Company:Bloom Financial Technologies

From HandWiki

Bloom Financial Technologies, Inc. [1] [2] is a Financial Technology company based in East Africa that offers fee-free mobile banking services. Account-holders are issued virtual debit cards and VISA cards and offered remittance services via the Bloom app.

Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2021 by Ahmed Ismail, Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan and Abdigani Diriye. Bloom is Sudan’s first Y-Combinator-backed startup.[3]

History

Bloom Financial Technologies was founded in late 2021 [4] by Ahmed Ismail, Khalid Keenan, Youcef Oudjidane, and Abdigani Diriye. In July 2021, they received an early admittance and became part of Y-Combinator’s Winter 2022 start-up batch.

In September 2021, the company raised a pre-seed venture round from Global Founders Capital, Goodwater Capital,[5] and Blaise Matuidi, a French football star who formerly played for Juventus.[6]

In April 2022, Bloom raised $6.5M in seed funding and in June 2022,[7] the company announced that it was accepted into the Visa Fintech Fast Track Program. [8]

Services

Bloom offers banking services including Sudanese pound and USD bank accounts, debit cards and peer-to-peer payments.

Bloom’s mobile banking app helps protect African consumers hedge against inflation by offering fee-free high-APY savings accounts in USD as well as financial services that enable users to spend as they go in local currencies. [9]

References

  1. "Bloom". https://www.trendwatching.com/innovation-of-the-day/bloom-helps-people-in-sudan-hedge-against-inflation-by-saving-in-usd?utm_campaign=iotd&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Bloom&utm_content=Bloom.. 
  2. "Bloom". http://withbloom.com. 
  3. "Sudan’s first YC-backed start-up is helping consumers protect and grow their wealth". 2 June 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/08/sudans-first-yc-backed-startup-is-helping-consumers-protect-and-grow-their-wealth/. 
  4. Dosunmu. "Sudan’s first YC-backed founders want to build more than startups". https://techcabal.com/2022/04/19/sudans-first-yc-backed-bloom/. 
  5. Kene-Okafor, Tage. "Sudan’s first YC-backed startup is helping consumers protect and grow their wealth". https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/08/sudans-first-yc-backed-startup-is-helping-consumers-protect-and-grow-their-wealth/sa/. 
  6. Gebre. "Former Juventus Star Matuidi Bets Sudan Startup Can Ride Out Economy Chaos". https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-08/football-s-matuidi-bets-sudan-startup-can-ride-out-economy-chaos?sref=KLEAnfc7. 
  7. Kene-Okafor, Tage. "Sudanese fintech Bloom nabs $6.5M, backed by Y Combinator, GFC and Visa". https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/19/sudanese-fintech-bloom-nabs-6-5m-backed-by-y-combinator-gfc-and-visa/. 
  8. Bloom joins Visa’s Fintech Fast Tack Programme. "Bloom joins Visa’s Fintech Fast Tack Programme". https://businessafricaonline.com/bloom-joins-visas-fintech-fast-tack-programme/. 
  9. "YC-backed Bloom helps Sudanese consumers hedge against inflation by saving in US dollars". https://www.trendwatching.com/innovation-of-the-day/bloom-helps-people-in-sudan-hedge-against-inflation-by-saving-in-usd.