Vancouver fintech startup Blossom is building a social network for retail investors, the first of its kind available to Canadians.
“Investing is inherently social. The new generation of investors learn about stocks from group chats, Reddit, and Discord. Blossom aims to displace these channels by creating a platform built specifically for investors,” says Maxwell Nicholson, a Blossom co-founder & CEO.
This week they announced the close of a pre-seed investment round from Pareto Holdings, the venture fund co-founded by Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer and entrepreneur Edward Lando.
Unlike Reddit and Discord, where opinions aren’t backed by data or performance, on Blossom, investors link their brokerage accounts and showcase a public profile of their portfolio and returns. Investors can follow top investors and friends and receive notifications when they buy/sell a stock, along with the rationale behind the trade.
Maxwell left consulting firm McKinsey & Company to pursue Blossom full-time last May after noticing that “while my friends and I talked about stocks all the time, I had no idea what was actually in their portfolios and wanted to know when they bought new stocks.”
Maxwell was joined by co-founders Kartik Bhutani and Annika Ng joined soon after.
“Our mission is to build the strongest investor community in the world. A place where investors can easily share research and trade ideas, and learn from each other,” adds Ng, Blossom’s COO.
Blossom launched its private beta in November and boasts a user base of venture capitalists, c-suite, financial analysts, and more.
In addition to its social features, Blossom allows users to track all their investments in one place, and gives users opportunities to earn money to learn about new stocks, similar to Coinbase’s ‘Learn & Earn’ feature.
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