How we achieved the largest pre-seed funding round raised by female founders in Europe
Ambition A.M. meets the co-founders of new wealth-building platform Belong, Samantha Rosenberg and Avion Gray, to hear what their new ‘Boost Loan’ feature is all about.
Why are millennials, who are estimated to have nearly £300bn in cash savings, not investing their money?
This is a question that entrepreneurs Samantha Rosenberg and Avion Gray found themselves flustered with, leading them on a mission to create a “serious cultural shift” around how young people think about risk.
Rosenberg, a former behavioural economist, and Gray, a former investment banker, founded a new wealth-building platform—now known as Belong—in 2023 to educate, inform, and empower young investors.
Parts of it work like any other wealth-building platform, but its flagship product offers something entirely different.
Belong’s flagship offering allows young investors to borrow—and double—their investments through its low-interest ‘Boost Loan’ feature. Users repay monthly while also leveraging the power of compounding.
The platform launched earlier this year after securing €3.4m (£2.9m) in pre-seed funding, which is the largest pre-seed round ever raised by female founders in Europe.
To date, the idea has caught the interest of investors such as Octopus Ventures and Viola Fintech, as well as well-known Fintech angel investors Ricky Knox, Gautham Radhakrishnan, and Nutmeg co-founder William Todd.
How does it work, and what is the risk?
The majority of millennials find it difficult to invest because they don’t think they have enough money to start, Avion and Gray say, or because they think they waited too long to begin.
“To build wealth, you need two things: you need time and money because you need the money to compound over time,” Gray says.
“When we started digging into why people struggle to save and invest with a long-term perspective, what we found is that you hardly have two things at once.”
According to the latest Bank of England data, the total cash savings held by UK households has topped £1.5tn, and Belong’s own research suggests that £300bn of that belongs to those aged 18 to 44.
Belong’s Boost Loan feature, however, is meant to rid the now seemingly outdated concept of not having enough time or money and instead inform young investors on how they can start investing right away.
“We’re saying you can get a £20,000 investment by only giving up £10,000 of your cash,” Rosenberg says.
“So you can still hold on to £10,000 of your safety blanket, put £10,000 in the market, get a £10,000 loan and have your £20,000 compounding.”
Samantha Rosenberg
The concept has already appealed to a majority of its beta users. A total of 84 per cent have already opted in to the product. This has resulted in a 100 per cent retention rate and on-time repayments after 15 months.
But why would you want to invest – or borrow money to invest – into a new platform when you could keep it safe in a savings account?
Borrowing money to invest can “enhance your upside and your downside,” Rosenberg says, which is “undeniable and also true for similarly-structured investments, like property.”
Every type of investment places capital at risk, but Belong looks to present “clear, fair, and balanced” information about the Boost Loan and encourage users to invest cash they can “afford to put away” for the long term.
Although the concept is similar to margin trading, given that it is a loan secured by equities, it’s different because “it is geared toward long-term, sustainable wealth building, with no margin calls or daily marking to market,” the two say.
“Margin loans are complex structured products intended for savvy people. Our customers, many of whom have never invested before, are not the target market for these products.”
What’s next?
Pioneering a new idea in the fintech industry is far from easy, especially when there is nothing else like it out there on the market.
However, marrying together the experience of a behavioural economist and investment banker might just be Belong’s secret to success, given that the two both seem to have each side of the business covered.
“When we uncovered this paradox – people kind of felt like they didn’t have enough to really take advantage of the power of compounding over time – it just sort of clicked,” Gray says.
The future seems bright, especially with global ambitions, given that the UK—despite being a “great ignition market”—is far from the only market with young investor mindsets that need change.
“It’s a global problem – we have a platform here that can easily go worldwide if we wanted to, anywhere that there’s an investing and lending ecosystem or credit ecosystem, this could work,” Gray adds.
CV
Name: Avion Gray
Company: Belong
Founded: April 2021
Staff: 8
Title: CEO + Co-Founder
Born: Trinidad & Tobago
Lives: London
Studied: Finance at Howard University, MBA from Stanford Business School
Talents: Gardening, modelling (Excel, not catwalk), interior decorating, drawing and painting, troubleshooting anything tech
Motto: If you don’t like something, change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude – Maya Angelou
Most known for: Speaking my mind
First ambition: To be a litigation attorney
Favourite book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, Jr.
Best piece of advice: Negotiate everything!
CV
Name: Samantha Rosenberg
Company: Belong
Founded: April 2021
Staff: 8
Title: COO + Co-Founder
Born: South Africa
Lives: London
Studied: Economics at University of Cape Town, MBA from London Business School
Talents: Juggling, mixing prints, PowerPoint shortcuts, catching things, singing all the words to ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ by Billy Joel
Motto: The universe is unfolding as it should
Most known for: Always having snacks on hand
First ambition: Join the Power Rangers
Favourite book: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Best piece of advice: When in doubt, take a nap