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. 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 $8 donation, 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 Lend 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

• Lend 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. 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 instead of everything. SLP is what turns a single bad outcome from a portfolio-killer into a manageable cost.

Every fee maps to a stage of the loan. Know the timeline and you know your economics.

Funding

You fund the principal plus the fronted donation amount selected by the borrower. SoLo Lender Protection (SLP) is also available at this stage for an additional fee based on the loan principal (Section 9).

On-time repayment

The borrower repays the principal, tip, and donation. You receive 100% of the principal, tip amount, and the fronted donation. There are no additional fees at this stage. If the borrower didn't select a donation, there's simply no donation in the flow.

The Grace Period

The Grace Period begins after the scheduled repayment date and lasts through day 35.

• New lenders with fewer than 30 funded loans: The SoLo Fee is waived until your 30th loan.
• Other lenders: A SoLo Fee equal to 12% of the principal applies to non-SLP loans repaid during the Grace Period.
• Example: For a $100 loan with a $10 tip, the 12% SoLo Fee is $12. The lender receives $98, which includes the $100 principal minus the $12 fee plus the $10 tip. The donation is repaid by the borrower to you, reimbursing what you paid SoLo at funding.

Recovery Period

If a loan has not been repaid by day 35, it enters the Recovery Period, which runs through day 90.

• During this period, the borrower is charged a 15% Late Fee based on the principal, which is paid to the lender. The borrower may also be charged a Transaction Fee that goes to SoLo.
• For loans that weren't funded with SLP, a 35% Recovery Fee is deducted from the lender's proceeds when funds are recovered during this period.
• Example: $100 principal, $10 tip. You receive $90 ($100 + $10 + $15 late fee, minus $35 recovery fee). The donation is repaid by the borrower to you as usual.

Default

If a loan remains unpaid after day 90, it enters the default process where it's sent to a third-party collection agency. The disciplined move is to write the loan off in your books at day 90; anything a collector recovers after that point is pure upside. Collection agencies may retain up to 35% of any funds they recover.

Other Potential Fees

• Instant Withdrawal: A 1.99% fee applies when you withdraw funds from your SoLo Wallet to your linked debit card for instant access.
• Standard ACH Withdrawal: Standard withdrawals are free but may take a few days to process.

All applicable fees are shown before you fund or withdraw, so you can see the associated costs in advance.

Understanding what happens after a missed repayment can help you see how SoLo's recovery process works from start to finish.

The mechanics, from signing up to repayment

It starts at borrower onboarding. Every borrower connects both their bank account and their debit card when they sign up. The banking transaction data creates their initial SoLo Score, which means the same connection that scores a borrower is also the connection that repays you.

Repayment is preauthorized at funding. When a borrower receives funds, they preauthorize SoLo to recover the repayment on the scheduled date. On-time repayment is not a reminder and a hope; it is a scheduled, authorized debit.

A missed date does not break the connection. If a borrower misses their scheduled repayment, SoLo stays connected to the account. When funds are present, SoLo attempts to recover on your behalf.

Human agents work alongside automation. Manual recovery agents begin outreach on delinquent loans, layering calls, texts, and structured plans on top of the automated recovery capability. Partial payment plans are offered when full recovery is not immediately possible, and at 90 days unresolved loans go to third-party collections.

The result

Our recovery process combines these methods, and the combined efforts have produced a default rate five to six times better than the industry average, with SoLo's default rate consistently below 10% and, in most cases, below 6%.

The Balance Principle

This is the single most important portfolio idea in this guide, and it applies to everything in it: a strong SoLo Lend portfolio takes calculated risk on purpose, in both directions at once. In general, a strong portfolio can include loans across different SoLo Score ranges, tip amounts, and repayment histories. Each part of the portfolio can have a different balance of potential returns and repayment risk.

• Higher-score loans: These loans generally have stronger repayment histories, but they may have lower tips and more competition among lenders.
• Lower-score loans: These loans potentially carry more repayment risk but offer higher tips. SLP is also available on eligible loans to provide additional protection.
• Finding the balance: A portfolio that includes both types of loans spreads lending across different levels of repayment history, risk, and potential return. The mix between the two can shape the overall performance of the portfolio.

