by the Company and the Company’s MOAs are subject principally to the credit and prepayment risk stemming from the underlying unsecured personal whole loans.

Off-balance sheet loans relate to securitization transactions for which the Company has some form of continuing involvement, including as servicer. For a loan related to securitization transactions where servicing is the only form of continuing involvement, the Company would only experience a loss if it were required to repurchase such a loan due to a breach in representations and warranties associated with its loan sale or servicing contracts. Additionally, in the unlikely event principal payments on the loans backing a securitization are insufficient to pay senior note holders, any amounts the Company contributed to the securitization reserve accounts may be depleted.