Portland startup Bumped is beefing up its executive ranks with the addition of financial technology exec Babak Farrokh-Siar.
Farrokh-Siar was most recently at financial technology and services company Acorns. He spent five years as that company’s vice president and head of national business development and partnerships. Before that he spent five years in advertising partnerships at Apple Inc.
At Acorns, Farrokh-Siar led that company’s Found Money product, which works with brands to invest a percentage of money consumers spend into a consumer’s Acorns investment account.
It’s not far off from what Bumped does.
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Bumped created a platform that allows consumers to receive fractional shares of publicly traded brands. The idea is that people can gain small ownership in the brands they love as a reward for shopping at partner retailers. The broader mission of the company is to open the world of stock ownership to more people.
The startup launched in 2018 after a year in development while the company became a registered broker dealer with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA. The company launched its product publicly in 2020. The company has its own app plus can white-label with partners.
“Babak has already done such incredible work leveraging stock to drive relationships between brands and their customers — it's clear he's the right person to take our partnerships to the next level,” said Bumped founder and CEO David Nelsen in a written statement. “His passion for the stock rewards space is apparent in both his approach to his work and his track record at Acorns, and I think it says a lot that someone of his experience and expertise sees the potential ahead of Bumped."
Bumped has raised a total of $27.5 million from investors and has 30 employees.
Nelsen has known Farrokh-Siar for years, as both Bumped and Acorns are in adjacent spaces and Farrokh-Siar has been out evangelizing this kind of innovation to large brands.
“He is one of the first people to go out there and tell this story to national brands on behalf of Acorns,” Nelsen said in an interview with the Business Journal.
Farrokh-Siar has already hit the ground running in his first few weeks with Bumped. The company expects to have several new partnerships announced soon. By partnering with brands and banks, the company aims to get in the hands of consumers and deepen the relationship those brands and banks have with their own customers.
“I believe deeply in the product and mission to create an ownership economy," said Farrokh-Siar in a written statement. "Bumped is a natural evolution for me — to continue democratizing investing and financial wellness. At Acorns, I saw firsthand how powerful the impact of a brand investing back into their customer could be. Now, we're taking that loyalty mechanism to the next level by making it about the relationship of ownership."
