Upstart (UPST +90%) is making quite an entrance today. This recent IPO, which operates an artificial intelligence (AI) based lending platform for banks, reported its initial quarter as a public company last night, and it was quite impressive. As if that were not enough, Upstart also revealed that it will obtain Prodigy Software, which will greatly increase its presence in the auto loan space. The idea behind upstart is that it supports banks in expanding the basis of loan decisions beyond just FICO scores. Upstart argues the FICO score is a bit outdated, as it predates cloud computing and modern data science; there are now a lot more data points that algorithms can use to accurately predict whether a loan is likely to be repaid. With a smarter credit model, banks could approve more loans while lowering default risk. Upstart would be particularly useful to smaller and medium-sized banks, which have outdated technology and lack the technical resources to fund the digitization process. Upstart has had quite a ride in its short time as a public company. It made its IPO debut in December 2020, with a decent bit of excitement around it. It was a Goldman-led deal with a small 12 min share offering size. Two of the founders came from Google (GOOG). The IPO priced at $20, at the low end of its experienced range of $20-22, but opened at $26 and shot up to above $100 by mid-February.