In investing, you often hear about your friends’ big wins more than their big losses. If only you had followed their incredible intuition and bought 500 shares when that biotech company was just starting to experiment with a new kind of avocado for millennials. Of course, never mind the four other firms that looked so promising but didn’t have the right patents. 

Enter the new Vancouver company making it easier than ever to get in on your friends’ moves, for better or worse. 

Blossom, a startup building a social network for retail investors, announced the closure of a pre-seed investment from Pareto Holdings, a venture fund run by Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, and serial entrepreneur Edward Lando.

Why it matters: “Investing is inherently social,” said Blossom CEO Maxwell Nicholson in a release. “The new generation of investors learn about stocks from group chats, Reddit and Discord. Blossom aims to displace these channels by creating a platform built specifically for investors.”

Unlike those platforms, where users receive opinions from strangers that aren’t backed by data and performance, on Blossom, investors link their brokerage accounts and showcase a public profile of their portfolio and returns. Users can follow top investors and friends and receive notifications when they buy/sell a stock, along with the rationale behind the trade.

Nicholson left his job at consulting firm McKinsey & Company last May to pursue Blossom full-time last May after noticing that “while my friends and I talked about stocks all the time, I had no idea what was actually in their portfolios and wanted to know when they bought new stocks.” Co-founders Kartik Bhutani and Annika Ng joined soon after.

blossomsocial.ca

A post shared by Blossom (@blossomsocial.ca)

Where it’s going: Blossom launched its private beta in November and has $12 million in assets recorded on the app. Right now, the app is invite only. You can apply for early access on the company’s website. 

The social finance space is rapidly growing with start-ups like Public.com reaching unicorn status. And while there are some similar players in the U.S., like Commonstock and Iris, Blossom bills itself as the first platform of its kind available to Canadians.

“Our mission is to build the strongest investor community in the world. A place where investors can easily share research and trade ideas, and learn from each other,” adds Blossom COO Ng.