Startup of the Week: Belong

  • Belong is a fintech firm that specialises in sustainable long-term investment strategies and has major investments from prominent investors who have previously invested in Europe, United States, and Africa’s fintech unicorns.
  • Belong was founded in 2023 by Avion Gray, a former investment banker, and Samantha Rosenberg, a behavioural economist. 
  • They recognised that millennials face unique financial challenges and aimed to provide tools and education to help them invest wisely and build sustainable wealth. 

 

Website: https://www.be-long.co/#os

 

 

What is Belong?

 

Belong is a personal wealth-building platform for millennials ready to invest in their future. The platform aims to make forms of investing that have traditionally been the realm of a wealthy few, accessible to a much wider demographic, in particular millennials. Additionally, Belong is the first platform in the world to offer retail investors an optional Boost loan to scale up a long-term investment in equities.

 

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What Makes Belong Unique?

 

As mentioned above, Belong offers retail investors an optional Boost loan to scale up a long-term investment in equities.

With the optional Boost loan feature, users can invest more money to help fire up their growth and catch up on lost time. Belong instantly multiplies their upfront investment with a low-interest loan, which is then repaid in manageable monthly instalments. It’s the same concept as a mortgage loan.

However, Belong does not seek to replace the mortgage or be an alternative to buying a home – something that most of us still aspire to do.

Instead, their goal is to provide a new and accessible way for young people to access leveraged asset returns to establish their wealth-building earlier. Starting with a larger investment, upfront, enhances the power of compounding over the long term. It’s a fact that the more you invest and the longer you leave it, the faster it grows.

It’s simple to use, diversified, long-term investing and built with millennials in mind – a generation that reportedly has an estimated £300 billion saved in cash.

Belong is on a mission to help millennials and young adults invest in their future selves.

 

Is There a Market for Next-Gen Wealth Building Platforms?

 

100%! Millennials make up 22% of the population, yet they own less than 5% of the stock market. With mortgages largely unattainable, this makes it clear they are not building wealth for their future.  Their money is simply not working hard enough for them and would be better invested for long-term growth. The reasons for it being sat in bank accounts range from a general lack of financial literacy or lack of confidence or knowledge around investing to ‘present bias’ – the tendency to discount future preferences in favour of more immediate gratification.

The fact is, we aren’t taught this stuff in school, and historically investing has held connotations of exclusivity – as if it’s something that only wealthy people should do. This is because, in the past, that was essentially true. But times have moved on and, along with other innovative fintech solutions aiming to make finance more accessible, Belong aims to solve this problem.

 

Where Can You Find Belong?

 

Anyone interested in learning more about Belong or wanting to join their waitlist can find all details here: https://www.be-long.co/