← All autopsies

// STARTUP COMPARISON

EBANX (2022 crisis) vs LendingClub (2016 crisis)

EBANX (2022 crisis) failed in 2022 due to Unit Economics. LendingClub (2016 crisis) failed in 2016 due to Founder Chaos. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.

METRIC🔥 EBANX (2022 crisis)🔥 LendingClub (2016 crisis)
SectorFintechFintech
CountryBrazilUSA
Founded20122006
Died20222016
Raised$430M$1.3B
Peak$1B+ valuation$9B valuation
Primary CauseUnit EconomicsFounder Chaos

// WHY EACH FAILED

🔥 EBANX (2022 crisis)
Unit Economics
EBANX, Brazil's leading cross-border payment platform enabling global merchants to accept LatAm payments, raised $430M and reached unicorn status. In 2022 rising interest rates globally and a Brazil-specific macroeconomic slowdown compressed EBANX's take rates and increased its cost of capital. The company laid off 30% of its workforce — approximately 900 people — and restructured. The company survived but at reduced scale.
// LESSON
Cross-border payment platforms in emerging markets carry FX volatility risk, local interest rate risk, and global rate risk simultaneously. Stress-test all three at the same time before sizing the team. When macro moves, all three move together.
🔥 LendingClub (2016 crisis)
Founder Chaos
LendingClub CEO Renaud Laplanche resigned in May 2016 after an internal review found that $22M in loans had been sold to an investor with falsified application dates, and that Laplanche had failed to disclose a personal conflict of interest. The stock fell 50% in a single day. LendingClub survived but spent years rebuilding institutional trust.
// LESSON
For marketplace lenders, loan data integrity is the product. Falsifying origination dates is not a compliance technicality — it invalidates every institutional investor's credit risk model and destroys the trust that marketplace lending is built on.

// IN THE SIMULATION

EBANX triggers CROSS_BORDER_FINTECH_MACRO_SQUEEZE — the simulation models payment processors in emerging markets as doubly exposed to macro contractions: FX volatility increases operational risk while rate rises compress net interest margins on float.

LendingClub triggers FINTECH_FOUNDER_DATA_MANIPULATION — the simulation models loan data integrity as a hard constraint for marketplace lenders. When origination data is falsified, every institutional investor's credit model becomes invalid simultaneously.

// EXPLORE FURTHER

Full EBANX (2022 crisis) autopsy →Full LendingClub (2016 crisis) autopsy →More Unit Economics failures →All Fintech autopsies →