Investing in RoundlyX
The following excerpt is from Allied’s original deal memo to investors. To review investment opportunities in full, please consider joining the syndicate at Allied.vc/join
In following our core investment thesis at Allied Venture Partners, we are continuously on the lookout for highly talented teams capturing significant market share within rapidly expanding industries.
Enter RoundlyX
RoundlyX empowers consumers to build wealth in digital assets by enabling spare change round-ups into Bitcoin and other digital assets when making everyday purchases.
With subscriptions starting at $1/month, every time a consumer swipes their credit or debit card, RoundlyX automatically rounds-up the purchase amount to the nearest dollar and invests the spare change into digital asset allocations of their choosing.
Through strategic partnerships with some of the world's largest digital asset exchanges, including Voyager, Coinbase, OKCoin, Binance, and Kraken, RoundlyX offers more than 30 digital assets for consumers wishing to invest their spare change.
View the RoundlyX 30-second explainer video here.
Why we are thrilled to support Drew and the team at RoundlyX
Following college at the University of Virginia, Andrew (Drew) enlisted in the Marine Corps and ran multiple tours as an intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once home, Drew joined an investment firm as an investment advisor before getting his MBA at Georgetown University.
While on tour overseas, coupled with his business and finance background, Drew gained an appreciation for the myriad use cases for a decentralized way to provide banking services to the millions of people around the world who lack the ability to build wealth through traditional assets.
Along with his technical co-founder Will, Drew launched the RoundlyX fintech platform as a way for consumers to aggregate their account data while dollar-cost averaging into their favorite digital assets.
Furthermore, one key signal we look for among founders is the velocity at which they can attract other talented individuals to join their mission.
Aside from their proven talent, grit, and determination, we believe Drew and Will have attracted a highly impressive group of advisors and investors, including exited fintech entrepreneurs, CEOs, domain experts, super angels, financial executives, and developers (among others).
Given their skin-in-the-game, focus, and talent with which they’re surrounded, we believe Drew and the team at RoundlyX will continue to exceed milestones as they execute their mission of driving exponential value for customers and stakeholders – these are the types of people we want to buy stock in!
As for the market opportunity…
As part of our 6-Factor Investment Thesis, we continuously look for companies exhibiting accelerated MoM growth within a rapidly expanding target market.
Driven by a highly talented team with deep domain expertise, we believe RoundlyX is uniquely positioned for asymmetrical growth in the fintech space.
1) Primed Market Conditions & Growing Demand
As U.S. monetary stimulus continues to flood the market in response to Covid-19, we are witnessing the ongoing devaluation of the USD$. Coupled with record-high debt levels, mid and long-term outlooks for the U.S. dollar remain bearish.
In response, institutional investors now seek to protect against inflation and diversify portfolios to include alternative stores of value beyond cash (source: Financial Times).
Historically, these stores of value have largely included gold and precious metals. However, we are now witnessing a fundamental shift in the market as an increasing number of Fortune 500 companies and institutional investors adopt digital assets onto their balance sheets as part of their overall capital management strategy.
We’ve included several recent headlines below:
"Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin, plans to accept it as payment" – CNBC.
“Square Buys $50M in Bitcoin” – CNBC.
"Bitcoin to Come to America’s Oldest Bank, BNY Mellon" – WSJ.
“169-Year-Old MassMutual Invests $100 Million in Bitcoin” – Bloomberg.
"Miami Votes To Explore Offering Bitcoin Transactions" – Silicon UK.
“Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, buying Bitcoin” – Bloomberg.
Furthermore, in an industry where the total market capitalization has now surpassed $1 TRILLION, the digital asset management market is expected to continue its upward trajectory, anticipated to grow at a rate of 23.9% CAGR by 2026 (source: Research and Markets).
Here at AlliedVP, we have historically viewed digital assets as an unreliable asset class, with prior spikes in demand largely driven by speculation among retail investors.
However, due to recent shifts in the global macroeconomic environment, coupled with increased acceptance and adoption among large institutional investors, it is now undeniable what the market is showing us: that the adoption of digital assets will continue to be an accepted and valuable piece of the investment portfolio mix moving forward.
2) Strategic Partnerships, Accelerating Customer Growth & Strong Margins
Over the past 6-months (and having come through the PAX Accelerator program), the team at RoundlyX has made significant progress on multiple fronts.
For example, RoundlyX has signed strategic partnership agreements with some of the largest digital asset exchanges on the planet, including Voyager (IPO), Coinbase (IPO), OKCoin, Binance and Kraken. Moreover, as evident by accelerating MoM velocity in customer acquisitions, RoundlyX continues to grow its user base at a highly attractive pace.
Given the immense speed and size at which the digital asset market is growing, highly talented team, raving customers, and strategic partnerships with some of the largest brands in the industry, we are thrilled to announce our Seed investment in RoundlyX, partnering with Drew and the team to help empower consumers to build wealth in digital assets.
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This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by AlliedVP. (An offering to invest in an AlliedVP fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by AlliedVP, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results.
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