The tools in this guide help provide context for these differences. SoLo Score provides information about repayment risk, the tip shows what the borrower is offering the lender, and SLP provides protection on eligible loans.

A single loan depends on one borrower and one repayment outcome. A portfolio distributes risk across multiple borrowers and repayment outcomes, which can reduce the negative impact of any single loan on overall results. Some loans may be repaid early, most may be repaid on time, and some may become delinquent.

Volume matters. SoLo uses 20+ funded loans per month as a benchmark for portfolio performance. Below that level, a single default can have a larger impact on monthly results and may make it harder to achieve a positive return within 30 days. At higher loan volumes, individual repayment outcomes have less impact on the overall portfolio.

Diversification is important. If you have limited capital, spreading it across multiple loans can create more diversification. For example, $500 across 5 to 10 smaller loans with SLP provides more diversification than putting the same amount into 1 to 2 larger loans, where one delinquency can have a larger impact on overall returns. With a $20 minimum, smaller amounts can also be spread across multiple loans.

Velocity is the engine. When a loan is repaid, those funds can become available to use towards another loan within days. A $200 loan that is repaid and funded again throughout the year could contribute nearly $5,000 in total lending without adding more capital. The amount of lending activity depends on how consistently you redeploy your funds.

• Fund consistently, not in bursts. Irregular activity breaks compounding.
• Re-fund principal immediately. Repayments land in your Wallet; redeploying rather than withdrawing is how compounding actually happens.
• Keep capital working. Idle funds earn nothing. SoLo is a marketplace and returns move with conditions.

Three Borrower Tiers

Run a core of seasoned borrowers for reliability, a meaningful allocation to intermediates for balanced yield, and a deliberate slice of high-tip new borrowers for the yield engine.

No borrower tier is inherently better than another. Each tier represents a different combination of score, repayment history, and typical tip. As described in the Balance Principle in Section 12, a mix of borrower tiers can provide exposure to different lending characteristics.

The intermediate range also typically has a larger selection of loan requests. This can provide more loan inventory within the score range, particularly when higher-score loan requests have greater competition among lenders.

The 3-2-1 Framework

The 3-2-1 Framework describes three lending profiles based on your available capital, time, and risk tolerance. Each profile represents a different mix of loan scores, SLP coverage, and lending activity. Your lending strategy can also include elements of more than one profile.

3 — The Daily Player. This profile has $5,000+ in capital and high engagement, with 10+ app opens per day. Lending is focused mostly on higher-score loans, roughly 71 to 99, which typically have higher tips and higher lending volume. SLP is used less often. This profile involves more time and risk tolerance, and higher-score loans can have more competition among lenders.

2 — The Balance Scorer. This profile has $5,000+ in capital and medium engagement, with about 2 to 3 app opens per day. SLP is used on about half of loans, with roughly half of lending activity in the 80 to 99 range and half in the 60 to 79 range. This creates a mix of score ranges, tip levels, and repeat borrowers.

1 — The Impact Builder. This profile has $1,000+ in capital and lower engagement, with about 1 app open per day. SLP is used on most loans. Lending is focused mainly on scores from 55 to 79, with some higher-tip loans in lower score ranges and lower-tip loans in higher score ranges.

Marketplace activity can vary by week, day, and time of day. Understanding the timing can help you get the best loans at the right moment.

Weeks of the month

Payday weeks concentrate everything. Around the 1st and 15th, and the Fridays near them, more borrowers are repaying, more lenders are getting repaid, and more of that repaid capital is hunting for loans at the same time. The result is heavier competition for the most attractive requests, faster funding windows, and more bidding pressure on high-score loans. Off-payday weeks flip it: less lender competition, but also fewer borrowers posting, so inventory thins.

Days of the week

The same dynamic plays out inside a week. High-activity days pair deep borrower inventory with deep lender competition; quiet days offer less contested access to a smaller pool. Neither is better in the abstract; they suit different strategies. A Daily Player who thrives on volume wants the busy days and should expect to bid. A selective lender can quietly pick through less contested days where a good request sits longer.

