It's worth pointing out here that Upstart's model gives out funds at the end of a student's four-year education, rather than at the beginning. If the student has lots of debt, and wants less debt, then she can use the funds to pay down some of that debt. But many students will choose to spend the money in other ways, simply layering the new equity funding on top of their old debt funding. Alternatively, if the expectation is that students will use their Upstart funds to pay down debt, then that only means, at the margin, that lenders will feel free to extend even more credit in the run-up to the early cash-out.