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Bloom teaches Generation Z about investing

Bloom, a zero-fee stock investment tool for teens, reached 1 million downloads after launching in February 2022.

Bloom, a zero-fee stock investment tool for teens, reached 1 million downloads after launching in February 2022.

The startup, founded by Allan Maman and Sam Young, provides a brokerage account and teaches people aged 13 and over how to grow their wealth through interactive lessons on investing, stocks and finance. So far, users have completed more than 10 million lessons, Maman told TechCrunch.

Maman is known for the fact that he is credited with creating an improved version of the spinner, thanks to which these devices have become widespread. Young, who ran Bloom through Y Combinator in the winter 2021 session, previously built an AI-powered photo app with more than 250,000 users.

“My co-founder and I received money from work and when we tried to invest it, we realized that there is no platform for learning to invest,” Maman said. “Existing platforms want to give you free stocks or free trades, but don’t really teach you the basics of investing.”

Then Maman and Yang decided to create their own application for teenagers. Bloom has an Instagram-like structure and includes learning materials and quizzes to reinforce knowledge. The application uses a reward mechanism as an incentive to learn. For example, if a user answers a quiz correctly, they earn points, which are the currency of the app and can be spent within the app.

Bloom costs $15/month or $120/year, with no minimum account balance. In addition to hitting the 1 million download mark, Maman said the company hit a seven-figure ARR last year.

The company is merging into the space where startups such as Copper, Greenlight and others are developing. In total, Bloom has raised $4.4 million in seed funding from investors, most of which came in 2022. Investors include Contrary, Slow Ventures, Offline Ventures, Rocketship VC, Slope and a group of angel investors including Andrew Yang.

Also during this time, Maman and Yang saw that the composition of Bloom’s users changed from young teenagers to people aged 18 to 25. This age range currently accounts for almost three-quarters of Bloom’s users, according to Maman.

This got the couple thinking about what products to offer in the future.

“We create products such as pension accounts and other freemium modules,” Maman said. “We want users to stay with us for the long haul.”