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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsSOLO proposed using consumer-permissioned financial and digital records to give lenders more information about applicants—but the 2024 announcement did not show that lenders could replace credit bureaus or that SOLO had done so. The concept was an additional source of first-party data, not a demonstrated substitute for bureau reports.
What SOLO proposed
In a March 5, 2024 report, TechCrunch described SOLO as a first-party data collection and reporting engine. Founder and CEO Georgina Merhom presented the idea as a way to assemble information a consumer permits a lender to access, giving that lender a fuller view of financial behavior than a traditional credit file may provide. SOLO’s own repost characterized it as a collaborative credit bureau concept.
The proposed inputs ranged across several kinds of services, including:
- Bank accounts: connections through Plaid, Teller and TrueLayer.
- Commerce and payments: records associated with Amazon, Shopify, Square, Stripe and PayPal.
- Billing and invoicing: systems such as QuickBooks and Bill.com.
- Business activity: customer relationship management platforms and other online records or digital footprints.
The intended value was to let lenders consider more than whether a borrower had paid a particular bill on time. Merhom told TechCrunch, “The credit bureaus are super relevant, but when it’s used to identify that a person didn’t pay one bill on time, it’s a punishment. If you are only following the money, you can miss out on a lot of signals,” TechCrunch reported.
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Why SOLO focused on information beyond bank transactions
Merhom traced the idea to Zivmi, her earlier work with freelancers who lacked bank accounts. According to TechCrunch, platforms such as GitHub and Upwork could help show work history, experience and client ratings when conventional financial records offered little context. This is founder background explaining the motivation for SOLO; it is not independent evidence that SOLO’s data improves underwriting or loan outcomes.
Did SOLO help lenders ditch credit bureaus?
The available 2024 account does not establish that. It describes a goal of enriching lender assessments with consumer-permissioned data, not a verified replacement for credit-bureau information. A lender could potentially use such records alongside other sources, but the report does not confirm how any lender ultimately used SOLO, whether bureau data was retained, or whether a lender abandoned it.
Credit scoring is also changing through approaches that do not amount to replacing bureaus. TransUnion’s 2016 description of CreditVision Link, for example, said it combined trended bureau information with alternative data. That historical product description is not a current specification, but it illustrates a bureau-led way to add more information rather than discard bureau reports. In April 2026, Fannie Mae said lenders in a limited rollout could use VantageScore 4.0 for loans delivered to it; nonparticipating lenders still had to use Classic FICO tri-merge reports until broad availability. Fannie Mae noted that newer models may include on-time rent payments and trended credit data. Neither example demonstrates adoption or replacement by SOLO.
What was announced about SOLO’s launch
TechCrunch reported that Merhom and full-stack developer Luis Troni had been building SOLO for two years and had recently introduced it to hundreds of financial institutions. They were seeking 100 U.S. bank pilots “this year”—meaning 2024, not a current target. Those statements describe early launch activity and an ambition; the report does not establish that 100 pilots were completed.
The same article reported targets of reducing application processing time from as long as two months to minutes and cutting costs by up to 70%. These were proposed outcomes, not measured results. Merhom also said, “It costs banks $29 billion a year to process applications, and that’s not even including the money they pay credit bureaus,” a founder-attributed statement in the 2024 interview rather than an independently verified industry statistic. The sources do not establish SOLO’s realized savings, current customer count, completed-pilot status or measured underwriting performance.
How SOLO fits into the wider alternative-data market
Alternative data predates SOLO, and the market includes both bureau-linked products and specialist platforms. TransUnion reported in February 2016 that, in its survey of 317 lenders, 87% said they had declined some applicants because those applicants could not be scored. Among lenders using alternative data, 83% reported tangible benefits and 64% said they saw benefits within the first year. These are TransUnion’s survey results from 2016, not current estimates of lender practices or outcomes.
Nova Credit offers another adjacent example: its platform describes alternative-data onboarding, verification and underwriting, including cash-flow underwriting, income verification and cross-border credit. Its emphasis on consumer permissioning and compliance makes it relevant to the category, but the available information does not establish that Nova and SOLO have equivalent products or comparable results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What lenders should evaluate before using first-party data
A broader data set is not automatically a better or fairer lending decision. Lenders assessing a tool such as SOLO would need evidence on the quality and practical use of its data, as well as how the resulting decisions can be explained and governed. Relevant questions include:
Best Value
- Permission and coverage: What does the consumer authorize, and which applicants—especially those with thin or limited credit files—can provide usable information?
- Data quality and reliability: Are records accurate, timely and consistently available across providers?
- Explainability and auditability: Can the lender understand and document how the data affected an assessment?
- Compliance and recourse: How are disputes handled, and can the lender support required explanations for adverse decisions?
- Implementation: What integrations are required, and how do they affect operations and data access?
- Independent results: Is there measured evidence that the approach improves decisions or outcomes, rather than only a product ambition?
The available reporting does not provide a like-for-like evaluation of SOLO against bureau reports or other alternative-data platforms on these measures.
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