Time of day

Loan requests posted when more lenders are active may receive funding or bids within minutes. Requests posted when fewer lenders are active may stay available longer. This means the time a request is posted can affect how quickly lenders respond and how much competition it receives.

How to use this

• Track funded-day and funded-time in your spreadsheet for a month; your own data will show when you win.
• Expect bidding windows to be most contested on payday-adjacent days; use Lend Now more aggressively then, and bid patiently off-peak.
• Match repayment timing too: loans funded on payday cycles tend to have due dates aligned to the next one, which is exactly where you want a scheduled, preauthorized repayment to land.
• Keep capital ready before payday weeks. Repayments cluster, and the lenders who redeploy fastest into the fresh wave of requests compound hardest.

Consistent lending activity can help keep your capital moving and working for you. A daily, weekly, and monthly view can provide a way to track lending activity, repayments, and performance over time.

Daily: Lending Activity

• Redeploy repayments. Check your Wallet and put repaid principal back to work the same day. Idle capital is the silent return killer.
• Fund toward your monthly volume target. At 20+ loans per month, that is roughly one funding a day. Daily Players will do far more; Impact Builders can batch a few at once.
• Work your filtered feed. Open the marketplace through your Wizard plan or saved filters, not the raw feed. Apply the loan card checklist before every fund.
• Engage bidding windows in your bands. Lend Now when the requested tip clears your target; bid when it is rich for the risk.
• Glance at anything due today or overdue. Know what is coming back and what just went late. No action needed yet, just awareness.

Weekly: Performance Review

• Update your tracker. Log the week's funded loans and resolve statuses on anything repaid, in grace, or recovered.
• Review late loans. Anything past due goes on a watch list. Remember grace-period outcomes are normal; panic-measuring a 3-day-late loan is how lenders talk themselves out of good strategies.
• Read your bid outcomes. Check won vs. lost, gaps to winning bids, and rejection feedback. Adjust where you bid in each band accordingly.
• Check band balance. The Balance Principle decays without maintenance: are you drifting all-safe because high scores felt comfortable, or all-risky chasing tips? Rebalance toward your intended mix.
• Confirm capital utilization. If a meaningful share of your Wallet sat idle all week, either lower your selectivity slightly or accept a smaller working balance.

Monthly: Portfolio Review

• Snapshot cohorts. Record the +30 read on last month's cohort, the +60 read on the one before it, and the +90 read on the cohort from three months back. At +90, write off what remains; the verdict is in.
• Run the IQ review. "Analyze my performance this month," "break down my returns by score band," "where are my losses concentrated?" Compare IQ's read to your tracker.
• Audit SLP usage against losses. The Score Band Pivot shows it directly: bands bleeding without protection get SLP; clean, fully protected bands may earn selective savings.
• Re-run the Lending Wizard if anything changed. More capital, less time, or a matured 90-day cohort that shifts your risk appetite.
• Attend the SoLo Lender webinar. Product changes, marketplace conditions, and reward programs land there first, and rewards often pay credits for exactly the consistent volume you are already doing.
• Rebalance and set next month's target. Loans per month, band mix, and SLP rules, written down before the month starts.

There are several ways to calculate a lending return, and each one answers a different question. Your return depends on the amount you fund, what you receive back, and any fees that apply.

What you fund and receive

What you send at funding: principal + donation fronted (+ the 5% SLP fee if you protect the loan). This is your capital deployed, the denominator of every return calculation.

What you'll receive back:

• On-time: You receive the principal, donation, and tip.
• During the Grace Period (due date to day 35): You receive the principal, donation, and tip, minus the 12% SoLo Fee. This applies to non-SLP loans after your first 30 loans.
• During the Recovery Window (day 35 to day 90): You receive the principal, donation, tip, and the 15% Late Fee, minus the 35% Recovery Fee. This applies to non-SLP loans from day 35 through day 90.
• SLP delinquency: You receive SoLo Credits equal to 90% of the principal. The donation you paid SoLo at funding is not reimbursed, and the tip is forgone.
• Default: A non-SLP loan can result in no repayment.

