In just one year, Ahmed Ismail and his partners managed to make Bloom, a fintech offering savings services, the first Sudanese startup to join a cohort of US startup enabler Y Combinator.

Former Barclays investment bank partner Ahmed Ismail (pictured) is the CEO of Bloom, a digital financial solution developed by Bloom Financial Technologies (UK) Limited through its Sudan-registered branch. He co-founded Bloom with Youcef Oudjidane, Abdigani Diriye and Khalid Keenan, African entrepreneurs who studied at renowned universities in the UK and worked at Goldman, Amazon and IBM. They decided to combine their experience in engineering, investment banking and venture capital to fight inflation and currency devaluation in Sudan.

They initially intended to invest in already established digital banking markets in Africa, but ultimately chose to build one instead. They entered the Sudanese market because they were familiar with it and wanted to make an impact in a still to be developed tech ecosystem.  In 2021, they launched Bloom, a neobank that allows Sudanese to save in U.S. dollars and spend in their local currency, the Sudanese pound. Their neobank offers several other services like money transfer and dollar banking cards.

Their goal is to help users -the middle class mostly- save in stable currencies and spend in the local currency amid inflationary pressures, which exceeded 350% in the country in 2021.

Sudan's tech ecosystem is still in its infancy, Bloom is the second venture-backed startup in the country in over 30 years, and the first backed by U.S. startup enabler Y Combinator in the country. The neobank, which is thus representing Sudan’s tech ecosystem on the global scene, claims to have 15,000 people on its waitlist.  

For the founders, being included in the Y Combinator 2022 startup program could help not only draw attention to Bloom but also to opportunities in other countries, like Sudan, that are not much present in international competitions.

Aïsha Moyouzame