Tech entrepreneur from Baltimore started the nation’s largest Black-owned fintech platform, a peer-to-peer microlender

Rodney Williams fondly recalls his days growing up in Northeast Baltimore, when he ran track, acted in drama classes and played high school football. The tech entrepreneur, now 39, also remembers how his mom and other family members struggled to make ends meet. His experiences led him in 2018 to create an online, peer-to-peer lending marketplace that he describes as “democratizing finance.” Earlier this year, SoLo Funds Inc. hit 1 million registered users, becoming, it says, the largest Black-owned consumer fintech — financial technology — company in the U.S.