Your Guide to SoLo Lend

SoLo Funds is a community banking platform: lending, borrowing, banking, and intelligence in one place. SoLo Lend is the lender's side of it, the ability to fund loans on SoLo's marketplace. Borrowers post short-term, small-dollar loan requests and set their own terms. Lenders choose which requests to fund. No application process, no credit pull, no institution in the middle. Every loan is true 1:1: funded directly by a lender to a borrower, repaid directly by the borrower to the lender. Lenders are everyday members, not required to be accredited, and roughly 30% of members have both borrowed and lent.

The SoLo Lend math. Marketplace loans average 15 days with principals from $20 up to $650. Per-loan gains are modest by design; the engine is velocity. A two-week cycle means capital can recycle 20+ times per year, and compounding those cycles is what separates SoLo lending from annual-yield products.

Why short duration wins. Duration is a built-in de-risking lever: the less time you are exposed, the less time things can go wrong. Lending data across asset classes shows longer terms default at multiples of shorter ones even after adjusting for credit quality. Fifteen-day loans align with income cycles, reduce exposure to external shocks, and turn velocity into stability. Longer terms may look more lucrative; short time is smarter.

Returns are not guaranteed and principal can be lost.

Getting started with lending comes down to a few simple steps. Taking the time to complete each one can help you get set up quickly. Every step protects you and our community.

Step 1 — Verify it's really you. Every member, whether borrowing or lending, goes through a quick identity check: your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and a government ID. It's the same standard used to open a bank account, and we use Plaid to handle it securely.

Step 2 — Connect your bank account. Link your bank through our secure portal. This verifies your account, allows you to move funds between your bank account and SoLo Wallet, and provides information used to calculate your SoLo Score. The bank account you connect needs to meet a few requirements to help you get the best results:

• A personal checking account (not a business account or savings account)
• Active with transaction activity showing regular use
• A positive balance in good standing
• At least 90 days old to show account history

Your bank account information cannot be revised once it's been connected, so select carefully when you sign up.

Step 3 — Add your debit card before you fund your first loan. Once your account and linked bank account are verified, you can head to the Marketplace, select a loan request to fund, and add your debit card issued to you. Funding requires a debit card that matches the bank and checking account connected in Step 2. Credit cards, prepaid cards, and debit cards from a different bank aren't accepted. Your connected checking account must also have a non-negative balance when you submit a funding request, or the submission won't go through.

You can update your debit card up to three times within a 30-day period. If you have a loan pending funding or repayment, you can update your debit card once that loan is no longer pending.

Step 4 — Deposit funds into your SoLo Wallet. Your SoLo Wallet is where your lending funds are held and where repayments are received. Funds added from your linked debit card are available for lending as soon as the deposit is complete, with no waiting period. From there, funds can move between your Wallet and your bank account as you lend and receive repayments. Deposit amounts may be subject to limits set by your bank.

If verification stalls. Verification helps confirm member identities and account information across the platform. If verification takes longer than expected or you run into an issue, reach out to our support team for assistance.

1. Download the app and complete verification. Sign up, verify your identity, and connect a payment method.
2. Add funds to your SoLo Wallet. This is where the funds you use for lending are stored and where your loan repayments are deposited. You can use those funds to lend again.
3. Explore the Marketplace and learn how loan cards work. Each request shows important details like the loan amount, tip, repayment period, reason, borrower profile, and SoLo Score.
4. Run the Lending Wizard. Use the Lending Wizard (Section 8) to set your lending goals and build a strategy that fits them.
5. Start small and diversify. Think of your first 30 days as a learning period rather than a performance test. Lenders can fund loans across different score ranges, amounts, and borrower profiles. Over time, this can provide more data to evaluate which lending approaches fit their goals.

Every loan card shows the key terms set by the borrower:

1. Principal Amount – The amount requested, $20 to $650.
2. Tip (Optional) – The amount the borrower offers the lender for funding, capped at 15%. 100% of the tip goes to the lender. Platform-wide, tips average roughly 10.4% per loan.
3. Donation (Optional) – The voluntary amount the borrower chooses to give to SoLo, set as 8%, 9%, or 10% of principal (or 0%, no donation). You cover it when you fund a loan, and the borrower repays it along with the principal and tip.
4. Duration – The borrower's scheduled repayment date, currently up to 15 days after funding.
5. Reason – Why the borrower is requesting the loan.

How funding and repayment work: When you fund a loan, you send the principal and the donation amount. When the borrower repays on time, they repay the principal, tip, and donation back to you.

For example, with a $100 principal, $10 tip, and an 8% donation ($8), you fund $108. The borrower repays $118 back to you.

The SoLo Score ranges from 1 to 99 and reflects a borrower's financial and repayment behavior. It uses connected banking information (banking transactions) and activity on SoLo rather than a traditional FICO score.

How the score changes. New borrowers can start with a score of up to 60 maximum. The score can change over time based on repayment and other financial behavior. On-time repayments can increase the score, while late or missed repayments can lower it. A higher score generally reflects a longer history of successful repayment.

SoLo Score Boost. A "Boost" badge on a loan card means the borrower has connected additional payment methods which includes additional banking data, which gives you more confidence in their ability to repay. Connecting those methods gives borrowers a small boost to their SoLo Score.

SoLo Lender Protection (SLP) eligibility. Loans from borrowers with a SoLo Score of 55 or higher are eligible for SoLo Lender Protection. Requests below 55 are not eligible for this coverage.

Why banking and payment (cashflow) underwriting is better. Traditional credit scores look backward; cashflow shows real-time ability to pay. 88% of U.S. lenders report greater confidence using cashflow data, and studies across 38,000+ loans show cashflow metrics improve default prediction accuracy, especially for thin-file borrowers. It is not softer credit, it is smarter credit, and it is the foundation of SoLo's Score & AI risk model.

