The Antler Investor Memo Series: Investment platform Bobbob offers high-interest returns to learn delayed gratification

Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed 13 startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies. Over six weeks, Startup Daily will share the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series.

You can also meet the founders on the Startup Daily show on ausbiz.com.au every Monday and Wednesday.

This series is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people involved, with many seeking follow up capital following Antler’s initial pre-seed investment. 

Company: Bobbob

Formation date: 2022

Stage of business: Pre-Seed

Founders: Byron Goldberg and Nikolai Herbstritt

Current investors: Antler

Currently raising: Yes

About Bobbob

Bobbob is a high-interest investment platform that offers customers above market interest rates (up to 7.60% on USD) and rewards saving and good financial habits. It challenges how Australians, and people around the world, save and spend their money using technology as its enabler to change the way we think about finance .

Responsible consumerism is built into Bobbob’s DNA. It promotes sustainable finance by helping customers save to achieve long-term goals, instead of caving to instant gratification. This determination to make a difference to its customers’ finances and the planet’s future is actioned through its regulated investment account. 

Bobbob recently launched a carbon-based reward program working with Betacarbon’s BCAU token, an Australian-based company tokenising and trading notional carbon tokens (BCAUs), linked to Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).

Customers earn BCAU as rewards for depositing, in essence, giving some consideration to offsetting transactions.Through an ASIC-regulated investment account, customers can deposit and withdraw Australian dollars at any time. 

These funds are converted into USDC, a digital asset with equivalent United States dollars held in banks in the USA. The returns are generated by the funds being lent to institutional clients, such asHedge Funds, who use the funds for arbitrage, hedging, and float and growth capital. Unlike banks, Bobbob passes on the benefits directly to customers ensuring they always get a fair share of these returns.

Antler investment thesis

“Bobbob’s ethos to fairly reward savers with above market rates, while taking a stand on over-consumerism and its impact on the planet is an exciting step forward in fintech,” said Cath Rogers, Partner of Antler Australia.

“We’ve been impressed with Byron’s drive to develop seamless user experience, secure strong partnerships, and steadily grow Bobbob’s user base” 

Traction/milestones, to date

Bobbob secured over 4,000 downloads after the nimble team launched its iOS and Android apps in May of this year.

Alongside the new app, Bobbob released a wave of new product features including: “Save what you don’t spend” encouraging consumers to check-in weekly on the money they never spent allowing them to make those savings count, automated deposits enabling customers to set up recurring direct debits, and the supercharge feature, allowing customers to opt-in and buy crypto by simply depositing AUD.

Due diligence resources

Explore Bobbob’s pitch video and investor deck via The Antler Portfolio Review Platform.

Latest funding

Pre-Seed from Antler

Use of funds

Antler’s Pre-Seed investment has enabled Bobbob to focus on product development and enhance its user experience, launch various new features, and strategically acquire customers. 

The founders say

“As it stands today, our financial systems do not always operate in our best interests—they enable quick debt for unnecessary purchases,” said Byron Goldberg, co-founder and CEO of Bobbob.

“Gone are the days of being persuaded to Buy Now, Pay Later. With Bobbob, we’re unleashing a movement to Save Now, Have More Later.

“With Antler’s recent investment, we’ve been able to prioritise developing our product to deliver world-class features to customers and create features that seamlessly enable our customers to save and invest.”

What’s next?

Antler, a global early-stage VC, recently showcased the latest investments it’s made in ambitious Australian founders and startups. Bobbob featured as one of Antler Australia’s newest portfolio companies.

Explore how Bobbob offers Aussies a fair interest rate on their savings with a regulated investment account via the Antler Portfolio Reveal Platform. 

• StartupDaily is the official media partner of Antler in Australia.