To make crypto investment easier and less scary for consumers, Bamboo invents a savings and micro-application (app) which is user-friendly.
Just in few weeks, the company, which has solely focused on the Australian market throughout its four-year history had about 70,000 downloads. Bamboo app will be made available in the U.S.
Bamboo is one of eight finalists in the Web 3 Pitch Fest, a event hosted by Extreme Tech Challenge at CoinDesk’s Consensus Festival this week.
The huge American crypto market was a logical next step, said Bamboo CEO Blake Cassidy. Hesitant investors will be more comfortable to invest digital assets safely in small increments given the current bearish atmosphere. The app had already generated tens of thousands of U.S. inquiries, a reflection of its simple interface and clear aims, said Blake.
“You don’t come to the app and interface with charts and order books and sophisticated tools like leveraged trading,” Cassidy told CoinDesk. “It’s crypto with bumpers. We’re setting up people for success.”
For instance, you can invest just a quarter in crypto by rounding the $2.75 you pay for a cup of coffee to $3. Bamboo also offers the option to invest more, up to $20,000 a day, or via weekly installments, although Cassidy noted the company is not an exchange but rather “focused on being a savings app.”
“So many people are interested in the sector but they can’t stand the risks,” he said. “So giving people an easy-to-use product to invest their spare change is a great way for them to learn before they invest further.”
Bamboo earns money by charging fees ranging from 0.8% for transactions above $300 to 2.5% on a sliding scale below that threshold. For smaller transactions, the fee will increase. A closed-loop system ensures that their crypto must sell it into a linked bank account and users can’t withdraw their crypto from the platform.
Bamboo has raised about $3.5 million in seed funding and expanded its workforce to 25 people, spread over Asia, Europe, Australia and the U.S. About half of them are developers with the remainder roles being marketing and financial operations.
“We’re helping users invest sustainably over time so they can help achieve their medium- and long-range goals,” he said. “We’re very much a savings app built for people.”