The two sensitive line items:

• The donation belongs in your denominator but not your numerator. You front it, paying it to SoLo at funding, so it is capital at risk and must count in capital deployed. On any repaid loan the borrower repays it to you in full, so it contributes zero to net return. Lenders who exclude it from capital overstate their return percentage; lenders who count its return as income overstate their earnings. On a credited or defaulted loan, the donation is genuinely lost and belongs in the loss.
• The tip is never in your denominator. You receive it; you do not send it. Including it in capital deployed (a common mistake) understates every return you calculate.

Calculating Per-Loan Return

Per-loan Return = Net Return ÷ Capital Deployed

Answers the question: did this loan pay me for its risk? This shows how much a single loan returned compared with the amount you funded. Individual loans can have different outcomes, so this calculation provides a view of one loan at a time.

Calculating Weighted Portfolio Return

Weighted Return = SUM(Net Return) ÷ SUM(Capital Deployed), across all loans funded in the period

Answers the question: what did my capital actually earn? This shows how your overall lending performed based on the amount of capital you funded in a specific time period. A $500 loan has ten times the weight of a $50 loan because more capital was deployed. Portfolio performance can be measured at four checkpoints, with +90 providing the longest-term view described in Section 17.

Calculating Annualized Return

To compare against market products, convert your per-cycle return to annual terms. With 15-day loans, capital can complete roughly 24 cycles per year if fully redeployed:

Compounded Annual Return = (1 + Per-cycle Weighted Return) ^ Cycles per Year − 1

A 1% net return per cycle compounds to roughly 27% annually. Even a 0.5% return per cycle compounds to about 12.7%. These examples assume that capital is redeployed consistently and that loss rates remain similar over time. Actual results can vary based on repayment outcomes, periods when capital is unused, and marketplace conditions. Annualized returns provide a comparison, while your +90 cohort results show your longer-term lending performance.

Why the sustained rate is lower than a good single cycle. A strong cycle can gross far more than 1% (Scenario G below lands at +5.5%), but you cannot multiply a good cycle by 24, because not all of your capital actually completes 24 cycles. In Scenario G itself, three of the twenty loans do not come back on schedule: the grace and recovery loans return weeks late, and the delinquent loan's capital is tied up for as long as 90 days. Layer on the idle days between repayment and redeployment and the competition for the best requests, and the honest sustained number is the per-cycle return across ALL your capital, including the slow and stuck dollars. That is why this method uses 0.5 to 1% as the compounding assumption, and why your +90 cohort numbers, not your best cycle, are the truth.

Comparing Returns

How returns work: Traditional financial products typically earn returns over a set period, such as a month or year. SoLo returns are based on individual loan cycles, so the timing of when your capital is redeployed can affect your overall return.

How risk differs: Traditional financial products generally do not lose the full principal on an individual investment in the same way an unprotected loan default can. SLP and diversification can help spread the impact of individual loan losses across your portfolio.

Worked scenarios

All scenarios: $100 principal, $10 tip, $8 donation. Capital deployed = $108 (plus SLP fee where used).

Most lenders measure wrong. They look at individual loans, at the wrong time, with the wrong math. Here is how SoLo's own analytics measure lender performance, and how you should too.

Think in cohorts, not loans

A cohort is everything you funded in a defined period (a week or a month). Judge the cohort, not the loan. One default in a 25-loan cohort is a data point; the cohort return is the truth.

Measure at four checkpoints

Score each cohort at: 1. Scheduled repayment date (the two-week read; early signal only) 2. +30 days (grace period outcomes captured) 3. +60 days (recovery window outcomes accumulating: late fees in, recovery fees out) 4. +90 days (final: recoveries settled, remaining loans written off to collections)

The 90-day number is your real return, and at day 90 you write off what is left; anything collected afterward is upside. Late repayments with late fees can meaningfully improve a cohort that looked ugly at day 30. You can get more granular from here, but these four checkpoints are the spine of honest measurement.

Let outcomes mature before judging them

SoLo's internal analytics apply the same discipline: - Returns are only counted on loans whose due date is at least 7 days past, so recent repayment activity doesn't make the numbers whipsaw. - Delinquency rate only counts loans at least 1 day past due in the denominator, so loans that haven't had a chance to go late don't dilute the rate.

