Score is a dating app for people with good to excellent credit. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it shut down in early August.
Originally a Temporary Pop-up Dating
This was back in February. However, it received so much user interest that the parent company, Neon Money Club, decided to keep it open for six months. At that time, it racked up around 18,000 users, made 8,000 matches, and gathered a lot of insights into the current dating scene, the company told TechCrunch.
Dating Purpose and Achievements
“Score was started to make people aware of their credit health and to start a bigger conversation around that,” Luke Bailey, co-founder of Neon Money Club, told TechCrunch. “We accomplished our goal. We let everyone know from the start that this was intended to be temporary.”
Potential Acquisition
When asked about a possible acquisition, Bailey added that “bigger dating companies have their hands full trying to keep dating apps relevant. The score showed that people thirst for lifestyle apps with a bigger goal other than being exclusive or simply connecting people,” he said. “We’re happy to let one of the leaders in this space acquire our teachings and learnings. Call me.”
Insights from the Dating
The score did gather a significant amount of data, which paints an interesting picture of the current dating scene. The company confirmed that the app did not keep any sensitive information from users and had a strict background check in line with its banking compliance background. According to its data, millennial users had the highest credit scores of all groups. The highest gap in credit scores between genders. Millennial men scored 11% higher than women on average. The company also said that Gen Z might be closing that gap, with men having just around 3% higher credit scores than women. Gen X, meanwhile, had the smallest gap between genders on the app at just 0.4%.
Economic Gender Gap Concerns
“The most alarming data point we saw was that 11% credit score advantage millennial men had over millennial women,” Bailey said. It tells a story of how this has affected their credit health. Lower disparities among Gen Z show hope that maybe the next generation will find a way to get around this burden.” He hopes that policymakers can look more. He said he would find ways to help close this economic gender gap.
Dating Debate Surrounding the App
The app caused much debate after its initial launch in February, with some praise—the idea, while others called it classist. Bailey pushed back on the concept of classism at the time. He did it again with the announcement that the app was shutting down. He said anyone who calls the app classist did not read the mission behind it. It and that the app connected a lot of good people who were looking to prioritize financial health. It made people more aware of their credit health and connected them to educational resources to help them with their credit journeys.
Neon Money Club’s Future Plans
Neon Money Club launched in 2021 to help teach about financial literacy. Last year it became the first Black-owned tech business to launch a credit card with Amex.
Neon Money Club has some new projects, such as building more experiences around its Amex card, its Time investing account, and a new wellness studio.