What else appears on the loan card. The SoLo Score is one part of the information available to lenders. The score gets you to the right neighborhood; the rest of the card tells you whether this specific borrower is worth funding:

• Loan history and count. Look for positive patterns and volume of completed loans.
• Recent on-time activity. Check for late history, especially recent.
• Tenure. New borrower or established. You can review this by SoLo Score and loan count.
• Reason. Specific and relatable is a green flag. Vague or implausible is not.
• Boost. The borrower has connected multiple payment methods and been re-scored on richer data.
• Tip vs. risk. Balance them rather than chasing either alone.
• Duration. Shorter is better.

SoLo's borrowing limits are earned, not granted. Understanding the borrowing limit ladder tells you exactly what kind of borrower you are looking at on any loan card.

How it works.

• Starting limit: New borrowers can typically request up to $100, depending on their starting SoLo Score, which can range up to 60.
• Limit increases: As borrowers build repayment history, their SoLo Score and borrowing limit can increase over time, up to the maximum of $650.
• Tip and funding: A borrower's tip may vary based on their individual request and circumstances. As a borrower's score and limit rise, they usually offer lower tips and still get funded.
• Late or missed repayment: Late repayment can lower a borrower's SoLo Score. Defaulted borrowers may lose access to the community until the original loan is repaid.

Why the borrowing ladder matters to lenders.

• The request size is a signal. A $500 request is only possible from a borrower who has climbed the ladder, meaning multiple successful repayments stand behind it. A $100 request from a new borrower is a first rung, priced accordingly with a higher tip.
• A large request with a thin history is a mismatch. The ladder makes that combination structurally impossible; if the numbers on a card don't line up with the history, look closer.
• The ladder is the accountability engine. Borrowers ask for what they can repay because their access depends on it. That self-selection is a core reason the marketplace works, and it is why repayment history is the strongest column on the loan card.

The loan amount is shown alongside other information on the loan card, including SoLo Score, repayment history, tip, duration, and borrower details. Together, these details provide context about the request and the borrower's activity on SoLo.

When you choose to fund a loan request, SoLo sends a proposal to the borrower, who makes the final decision to accept or decline it. With Proposal Bidding, lenders submit offers during a short bidding period. The borrower still makes the final decision on which proposal to accept.

How bidding works

1. A borrower's request appears in the Marketplace. When a lender places the first bid, a two-minute bidding window begins with a visible countdown.
2. During this time, lenders can submit different tip amounts. If the tip remains unchanged, selecting Fund Now allows you to fund the request at the borrower's requested tip, which is accepted immediately and starts the funding process.
3. When the bidding window ends, the lowest submitted tip becomes the Winning Bid and is presented to the borrower as a proposal.
4. The borrower can accept or decline the proposal. If it's declined or expires, the request returns to the Marketplace.

Why it works this way

The bidding system is designed to create a fair and consistent process for everyone. It gives every lender the opportunity to submit different offers on the same loan request, while giving borrowers time to review the best proposal (lowering cost) before deciding whether to accept it. This creates a clear process for both sides to submit and review offers.

What lenders see

• Bidding details: The borrower's requested tip and available bidding range appear on each bid screen.
• Proposal feedback: If a borrower rejects a proposal or it expires, you can see the most recently rejected tip percentage and dollar amount, along with when it happened.
• Bidding History: View your previous bids and their outcomes, including the winning amount and how it compared with your bid.

Bidding strategy

• Fund Now when the requested tip already clears your return target. Certainty beats a marginally better tip you might lose.
• Bid when the requested tip is rich for the risk. You can win at a lower tip and still hit your per-loan return target.
• Read the rejection feedback. Repeated rejections at a tip level on similar profiles tell you where the market is clearing.

As a new lender, the Lending Wizard helps you kickstart a foundational strategy based on your lending goals, available capital, and how much time you want to spend in the app.

Where it's located: You can find the Lending Wizard through the Lend button in the top-left corner of the Marketplace.

What it does. The Wizard takes your lending goals, available capital, and the time you want to spend in the app, and converts them into a concrete plan. It then automatically applies the matching marketplace filters and guides you to the loans that fit, so you never scroll the full feed hoping to spot a match.

Using the Lending Wizard

• Be honest about engagement. A Daily Player plan with one app open a day underperforms a well-matched low-touch plan.
• Re-run it when circumstances change: more capital, less time, a shifted risk appetite after your first 90-day cohort matures.
• Pair it with manual review. The Wizard gets you to the right loans; the loan card checklist in Section 5 makes the final call.

Marketplace Filters. As an alternative to the Lending Wizard, Marketplace Filters let you manually narrow down loan requests by SoLo Score, tip percentage, and loan amount. You can also combine multiple filters to view requests based on your selected preferences.

SLP is an optional protection available on eligible loans for a fee of 5% of the loan principal. If an SLP-protected loan becomes delinquent, the lender receives SoLo Credits equal to 90% of the principal and donation. These credits can be used to fund other loans instantly, while SoLo takes over the collection process.

How to use it

• Lower score ranges: SLP can be particularly relevant on loans with lower SoLo Scores, where both tips and delinquency rates may be higher. That is where SLP's downside cap matters most.
• Higher-confidence loans: On loans where a lender feels confident in repayment, the 5% SLP fee becomes an additional cost on top of the loan; skip it selectively if your data supports it.
• Protection from delinquency: If an SLP-protected loan becomes delinquent, it caps losses at the 5% fee plus 10% of the principal and donation instead of everything. SLP is what turns a single bad outcome from a portfolio-killer into a manageable cost.