Weight by capital, not by loan count

• Return: total net return divided by total capital deployed, not the average of per-loan percentages. A $500 loan should count 10x a $50 loan.
• Delinquency rate: delinquent principal divided by mature principal. This measures the percentage of your capital at risk, not the percentage of your loans.

Slice by score band and by both date perspectives

Break every metric out by score band (56 to 60, 61 to 70, 71 to 79, 80 to 89, 90 to 99) plus an all-band total. Then look from two angles: - Funded-date view: how did the loans I chose in a given period perform? This grades your selection. - Due-date view: what came due in a given period? This grades your cashflow and repayment environment.

The benchmark to beat

Diversified traditional portfolios return roughly 6 to 8% annually; high-yield alternatives 8 to 12% with more risk. To beat readily available options you need better than about 12% annualized, roughly 0.51% net per loan or 1.02% per month on SoLo's two-week cycle. Disciplined, consistent lenders have meaningful headroom above that benchmark.

SoLo IQ and in-app analytics cover most lenders. If you want your own tracker, a ready-to-use template (SoLo-Lender-Tracker.xlsx) accompanies this knowledge base with all formulas pre-built and sample data showing how each outcome type is logged. The structure below mirrors how SoLo measures performance.

Tab 1: Loan Log (one row per loan)

Tab 2: Cohort Summary (one row per month or week funded)

For each cohort compute: - Loans funded, total capital deployed - Net return $ and weighted return % = SUM(net return) / SUM(capital deployed) - Delinquency % = SUM(principal on loans past due) / SUM(principal on loans at least 1 day past due) - Capital at risk = SUM(capital on delinquent or defaulted loans) - Recovery rate = late loans eventually paid / all late loans - Snapshot the cohort at due date, +30, +60, and +90

Tab 3: Score Band Pivot

Pivot the Loan Log by score band x month: loan count, capital, weighted return, delinquency. This tells you which bands are earning and which are bleeding, and whether your SLP usage matches where losses actually occur.

Optional Tab 4: Bid Log

If you compete in bidding windows, track bids placed, requested tip vs. your bid, won or lost, the winning amount when you lose, and the rejection feedback you observe. Over a month this shows you exactly where bids clear in your target bands.

Rules for honest numbers

• Never average per-loan percentages. Always sum dollars, then divide.
• Don't grade a cohort until its due dates are at least 7 days old.
• Count SLP credits at 90% of principal, and log the 10% plus the SLP fee as cost.

SoLo IQ is SoLo Funds' AI assistant, available to every verified member right inside the SoLo app. It's role-aware: everyday budgeting and cashflow help for members, and a dedicated lending-analytics layer for lenders. For you as a lender, IQ reads your own lending history and turns it into plain-language answers about returns, delinquency, funding volume, and strategy: the same weighted, capital-based math described in Sections 16 and 17, computed for you on demand so you don't need the spreadsheet open to get the number.

Data, privacy, and limits

• Your data: SoLo IQ uses information from your account to answer questions about your lending activity. It does not compare your performance with other lenders or provide rankings against other members.
• Updated information: SoLo IQ uses pre-calculated analytics rather than estimating your results. The data is refreshed daily, so results reflect information available through the previous day.
• SoLo IQ can provide guidance, but it cannot move money or change account settings.

What SoLo IQ can analyze for you

Returns. Weighted-average and simple-average return, total net return, and capital deployed (principal + donation + SLP fee, the same denominator as Section 16) for any window you name: a specific month, several months compared side by side, a custom date range, or a rolling "last 7 / 30 / 90 days."

Delinquency and risk. Principal-weighted delinquency rate, delinquent loan count, and delinquent principal over those same windows, including an SLP vs non-SLP split so you can see whether your protected cohorts behave differently from your unprotected ones.

Funding volume. How much capital you actually put to work: loans funded, principal, donations, SLP fees, average loan size, and your SLP vs non-SLP mix, for any period.

Score-band deep dives. A full breakdown of returns and delinquency by SoLo Score band, so you can see which bands are earning and which are bleeding: exactly the Score Band Pivot from Section 18, generated for you.

