SoLo Funds Announces New Los Angeles Headquarters, Appoints Chief Product Officer
-- Former Tala Co-Founder and CPO Jon Blackwell joins fastest growing lending startup
-- SoLo has completed over 10k short term loans and millions in loans maintaining 200% month over month growth since April 2018
Jan 22, 2019, 09:08 ET
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SoLo, an innovator in mobile short-term lending, today announced it is moving its headquarters to Los Angeles as it continues to scale and disrupt the status quo in short-term lending. The company also announced Jon Blackwell is joining the company as Chief Product Officer.
With a focus on connecting lenders and borrowers with access to loans under $1000.00, SoLo sees a unique opportunity in the Los Angeles market. SoLo joins a fertile ground of talent and resources fueled by other leading fintech startups like Acorns, Tala, Dave.com and ZestFinance.
Blackwell joins seed stage SoLo after years of experience building successful fintech products that empower and meet the needs of the underserved. Prior to joining SoLo, Blackwell Co-founded Tala and served as its Chief Product Officer, where he was instrumental in the development and global growth of one of the leading emerging market loan providers. Blackwell led all product and global growth initiatives across Kenya, Tanzania, Philippines and more successfully raising over $100M in funding and serving millions across the globe during his tenure.
"I've spent a good portion of my career leading financial service products for underserved markets globally while not being able to impact individuals here in the U.S.," said Blackwell. "What I see in SoLo is the first viable and scalable solution to truly address the world's most valuable underserved market, the 78% of Americans who live check to check. I am thrilled to be joining SoLo and driving towards making a financial impact to many Americans."
SoLo provides a platform for borrowers to find affordable access to lenders willing to meet their requested terms. Borrowers set their repayment time period and tip to the lender, while SoLo measures the real time risk of the transaction producing a proprietary score which is used by each lender as they choose which loan to fund. Since its launch in April of this year, the platform has completed over 10,000 loans with lenders achieving an average return of 8% over a few weeks time period. This has all been achieved while maintaining a default rate well below the industry average of loan products. The platform has continued to grow organically maintaining 200% month-over-month growth since launch in April and is poised to be a leading lending product.
Founded in 2017, SoLo has literally trekked across the country initially stopping in Ohio and Kansas as members of early stage accelerators Hillman & Techstars. The move also comes at the culmination of a series of seed round injections totaling $3M over the past 12 months.
About SoLo Funds
SoLo Funds is a national mobile lending exchange connecting lenders and borrowers for the purpose of providing more affordable access to loans under $1,000. SoLo Funds launched in April 2018 growing rapidly as one of leading platforms for leading across the nation. Over the past 12 months, SoLo has been been backed by Joanna Rees, Cross Culture Ventures, Rich Dennis, Jump Start, and Techstars.
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SOURCE SoLo Funds