Score, a dating app for people with good to excellent credit scores, shut down in early August, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
As TechCrunch previously reported, Score was only meant to be available as a pop-up app for 90 days. This was back in February. But interest from users was so strong that parent company Neon Money Club decided to keep it available for six months. In that time, it's gained about 18,000 users, generated 8,000 matches, and gained a lot of insight into the current dating scene, the company told TechCrunch.
“Score was started to make people aware of their credit status and start a wider discussion about it,” Neon Money Club co-founder Luke Bailey told TechCrunch. “We achieved our goal, and we let everyone know from the beginning that this was temporary.”
Asked about a possible acquisition, Bailey added that “the big dating companies have their hands full trying to keep dating apps relevant.”
“What the scores show is that people are craving a lifestyle app that has a bigger goal than exclusivity or simply connecting people,” he said. “We're excited to have one of the leaders in this space acquire our teachings and knowledge. Give us a call.”
But Score got hold of a ton of data that paints an interesting picture of the current dating scene. (The company confirmed that it doesn't keep any sensitive information from users and conducts rigorous background checks along with banking compliance backgrounds.) According to its data, millennial users have the highest credit scores of all groups and also have the largest credit score gap between men and women, with millennial men scoring 11% higher than women on average. The company also said that Gen Z may be closing the gap, with men's credit scores only 3% higher than women's. Meanwhile, Gen X has the smallest gender gap on the app, at just 0.4%.
“The most alarming data we saw was that millennial men had an 11% credit score advantage over women,” Bailey said. “This tells an important story of how the most educated generation of women in history has been impacted by the enormous costs it took to achieve this milestone — college costs and student loans — and how this has impacted their creditworthiness. The smaller gap for Gen Z offers hope that the next generation may find a way to avoid this burden.” He said he hopes policymakers look into this further and can find ways to close this economic gender gap.
The app generated a lot of controversy after it was first released in February, with some praising the idea and others criticizing it as classist. Bailey countered at the time, and did so again when announcing the app's closure. He said those who criticize the app as classist haven't read the mission behind it, saying the app connects a lot of good people who want to prioritize their financial health, raises awareness about credit health, and connects people to educational resources that can help them on their credit-improvement journey.
“The first and most important thing they learned was what we wanted them to know – their credit score,” Bailey said.
Neon Money Club was founded in 2021 to help teach financial literacy. Last year, it became the first Black-owned tech company to launch an AMEX credit card. Luke said that while the company probably won't develop another dating app, he wouldn't be surprised if it came up with “another wacky way to highlight the importance of financial wellness.”
That said, Neon Money Club has several new projects in the works, including building more experiences around the AMEX card, Time investment account and a new wellness studio.
“We're currently developing some powerful content that will have a unique impact on the finance industry and beyond,” Bailey said. “Stay tuned.”