Your portfolio overview. The default answer to "how am I doing?" is a single snapshot: your year-to-date totals, your month-by-month trend, and your most recent week of activity, with capital deployed, delinquency, and weighted return together.

Every one of these can be read through two lenses, and IQ will tell you which it used:

• Due-date view. How the loans that came due in a window performed (grades your cashflow and repayment environment).
• Funded-date view. How the loans you funded in a window are performing (grades your selection). For recent funded-date windows, IQ flags that loans funded in the last ~15 days may not have matured yet, so their numbers are still incomplete.

IQ reports by score band, not exact score. Give it a specific score and it will tell you which band that falls into and answer at the band level.

Strategy guidance

When you explicitly ask for advice ("how can I improve my returns?", "where are my losses concentrated?", "how should I deploy another $2,000?"), IQ produces qualitative, personalized guidance grounded in your own analytics and your 3-2-1 lender profile (Daily Player, Balance Scorer, Impact Builder, or Altruist). It leads with the levers you actually control, SLP usage, tip, and loan duration, before any talk of rebalancing.

Alongside the guidance, IQ assembles a Suggested Marketplace Filters preset tailored to your profile: score bands, tip priority, SLP usage, target monthly volume, and duration preference, as a ready-made starting point for your next funding session.

IQ is not a financial advisor. Its recommendations are educational, aggregate, and principle-based; past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and every recommendation closes with that reminder.

Cashflow context

Because IQ is also your everyday financial assistant, lenders get its general tools too: a spending summary and transaction detail from any external bank accounts you've linked, a view of your connected accounts, and an on-demand data refresh.

Sample prompt library

Performance review - "Give me an overview of my 2025 lending performance." - "What is my weighted return over the last 90 days, and how does it compare to the 90 days before?" - "Break down my returns and delinquency by score band for this year." - "What percentage of my capital came due late last month?"

Cohort analysis - "How did the loans I funded in May perform, versus the loans that came due in May?" - "Compare my monthly returns for the last six months." - "Deep-dive August by score band: where did my losses concentrate?" - "How are my SLP loans doing versus my non-SLP loans?"

Strategy tuning - "Going forward, what should I look for in a loan to be more successful?" - "Where are my losses concentrated, and should I be using SLP differently?" - "Am I balanced across score bands per the risk I intended, or drifting to one side?" - "If I add $2,000 to my portfolio, how should I deploy it based on my history?"

Acting on it - "Build me a filter preset that matches my best-performing profile." - "What's my month-to-date funding volume and return so far?"

The longer you lend, the more history IQ has to work with. If IQ's numbers ever look off, use the Report Feedback button or the thumbs up/down on any message so the team can review and correct it.

What everyday investors actually need from a yield product: low minimum investment, minimal lock-up, a short ROI timeframe, a simple learning curve, and yield substantial enough to outperform the market. Traditional options force a tradeoff on at least one. SoLo's structure ($20 minimum, no lock-up on marketplace lending, 15-day cycles) is built to clear all five.

What makes SoLo Lend structurally different from legacy lending platforms like LendingClub and Prosper: short durations instead of multi-year notes, everyday lenders instead of institutions, borrower-set terms with lender bidding instead of platform-set rates, and a community that includes the borrowers traditional platforms exclude.

A quick overview of the screens you'll use most often.

Marketplace with filters

The Marketplace is the lender's home. A Lend / Borrow toggle sits at the top. Below it, filter chips for Score, Tip, and Amount let you stack criteria to match your strategy, alongside a sort control.

Loan card

Each loan card shows the borrower's photo with their SoLo Score badge, name, and completed loans repaid on the left, and the terms on the right: Requested amount, Lender Tip in dollars, Scheduled Payment in days, and the Reason (Flat Tire, Bills, Car Repairs, Co-payment). Everything in Section 5's checklist is on this card.

Bid placement and countdown

From a request card, Place Bid opens the bid screen showing the requested tip and allowed range, with the 2-minute window countdown visible on the card. Lend Now sits alongside for funding at the requested tip.

Bid history

The History tab shows bids placed with won and lost outcomes, the winning amount on losses, and the gap between your bid and the winner.

