credit-building
(15)
The App That Turned Payday Loans Into a Neighborly Favor
SoLo Funds built a lending marketplace with no interest and no mandatory fees, betting that strangers would rather help strangers than let a payday lender do it. Two million users later, the model is either a fix for broken small-dollar credit or a regulatory magnet - and the founders keep insisting it is the first.
OneBlinc Bet on Payroll Loans. Then the Money Got Expensive.
The Miami fintech built a data engine around public-sector payroll loans, raised a $100 million credit facility, and then watched higher rates squeeze the model. Its answer was a fast pivot to a smaller, subscription-priced payday bridge - and a revealing lesson in knowing when your first product has become your baggage.
Current Built the Bank Account Around a Paycheck
Current began with a teen debit card and grew into a financial operating system for more than six million members. The bet is that owning the plumbing can make every paycheck work harder before the next one arrives.
Bilt
Bilt found value in the one monthly payment rewards programs ignored. Now the rent-points company is trying to turn the home into the front door for payments, neighborhood commerce and everyday hospitality.
Lili
Lili is a New York-based financial technology company that runs an all-in-one business banking platform for small businesses. It bundles a fee-free business checking account with built-in accounting, expense management, invoicing, automated tax savings and high-yield savings - collapsing tools that owners would otherwise stitch together. Founded in 2018 by Lilac Bar David and Liran Zelkha, Lili started serving freelancers and solopreneurs and has since repositioned toward growing, multi-employee small businesses. Banking services are provided through partner bank Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC.
Carlo Kobe
Carlo Kobe is the co-founder and CEO of Mine (formerly Fizz), a New York fintech building credit-building debit cards and AI-powered money tools for Gen Z. A German immigrant who dropped out of Harvard at 19 to join Y Combinator's Summer 2021 batch, he built the company after being denied a credit card in Harvard Square because his parents couldn't co-sign. Mine has grown to roughly a million users, about $10M in annual recurring revenue, and raised around $28.5M from Kleiner Perkins, 359 Capital, SV Angel, and Y Combinator.
TomoCredit
TomoCredit is a San Francisco fintech that issues a credit card to people the traditional system can't see - immigrants, students, and first-time borrowers with no FICO score. Instead of a credit check, its proprietary 'Tomo Score' underwrites applicants on cash-flow and bank data, with no deposit, no APR, and no fees, earning revenue purely from merchant interchange. Founded in 2018 by Kristy Kim after she was denied a car loan as a Korean immigrant with no credit history, the company has processed millions of applications and is now building TomoIQ, an AI financial assistant that turns professional-grade money guidance into something anyone can use.
Pesto
Pesto is a San Francisco fintech building an affordable alternative to pawn and payday loans. Its flagship product, the Pesto Mastercard, lets people pledge valuables - gold, jewelry, watches and other assets - as collateral to receive a secured credit card, regardless of credit score. Cardholders unlock liquidity and build credit history without selling what they own, at interest rates the company says are a fraction of equivalent pawn loans.
StellarFi
StellarFi is an Austin-based fintech and public benefit corporation that helps people build credit without taking on debt. Members link recurring bills - rent, utilities, streaming, phone - and StellarFi pays them, then reports the on-time payments to the major U.S. credit bureaus each month. Founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneur and former U.S. Marine Lamine Zarrad, the company targets the roughly 150 million Americans with thin files or credit scores below 680, turning ordinary monthly bills into a path to a better score. The product has since expanded into a tiered, behavior-based credit card.
James Savoldelli
James Savoldelli is the founder and CEO of Pesto, a San Francisco fintech building an asset-backed secured credit card that lets people borrow against valuables like gold and watches without selling them or needing a credit score. A Stanford Human Biology grad and NYC native, he worked inside Los Angeles's largest pawnshop during the pandemic, watched customers cycle through loans that never built credit, and turned that observation into a Mastercard issued by Continental Bank. Pesto went through Y Combinator (W21) and raised $11M in Series A funding in 2023 from investors including Activant Capital and Plural.
Lamine Zarrad
Lamine Zarrad is the founder and CEO of StellarFi, an Austin-based fintech that reports everyday bill payments to the three major credit bureaus so Americans with thin or no credit files can build a score without taking on debt. A refugee from Soviet-era Azerbaijan who sold pirated VHS tapes in a Moscow chemical lab as a teenager, he went on to serve in the Marine Corps, work as a National Bank Examiner at the OCC, and build three fintech startups in a decade. StellarFi raised a $15M Series A in March 2023 led by Acrew Capital, and its members average a 26-point credit-score jump in their first month.
Mine
Mine (formerly Fizz) is a New York-based fintech building an AI-powered personal finance platform for young adults. Its flagship product is a credit-building card that works like a debit card - spending is capped by your bank balance, repaid daily via autopay, and reported to the credit bureaus so users build credit history without interest, fees, or the risk of falling into debt. In January 2026 the company rebranded from Fizz to Mine and launched MoneyGPT, an AI money agent that learns a user's habits and goals to deliver spending, saving, and planning advice.
Hussein Fazal
Hussein Fazal is the Co-Founder and CEO of Super.com, a financial super app serving everyday Americans with savings, credit building, travel bookings, and cashback rewards. Previously, he co-founded AdParlor, a Facebook ad optimization platform acquired by AdKnowledge in 2011 after scaling to $100M+ in revenue. At Super.com (formerly SnapTravel), he has grown the platform to 30+ million users and $200M+ ARR, raising over $261M in total venture funding, with backing from Steph Curry, Harley Finkelstein, and institutional investors including iNovia Capital and Lion Capital.
Petko Plachkov
Petko Plachkov is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bright Money, a San Francisco-based AI-powered personal finance platform that helps middle-income Americans manage debt, build credit, and access affordable financial products. A Princeton and Wharton-educated serial entrepreneur who grew up in Bulgaria and Swaziland, Petko spent over a decade building digital financial products at McKinsey and as Co-Founder of CommuterClub before launching Bright Money in 2019. The company has raised $93M in funding, serves over 1 million users, and is powered by MoneyScience - a patented system of 34 AI algorithms.
Super.com
Super.com is a savings super app that helps everyday Americans save, earn, and build credit. Born in 2016 as SnapTravel - a chatbot that sold hotel rooms over SMS and Facebook Messenger - it rebranded to Snapcommerce in 2020 and then Super.com in late 2022, expanding from travel deals into fintech with SuperCash (a credit-building charge card), SuperTravel, SuperShop, and the Super+ membership.