SoLo Celebrates Being First Black-Owned Fintech to Reach 1 Million Registered Users
SoLo is excited to announce they’ve officially become the largest and first Black-owned personal finance platform to gain 1 million registered users with over 1.3 million downloads. This unprecedented milestone continues to show a clear unmet need in the financial assistance market. Historically, a consumer base like SoLo’s has been overlooked, lacking options for accessing short term capital and meaningful returns. With the public benefit mission to right-bank 254 million underserved Americans, SoLo has attracted investment support from a variety of investors and funds, most notably Serena Williams’ fund, Serena Ventures.
Based in Los Angeles with nearly 100 employees, SoLo is finally bringing a fintech company to the market powered by the people. SoLo enables its members to borrow and lend to and from each other. Its lending members make a return, while its borrowing members gain transparent access to personal loans. SoLo has surpassed 600 thousand in loans funded and $300 million in transaction volume with 82% of its members being from underserved zip codes. Most Americans, 254 million to be exact, aren’t provided solutions to properly grow their wealth or access to personal loans when they need them. SoLo has advanced rapidly by offering a working solution where others have failed to grow without significant venture capital investment.
Reaching a million registered users is a significant milestone particularly because there’s never been a Black-owned financial service company or bank to have such success. Difficulty in regulation and discriminatory challenges in creating and scaling fintechs has made it nearly impossible for marginalized groups to create financial products for their communities. SoLo is a unique example of this success and is eager to continue scaling in business and impact. As the first to reach the scale of one million users, SoLo is at the forefront of regulatory innovation. SoLo recently announced three strategic additions to its legal and regulatory leadership team. Collin Schwartz has joined as General Counsel, Kyle George as the Head of Government & Regulatory Affairs, and Manny Alvarez as Advisor.
SoLo is supported by investors who understand the problem and are committed to the massive opportunity that SoLo brings to the market. Investors like Richelieu Dennis, formerly Sundial and now Essence Ventures and New Voices Fund, Kesha Cash from Impact America, the largest fund by an African American woman, Arlan Hamilton, Tim Weatherspoon and wife Kelly Rowland, and Serena Ventures to name a few.
“We are innovating and thriving where companies have failed,” said Rodney Williams, Co-Founder and President of SoLo. “Reaching this milestone is a testament to our members and a pivotal moment in our history where we have finally created a winning solution for the communities we represent. We are extremely appreciative of this moment and opportunity.”
“SoLo is transforming the lives of everyday Americans with democratized access to capital and returns that’s truly rooted in community. Community finance is working and SoLo is proof of that,” said Serena Williams, Managing Partner at Serena Ventures. “We are proud to stand behind SoLo as it continues growing at an incredible pace and focuses on giving underserved groups and individuals the tools they need to thrive financially.”
SoLo was founded by two best friends, Travis Holoway and Rodney WIlliams, as they both shared intimate experiences of friends and family needing access to short term loans where, in most cases, they had to go without. Travis and Rodney designed a solution that is providing short term access to capital and returns at a scale that has never been done. With only $14 million in equity funding, SoLo has emerged as the new financial service leader on track to deliver $1 billion back into underserved communities by Q1 ‘24.
For more information on SoLo, visit https://solofunds.com
*Claim is defined as a B2C personal finance banking solution, U.S.-based and Black-owned with registered users or downloads above 1M. Black-owned is defined as Black majority ownership.