Bottom navigation

The five main tabs are Market, Feed, Activity, Wallet, and Profile. Your Activity tab contains lending analytics and history, while Wallet shows your available funds and latest transaction history.

AutoDebit: An automatic payment system that collects the full amount due on the scheduled repayment date.

Balance Principle: A lending approach that combines higher-score loans with lower-score, higher-tip loans to balance repayment history and potential returns.

Bid: The tip amount a lender adjusts during a bidding window period.

Bidding Window: The 2-minute period when lenders can place bids on a loan request. This window opens when the first bid is placed on a loan request.

Boost / SoLo Score Boost: An indicator on a loan card showing that a borrower has connected multiple payment methods and increased their SoLo Score.

Borrower Ladder: SoLo's system for increasing a borrower's available loan amount and SoLo Score over time. New borrowers can start with requesting loan amounts up to $100 and a score capped at 60. On-time repayment can increase both over time, up to the $650 maximum.

Capital at risk: The total amount of capital deployed in loans that are currently delinquent or defaulted.

Capital Deployed: The total amount funded at the start of a loan, including principal, the donation, and the SLP fee when applicable. The tip is received from the borrower and is not part of capital deployed.

Cohort: A group of loans funded during the same defined period, such as a week or month, and measured together over time.

Default: A loan that remains unpaid at day 90. The loan may be referred to a third-party debt collector, and amounts collected afterward are recorded separately from the original loan outcome. Once a loan defaults, the borrower loses access to the platform until their loan is repaid.

Delinquency: A loan that has not been repaid by its scheduled due date.

Delinquency Rate: Delinquent principal divided by mature principal. This shows the percentage of capital associated with delinquent loans.

Donation: A voluntary amount selected by the borrower that goes to SoLo. The lender fronts the donation, paying it to SoLo at funding, and the borrower repays it to the lender with the loan.

Grace Period: The period from the scheduled due date through day 35. Non-SLP loans repaid during this period are subject to the 12% SoLo Fee.

Late Fee: A fee equal to 15% of principal that is paid by the borrower to the lender when a non-SLP loan reaches day 35.

Lend Now: An option to fund a loan at the borrower's requested tip, available while the tip remains unchanged (no lower bid submitted). The funding is automatically accepted and initiated.

Lending Wizard: A guided marketplace setup that uses your goals, capital, and available time to create a lending plan and marketplace filters.

Loan Card: The marketplace listing for a loan request, including the borrower's SoLo Score, loan history, principal, tip, duration, and reason.

Loan Proposal: The offer shown to the borrower after a bidding window closes. It is based on the Winning Bid and includes options to accept or decline.

Marketplace Filters: Filters for SoLo Score, tip percentage, and loan amount that can be used to organize available loan requests.

Mature Loan: A loan that is at least 1 day past its due date and is therefore included in delinquency calculations.

Principal: The amount borrowed, ranging from $20 to $650.

Recovery Fee: A fee equal to 35% of principal that is deducted from lender proceeds when a non-SLP loan is recovered between day 35 and day 90.

Recovery Rate: The percentage of late loans that are eventually repaid.

Rejection Feedback: Information shown after a borrower declines a bid, including the most recently rejected tip percentage and amount when available.

SoLo Lender Protection (SLP): Optional protection applied when a loan is funded for a fee of 5% of principal. If an eligible loan becomes delinquent, the lender receives SoLo Credits equal to 90% of the principal.

SLP Eligibility Threshold: The minimum SoLo Score required for a loan to be eligible for SLP. The current threshold is 55 and may change based on SoLo's rules.

SoLo Credits: SoLo's platform currency that can come from SLP credits, rewards, and promotions. They can be used to fund loans.

SoLo Fee: A fee equal to 12% of principal on eligible non-SLP loans repaid during the grace period. The fee is waived for a lender's first 30 funded loans.

SoLo Gold: SoLo's loyalty program for eligible lenders, which can include exclusive benefits and rewards.

SoLo Lend: SoLo's lending product, which includes marketplace lending, SLP, bidding, Lending Wizard, analytics, and SoLo IQ.

