Present
SoLo Funds
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Building the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class.
My father saved for 35 years and did not qualify as my client. So I built the market that would have him.
The largest community finance platform in the United States, built to empower financial gain for every class rather than serve one of them. It runs on three pillars that feed each other. Lending generates return. Return funds capital. Capital produces the behavioral data that becomes intelligence, and the intelligence prices the next loan. Superior returns, precision capital, predictive intelligence, for everyone.
Everyday lenders fund loans directly to other members and earn a return set by the community rather than handed down by an institution. Savings that a bank would leave flat, put to work.
Members ask for what they need, on terms they set, and repay into a record that travels with them. No compounding interest, no penalty architecture, no credit score gate at the door.
A live read on household cash flow assembled from real repayment behavior, published ahead of the official prints everyone else waits on.
I spent seven and a half years at Northwestern Mutual, first as a financial advisor and later as Director of Training and Development. The job came with a rule nobody says out loud: you call on people above a net worth threshold. Below the line, the industry has nothing for you.
My father was below the line. Thirty-five years at GM, steady income his entire working life, and about fifty thousand dollars sitting in a bank account that had never grown. He was the most disciplined saver I knew and he did not qualify for a single product I was licensed to sell him.
Meanwhile my best friend Rodney's mother was on the other side of the same failure. She needed capital at moments and could not get it at a fair price. One family had money that would not grow. The other needed money that would not come. Both were being told no by the same system, for opposite reasons.
So the question became obvious. What if you connected them directly. What if my father's fifty thousand could earn a real return by funding a neighbor who needed four hundred dollars before Friday, on terms the two of them set. That is SoLo Funds. It is not a lending product with a community feature attached. It is the two halves of my father's problem and Rodney's mother's problem solved against each other.
Rodney and I met at nineteen. He stood up in my wedding and is godfather to my son. From 2015 to 2017 we met after work at my office in New York and did nothing but take notes, talk to lawyers, and pressure-test the idea. In 2017 I left Northwestern Mutual to build it.
Eight years in, the data has settled the argument. Members repay. Lenders return. More than two million members and over a billion dollars in transaction volume later, the repayment behavior of the community now reads the American consumer ahead of the official economic prints. The people the system called unqualified turned out to be the signal.
The financial intelligence ecosystem for every class, and the largest community finance platform in the United States. Co-founded with Rodney Williams. Backed by MassMutual, Serena Ventures, Reign Ventures, Richelieu Dennis of New Voices and Jason Gardner, founder of Marqeta. A Certified B Corporation, the first Black-owned personal fintech company to reach one million users, and now more than two million members strong. Yield, capital and intelligence in one system.
solofunds.com →A personal finance podcast and publication launched with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE, made for people the wealth management industry has never written for. Money and culture in the same conversation, hosted with Rodney Williams.
thewealthbreak.com →Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Building the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class.
Named a regional finalist alongside co-founder Rodney Williams.
The consumer vitality index debuts on Bloomberg Markets, reading household cash flow ahead of official economic data.
SoLo Funds recertifies as a B Corporation, doubling down on scaling with purpose.
Launched the AI financial coach built on more than a billion dollars in platform transactions.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped its suit against the company, which had defended its community-set pricing model from the start.
Co-founded a personal finance podcast and publication with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE.
Ranked number 35 on Big Path Capital's MO 100 Top Impact CEO Ranking, cited for the community finance model where members back each other. One of only a few fintech CEOs on the list, honored at the MO Summit in Austin.
SoLo Funds passes one million registered users, the first Black-owned personal fintech company to reach the mark. Serena Ventures backs the company the same year.
SoLo Funds named to the eleventh annual list of private companies chasing the market's biggest opportunities.
Named a global finalist for Executive of the Year at the Finovate Awards. SoLo Funds won Excellence in Decentralized Finance the same night.
SoLo partnered with ESSENCE and Sundial Media to launch Ese, a version of the platform built for Black women, debuting around ESSENCE Fest. Black women are the top users of the personal loan products that drive debt in the community, and Ese was built to offer a community alternative on both sides of the transaction.
SoLo won the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs challenge, which sought fintech startups opening capital and credit to underrepresented communities, and took an investment from LIFT Labs to fund engineering hires.
SoLo Funds selected for the annual awards recognizing products and services built to solve real problems at scale.
SoLo won the Black Community special edition outright, recognized for redefining capital and banking for the everyday American. Visa's global competition has drawn more than 8,500 startups from over 100 countries since 2015.
Selected from nearly 200 applicants worldwide for the twelfth annual Lab, run by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City. Twelve weeks of mentorship from Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Credit Suisse, AXA XL and Chubb, closing with Demo Day in June.
Named to the inaugural list alongside Rodney Williams, honoring the innovators shaping the future of tech.
SoLo was chosen for the inaugural cohort out of more than 700 applicants, taking a $100,000 investment and twelve weeks of mentorship. The same firm where he had spent seven and a half years, and where his father had not qualified as a client, was now backing the company built to fix that.
SoLo Funds becomes the only Black-led certified B Corp in United States fintech. Named to the Forbes Next 1000 the same year, and raises a $10 million Series A covered by TechCrunch.
SoLo joins Visa's Fast Track program as the network scaled the next generation of fintechs rebuilding the global economy.
