Bloom Attempting to Help Sudanese Hedge Against Rising Devaluation

Bloom — not to be confused with the Robinhood-like app for teenagers with parental control in the U.S. — is a fintech attempting to help Sudanese individuals hedge against this rising devaluation. It offers a “high-yield” savings account, free FX and adjacent digital banking services so customers can save in a stable currency, the dollar, and spend as they go in local currencies. East Africa was the perfect place for the team to start. And more importantly, from Sudan. But the northeastern country doesn’t seem to have an active tech ecosystem, let alone a vibrant one. Its first foreign investment came only last year, when Fawry backed fintech and e-commerce player Alsoug after 30 years of international sanctions on the country. Bloom works with the Export Development Bank, a partner bank that handles deposits. And the best way to think about Bloom is that it is a technology, customer acquisition, user experience and marketing partner to the bank. The company said it offers fee-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 remittance free of charge from several countries globally, mainly from where most of the Sudanese diaspora resides. Bloom is announcing that it is part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 startup batch after receiving early admittance last July. The company, which only launched last week from stealth, raised a pre-seed in September from Global Founders Capital, Goodwater Capital and some football players, including Blaise Matuidi. The Sudanese- and Dubai-based startup plans to expand across the Anglo East African region like Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, and ammunition coming from an imminent seed round will oversee that process. Competition might brew with fintechs offering similar services in some markets, such as Fingo, another YC-backed company, as well as Koa and Finclusion.