SoLo IQ: SoLo's built-in AI financial co-pilot. Users can access it from Marketplace, Activity, Loans, Wallet, and Profile to get help with navigation, budgeting, and lending data. SoLo IQ can provide guidance, but it can't move money or change account settings.

SoLo Score: A score from 1 to 99 based on a borrower's banking and repayment history. It is not a traditional credit score. New borrowers typically start with a score between 30 and 60.

SoLo Wallet: The account where your lending capital is held, repayments are received, and withdrawals originate. Banking services are provided by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC.

Tip: An optional payment selected by the borrower and paid to the lender for funding the loan. The lender receives the full tip amount, up to 15% of the loan principal.

Weighted Return: Total net return divided by total capital deployed. This calculation weights each loan based on the amount of capital deployed.

Winning Bid: The lowest tip offered when a bidding window closes. It becomes the loan proposal shown to the borrower.

Every claim in this guide traces to one of three source categories. Where SoLo's published materials and in-app disclosures differ, the in-app disclosures control.

SoLo platform data

Published by SoLo Funds or drawn from SoLo's own analytics, and verifiable against the live app: - Fee schedule (SoLo Fee 12% in grace, 15% late fee and transaction fee at day 35, 35% recovery fee to day 90, SLP at 5% with a 90% credit payout, 1.99% instant withdrawal, first-30-loans waiver): SoLo's published lender fee guide and in-app disclosures. - Marketplace parameters (loan sizes $20 to $650, 15-day maximum duration, 15% tip cap, 10.4% average tip, SoLo Score range and the 55+ SLP eligibility threshold, new-borrower limits and the borrower ladder): SoLo product documentation and in-app disclosures. - Recovery performance (default rate five to six times better than industry average; consistently below 10%, most cases below 6%): SoLo platform analytics across the loan portfolio. - Measurement methodology (capital-weighted returns, delinquency maturity rules, funded-date vs. due-date views): the same definitions that power SoLo's lender analytics and SoLo IQ.

Independent third-party research

• Cashflow underwriting outperforms traditional scores, especially for thin-file borrowers: FinRegLab's multi-year empirical research program (2019 to 2025), which analyzed loan-level performance data across consumer and small-business lenders and found that models adding cashflow data predicted default risk more accurately across all borrower segments, expanded approvals without increasing default risk, and performed consistently across demographic subgroups. Federal regulators issued a joint interagency statement supporting cashflow data for financial inclusion following this research. The lender-adoption and market statistics quoted in Section 5 are industry survey figures compiled for SoLo's Lend360 2025 presentation.
• Shorter duration means lower default risk: consistent lender-industry evidence, most visibly in auto lending, where lenders price longer terms higher specifically because default risk rises with term length, and portfolio data shows charge-off rates increasing as terms extend from 60 to 72 to 84 months.

Market benchmarks

• Savings at roughly 4% APY: representative of top high-yield savings accounts; the FDIC national average savings rate is substantially lower, so the guide's comparison is conservative in SoLo's disfavor.
• Stocks at 6 to 10% long-term annual: the long-run S&P 500 average, roughly 10% nominal and 6 to 7% after inflation.
• The 12% benchmark and all compounding math: derived arithmetic shown in full in Section 16; nothing is sourced because everything is computed on the page.

If any figure here conflicts with what you see in the SoLo app, trust the app and report the discrepancy in-app so this guide can be corrected.

Lending involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Returns are not guaranteed, so never lend money you cannot afford to lose.

• Wallet funds: SoLo is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Bangor Savings Bank, Member FDIC. Pass-through FDIC insurance may apply to eligible Wallet funds under the Terms. FDIC insurance does not cover loan repayment.
• Loan repayment: Loan repayment is not guaranteed, and delinquent loans may be referred to third-party debt collection.
• Tips and donations: Tips and donations are voluntary for borrowers. Loan requests are subject to verification, lender proposals, and requestor acceptance.
• Promotions: Promotional and rewards programs, including SoLo Gold rewards, may change. Current terms apply to each promotion.
• Guide accuracy: This guide was last updated August 20, 2026. Updates may lag product changes; the in-app experience and disclosures control on any difference.