Eight months after the relaunch, Mercedes Bent of Lightspeed Venture Partners picked SoLo for Business Insider's roundup of the consumer startups VCs expected to break out in 2021, endorsing it as a standout peer-to-peer platform and an affordable option for people facing an emergency expense.
After a year-long worldwide search, SoLo Funds was named Startup of the Year Champion at the first Startup of the Year Summit in November, with Travis representing the company. Named to the Inclusive Fintech 50 the same year.
After the initial version of the company ran out of money, relaunched SoLo in April 2020 into the teeth of the pandemic. The community answered.
Relocated the company from New York to Los Angeles.
Two years of market research, then a full year of accelerators across the country: Lumos in Columbus, the Hillman Accelerator in Cincinnati, and Techstars Kansas City that July.
Built in New York City with Rodney Williams around a single question: what would lending look like if the community set the price.
Walked away from the advisory career to build SoLo full time.
Met with Rodney Williams after work at the New York office, taking notes, talking to lawyers and pressure-testing the model before writing a line of it into existence.
Seven and a half years, financial advisor then Director of Training and Development. The desk where the thesis formed: advisors could only call above a net worth threshold, and the most disciplined savers he knew fell below it.
Graduate, then moved to New York to start a career in finance. Cincinnati is where SoLo would later launch through the Hillman Accelerator.
Raised by a father who spent 35 years at General Motors and saved carefully his whole life, in communities where lending to a neighbor was never an innovation. It was a Tuesday.
I speak to financial institutions, investor audiences, founder communities and universities on community finance, the real cost of being cash poor in America, underwriting on propensity to pay rather than credit history, and building a mission-driven company that survives contact with regulators, banking partners and market cycles. On The Wealth Break, money and culture share the same microphone.
Quoted and featured across national business press and broadcast.
Copy either version directly. Both are current and cleared for publication.
Travis Holoway is the Co-Founder and CEO of SoLo Funds, the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class and the largest community finance platform in the United States. He spent seven and a half years at Northwestern Mutual, where advisors could only call above a net worth threshold and his own father, a 35-year General Motors employee and lifelong saver, fell below it. He built SoLo so that capital like his father's could earn a real return by funding a neighbor who needed it. Under his leadership, SoLo became the first Black-owned personal fintech company to reach one million users and was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50. He was ranked among Big Path Capital's MO 100 Top Impact CEOs and named a Finovate Executive of the Year finalist. He is a co-founder of The Wealth Break, a Cleveland native, and a University of Cincinnati graduate.
Travis Holoway is the Co-Founder and CEO of SoLo Funds, the financial intelligence ecosystem for every class and the largest community finance platform in the United States. He co-founded the company in 2018 with Rodney Williams and has led it across three products: community lending, member capital, and predictive intelligence through SoLo IQ and SoLo NowCAST, an index that reads American household cash flow ahead of official economic data. Holoway spent seven and a half years at Northwestern Mutual, first as a financial advisor and later as Director of Training and Development. Advisors there could only solicit clients above a net worth threshold, and his own father, who worked 35 years at General Motors and saved consistently his entire career, did not clear it. His savings sat in a bank account and never grew. Meanwhile the mother of Holoway's best friend and future co-founder Rodney Williams needed short-term capital and could not access it affordably. Two families were failed by the same system for opposite reasons, and connecting them directly became the founding architecture of SoLo Funds: capital that would otherwise sit flat earning a real return by funding a neighbor on terms both sides set. Founded in New York City and built through accelerators across the country, Lumos in Columbus, the Hillman Accelerator in Cincinnati and Techstars Kansas City, the company relocated to Los Angeles in 2019, relaunched in April 2020, joined Visa's Fast Track program that year, and was named Startup of the Year Champion at the 2020 Startup of the Year Summit. In 2021 SoLo was selected from more than 700 applicants for the inaugural cohort of the Northwestern Mutual Black Founder Accelerator, at the same firm where Holoway had built his career, and in 2022 it was chosen from nearly 200 global applicants for the FinTech Innovation Lab New York, run by Accenture and the Partnership Fund for New York City. That same year SoLo won the Black Community special edition of Visa's Everywhere Initiative, won Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs' LIFToff Financial Impact Challenge along with an investment, and was named to Fast Company's World Changing Ideas. Under Holoway's leadership, SoLo became a Certified B Corporation in 2021, the only Black-led certified B Corp in U.S. fintech, and in 2023 became the first Black-owned personal fintech company to surpass one million registered users, earning a place on the CNBC Disruptor 50 and backing from Serena Ventures. Today the platform serves more than two million members with over a billion dollars in transaction volume. In 2022 SoLo partnered with ESSENCE and Sundial Media to launch Ese, a version of the platform built for Black women. Holoway is also a co-founder and co-host of The Wealth Break, a personal finance podcast and publication launched with iHeartRadio and ESSENCE. He was ranked number 35 on Big Path Capital's 2024 MO 100 Top Impact CEO Ranking and named a finalist for Executive of the Year at the 2022 Finovate Awards, where SoLo Funds won Excellence in Decentralized Finance. He has also been named to the Forbes Next 1000, the Inclusive Fintech 50 and the AfroTech Future 50, is an Endeavor Entrepreneur and Forbes Business Council member, and was a 2026 EY Entrepreneur of the Year regional finalist. A native of greater Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, he resides in Los Angeles.
Lead the subject line with Speaking, Press, Investment or General and it reaches the right desk faster.