In early 2022, fintech startup Bloom – not to be confused with Gen Z investment app or large-cap revenue funding platform – was accepted into Y Combinator as the first Sudanese startup to participate in the prestigious Accelerator. Along with the background of its four founders at Amazon, Meta, IBM and Goldman Sachs, the startup’s principle was also remarkable and vital: to help Sudanese people protect their wealth.
Now, after an initial limited launch, major political upheaval in her home country, a turnaround, a small fundraiser and a rebrand to Liftthe startup is now open for general availability, at least in some emerging markets.
Targeting mainly people in East and North Africa, particularly Sudan, Elevate had first built a product to compensate for the increasing devaluation of the currencies of these users’ home countries through “high-yield” savings accounts, free foreign exchange and adjacent digital banking services — all based on US dollar.
The theme that Elevate was targeting is pervasive. Inflation and currency devaluation have been long-standing concerns for Africans who use bank accounts (one reason the unbanked numbers are higher here than in more developed countries). In 2022-2023, the sub-Saharan region experienced typical devaluations of 8% (with a devaluation of more than 40% in some countries) according to the IMFand analysts estimate the picture should be the same this year.
Elevate initially aimed to create a Pan-African neo-bank that would integrate with local banks and wallets across the region, a USD banking add-on that could support receiving and saving USD remittances from friends, family and employers. Alongside Sudan, it also targeted Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania for early release.
“We are from the region, understand the nuances in our markets and can navigate what can appear to be an ambiguous landscape. I would also like to add that we are also comfortable – maybe even thrive – working in volatile markets. We are taking on the next decade of growth in Africa,” Abdigani Diriye, one of the founders of Elevate, said at the time.
Building in a volatile market
From late 2021 to mid-2022, Elevate (then called Bloom) launched its first set of products to 100,000 people and secured $6.5 million in seed funding from YC, Visa, Global Founders Capital and prominent angels like Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi and former N2 CEO Nicolas Kopp.
But this early stage took place amid a much larger drama: Sudan was undergoing a major coup as a civil war lurked in the wings. Under the strong arm of a military junta, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was deposed and kidnapped and then reinstated, before he himself resigned — all in less than three months.
In the wake of this chaos, Diriye and CEO Ahmed Ismail left for personal reasons. Elevate remained committed to the area and worked out a pivot.
Youcef Oudjidaneanother co-founder who now runs the company with a fourth co-founder Khalid Keenansaid in a recent interview with TechCrunch that during the founders’ presence in Sudan and Ethiopia, they discovered a specific user demographic for their USD vision: the growing freelance and remote work sector.
Across Africa and other emerging markets, there has been an increase in younger workers with the technical and language skills to find jobs through freelance platforms Upwork and Fiverr. For them, the difficulty was not opening local USD accounts. has financially facilitated payments from international employers and online platforms.
“Using local products meant that many remote workers had large chunks of their earnings eaten up by excessive pay. The solution was obvious. USD products could not be local,” said Oudjidane, who is also the founding partner of emerging markets fintech fund Byld Ventures. “The product should move on to offering US-domiciled USD accounts,” accounts that, crucially, would facilitate ACH payments to enable those payments from freelancers and came with the security you get with US banking; such as FDIC assurance.
Market rotation
Further political instability in Ethiopia and the potential outbreak of conflict in Sudan in 2023 accelerated Elevate’s axis. By then, fintech had reassessed which markets it would serve. They needed a large population of freelancers and remote workers in emerging markets who are likely to work for clients further afield and were struggling with the payment pain points the team had seen in East Africa. Based on these factors, Elevate selected Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
“Remote workers who need to save dollars have a couple of options: Choose an FDIC-insured account or a wallet, the latter of which is a risk if the provider goes under, resulting in lost deposits. The core of our business model revolves around providing this protection. There is also a need for a remittance service to move beyond traditional US dollar accounts with expensive SWIFT transfers and offer very low-cost foreign exchange transfers,” Keenan said.
“Incumbents like Payoneer do not provide FDIC insurance and often charge high exchange rates, up to 3% in some markets. So a significant part of our model focuses on reducing these exchange rates, similar to what Wise has done, and continuing to push for more favorable terms for remote workers.”
Since launching earlier this year, Elevate, which simplifies getting paid for non-US residents from employers and platforms like Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr and Deel (one of its client acquisition partners), has signed up more than 150,000 people in its new markets. . The San Francisco-based fintech provides these financial services in partnership with sponsor bank Bangor Savings Bank. Its products are similar to those of other African fintechs, including Gray and Cleva.
What’s next for Elevate
Elevate’s change of strategy and change of partner bank from an Egyptian entity overlap with its switch from Visa to Mastercard. Consequently, the fintech did not fully leverage Visa’s milestone-based investment. However, the founders do not rule out the possibility that Visa’s network will support some of the fintech’s future products, such as prepaid and local cards.
The YC-backed company currently generates revenue from net interest income, foreign exchange and card interchange. It also plans to launch savings and investment products in the coming months. According to Oudjidane, the company is approaching profitability with enough capital in the bank, running a lean operation and has spent about $2 million since its inception.
However, that didn’t stop the fintech from raising a new $5 million pre-Series A debt equity round from Dubai-based investment fund Negma Group to fuel its expansion into markets such as Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey.
Before the war in Sudan started, even if its single-digit million backing looks incredibly modest compared to some of its counterparts in the developed world, Elevate was one of the most funded startups. Afterward, local tech watchers awaited his success, along with his own Alsoug with Fawry supportto bring more attention to Sudan’s fledgling tech startup ecosystem, which was just beginning to attract global investors after 30 years of international sanctions.
But things have not developed that way. While other start-ups, with little recourse, have persisted despite the conflict, Elevate, which has the luxury of serving consumers in different markets, will only restore a physical headquarters in the country when political stability returns.
“Freelancers and remote workers in these markets will undoubtedly be a critical source of foreign income to help rebuild,” Oudjidane said.
