Australian FinTech company profile #157 – Blossom App
1. Company Name: Blossom App
2. Website: www.blossomapp.com
3. Key Staff & Titles:
Gaby Rosenberg – Co-Founder
Gabby Monardo – Operations Manager
4. Location(s): Sydney, Australia
5. In one sentence, what does your fintech do?
Blossom is a savings app targeting a 4.50% p.a. return, helping everyday Aussies reach their savings goals faster.
6. How / why did you start your fintech company?:
When COVID hit, I was using my extra time at home to get on top of my personal finances. When I investigated market opportunities for retail investors like myself, I saw few options. On the one hand, I could leave my cash in the bank earning near-zero interest rates or on the other hand, I could invest in stocks or crypto – both of which were extremely volatile due to the global uncertainty at the time. I have a lower appetite for risk so when I was introduced to fixed income by a family member, I was immediately interested. After further digging, I found high fees, long lockups and high minimum investment amounts. I was disappointed that the options I had were either unfair, inflexible or high risk. That’s when I decided to build Blossom – to democratise the fixed income market to help Aussies save smarter. We’ve created an easy-to-use app, providing access to the Blossom Fund, our bespoke fixed income fund. We don’t have sign up, transfer of withdrawals fees.
Other features include:
- 4.50% p.a. targeted returns
- No minimums
- Earnings posted everyday
- Ethical investments – no coal, oil or gas
- Trees planted in bushfire affected regions for every new funded account
7. What is the best thing your company has achieved or learnt along the way (this can include awards, capital raising etc)?:
Blossom reached $20 million in funds under management on the morning of 7th June 2022, Blossom’s first birthday!
8. What’s some advice you’d give to an aspiring start-up?:
It’s imperative to keep your customers at the forefront of every product decision. Run regular customer interviews, receive constant feedback and respond to what your customers are telling you that they want. The more you speak to your customers, the easier and more in-tune your product decisions become.
9. What’s next for your company? And are you looking to expand overseas or stay focussed on Australia?:
We’re looking to expand to New Zealand in Q1 2023 and the US in Q4 2023.
10. What other fintechs or companies do you admire?:
We’re really inspired by Yotta, who are dedicated to making saving fun while offering better economic value than a traditional savings account. They take the fundamentals of a lottery and apply it to their savings product – adding excitement and fun for their customers.
11. What’s the most interesting or funniest moment that’s happened in your company’s lifetime?:
A super interesting moment for us was when we were releasing our instant payment functionality via PayID. We launched instant pay-ins first, which was incredibly well received. As we started to plan our pay-out flow, to shorten our 1 business day withdrawal timeframe, we had an influx of customers asking us to not launch instant pay-outs. We learnt that by understanding and expecting the delay, our customers had been rethinking whether they actually needed to spend their savings. By accident, we’d been helping our customers build better savings habits through a function of the app that wasn’t designed with that intention in mind. It was an interesting learning opportunity for the Blossom product team and reminded us of the mission at hand – to help Aussies reach their savings goals faster.
