Sudanese fintech Bloom raises $6.5 million Seed round

• Sudan-based fintech Bloom, has raised a $6.5 million Seed round from Visa, Y Combinator, US-based VCs Global Founders Capital (GFC) and Goodwater Capital and UAE-based VentureSouq along with other named investors.
• Founded in 2021 by Ahmed Ismail, Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan and Abdigani Diriye, Bloom offers savings account and digital banking services.
• This investment and the partnership between Bloom and Visa could drive the use of Visa cards in Sudan and East Africa.

Source: TechCrunch

Bloom, a Sudan-based fintech offering a high-yield savings account and adjacent digital banking services, has raised a $ 6.5 million seed round. This investment comes after the startup’s unveiled pre-seed round last year.

This funding welcomed the participation of fintech giant Visa, Y Combinator, US-based VCs Global Founders Capital (GFC) and Goodwater Capital and UAE-based early-stage venture VentureSouq. Other investors include angels Arash Ferdowsi, co-founder of Dropbox; Nicolas Kopp, former US CEO of N26; football players Blaise Matuidi and Kieran Gibbs; and early employees at Revolut and Tide.

The investment from Visa came as one of the incentives for Bloom’s participation in the global card scheme’s Fintech Fast Track program. A partnership was formed, and as a result, Bloom – the first Sudanese startup to be included in the program – switched its cards from Mastercard to Visa.

“Visa investment is critical for companies like us for a couple of reasons. One, partnering with Visa as a partner gives you a number of benefits, faster product launches, marketing support and product support; and two, in addition to the investment, Visa Fintech Fast Track your access to these incentives in a streamlined way, CEO Ahmed Ismail told TechCrunch in an interview.

In March, the company announced that it was part of Y Combinator’s winter party this year after launching from stealth the same month. Bloom’s waiting list was also announced in March, at which time the company had more than 15,000 people signed up; That number has topped 100,000, the founders told TechCrunch. They say that the platform has been launched in Sudan, but declined to state a specific number of customers who actively use the product.

As highlighted in March and reiterated in the interview, Bloom’s founders say this seed round will help the Sudanese and Dubai-based start-up execute its expansion plan across the Anglo-East African region such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. A few competitors in the region include YC-supported Fingo, Koa and Finclusion.

“Our product is live in Sudan. The plan is to scale in the country and then expand to other markets,” said Ismail. “We expect to be in at least one market before the end of the year and a couple until early next year.”

Bloom’s seed round is the largest in Sudan, a country whose tech ecosystem can be described as passive and only recently welcomed foreign investment when Fawry backed fintech and e-commerce player Alsoug after 30 years of international sanctions against the country.

East Africa, as a region, is home to 500 million people, with a median age of 18 and a rapidly growing middle class. However, the region’s currencies, including the Sudanese pound, are volatile and weaken 15% to 20% per year on average. This volatility is one of the biggest obstacles to wealth protection and creation for this middle class, which is why Ismail and fellow co-founders Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan and Abdigani Diriye launched fintech: to help Sudanese individuals hedge against this growing devaluation .

Bloom offers royalty-free accounts for users to save in dollars and buy and spend in Sudanese pounds. It also provides local and dollar cards and a feature where they can receive free money transfers from several countries globally, mainly where most of the Sudanese diaspora lives. Fintech cooperates with Eksportutviklingsbanken, a partner bank that handles deposits. Bloom receives income from interest on these deposits, the exchange and other additional flows.

Leaders of Bloom and Visa say that this investment and partnership could exponentially drive the use of Visa cards in Sudan and East Africa. In addition, Visa’s suite of products and services will provide customers with a secure and fast way to make online payments, according to Ahmed Mohey, Visa Governor for Sudan and Libya.

“Visa takes the lead as a first mover in digital payments in Sudan. We are committed to being part of Sudan’s economic transformation by bringing our global expertise and capacity to its governments and partners in the private sector. Together with Bloom, we will continue to drive acceptance of digital payments at the same time as we find opportunities to launch new products and services to Sudanese customers and sellers, »added Mohey.

Roel Janssen, a partner at Global Founders Capital, shares similar sentiments about the team: “We are very excited about our investment in Bloom. Its experienced and talented founding team has the drive and expertise to build a product that is universally valued by consumers, partners and regulators in Sudan and the wider East Africa region. “