Earnings Call Transcript - UPST Q4 2025

Paul Gu, Speaker

Through partner channels. And those partner channels look comparable to some of our partner channels in the personal loan business. So there's a diverse mix in those businesses. But I would say, generally, the acquisition costs tend to be lower.

James Faucette, Analyst

Got it. And then when you think about on a contribution or margin basis, is it fair for us to assume then that by having that mix of approaches in terms of sales channels and delivery channels that that could drive higher contribution despite those being bigger loans or comparatively lower, just given some of the dynamics you talked about?

Paul Gu, Speaker

Yes. So I think that's a great point. And indeed, for the net upfront economic impact for us, we're definitely expecting that just by virtue of a much larger loan size, you have more dollars of margin to be made there even at a moderate percentage take rate. We haven't yet seen specific dynamics play out with respect to how measured contribution impacts the different channels. But I think generally speaking, these bigger loans opening up new types of unit economics mean that at a given contribution margin, dollar dollars can be quite attractive.

James Faucette, Analyst

Perfect. Thanks, Paul.