The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator announced the selection of 17 startups for its third cohort, scheduled to take place i...
Problem
Consumers are struggling more than ever to save money
- Interest rates declining
The interest rates from banks have plummeted over the past 30 years from a high of 10-18% APY in the 80s and to 6-10% in the 90s, to near zero today. - There is a global financial crisis
Fears of the global economic shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the oil price war between Russia and the OPEC countries, have led to one of the greatest stock market declines in history, creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt among the masses. - Worldwide fiscal policy is irresponsible
Governments around the globe are printing money (QE programs) to support the economies and populations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown, causing the potential for high inflation and the devaluation of local currencies. - Inflation is soaring
Many countries around the globe with political and economic instability, like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Argentina, Iran, Russia, and Lebanon, are already facing cripplingly high inflation rates, causing a significant decrease in the value of their local currencies.
Solution
A high-interest Snowball account for all your digital investment needs
- Technology efficiency
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) provides global access to high-yield investments and generates USD-denominated digital asset accounts that pay in real-time. The Snowball Money dApp (Decentralized app) puts you in control no matter where you are in the world. - Diversification of your portfolio
Snowball provides exposure to digital asset portfolios comprised of gold, venture capital, art, crypto staking, real estate, and risk-adjusted cryptocurrencies. - Increased security
Cryptocurrency exchanges are not secure storage for your assets, as evidenced by multiple hacks over the past several years. That's exactly why Snowball's Decentralized finance (DeFi) solution shines, as it allows users to take FULL control of their assets. - Improved access
Snowball's DeFi solution offers digital assets that are, in most other cases, available only in limited geolocations, require expensive minimum buys, and are reserved for big-ticket investors. - Less volatility
The crypto market tends to be extremely volatile and unpredictable. Local currencies can also be subject to inflation, causing people's savings to lose value. Many are looking for the kind of access to USD or gold-denominated accounts that Snowball offers to secure their wealth in these troubled times. - Ease of use
We are committed to a grandmother-tested user experience, so much so that our public beta app was nominated for an Apple Design award. Our brand was curated by the same individuals who contributed to branding for Snapchat, Palantir, 23andMe, CoLibra, Google Cloud, and many more.
Product
How does Snowball work?
It’s as simple as downloading the app and either 1) depositing Ethereum (ETH) or another ERC-20 token, or 2) connecting to the bank account that you use every day. Once you've chosen the portfolio you want to invest in, just sit back and watch it "snowball" and grow.
- Compound interest on a USD-denominated account
Albert Einstein is reputed to have said, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it… he who doesn't... pays it."
The Snowball Account is always on and always earning high-interest on your digital dollars. When you are awake, asleep, nights, weekends, and holidays included. Interest is generated by supplying the assets to the decentralized lending pools, where they become available for the borrowers, who return the loans with interest. All loans are over-collateralized ensuring the safety of lending
In addition, Snowball is working on a yield-optimization smart contract, allowing the ability to achieve a higher interest rate than the DeFi market benchmark represented by Compound protocol. This is achieved by the optimal allocation of funds among various protocols
Demo of Snowball high-interest account - Access to digital portfolios
Invest in assets backed by real gold, tokenized art, venture capital portfolios, staking portfolios that pay rewards, and risk-adjusted portfolios
Demo of Snowball VC portfolio (early-stage startups) - Risk-adjusted portfolios based on volatility
The overall volatility risk level of each portfolio is decreased by adding a specific percentage of interest-generating USD-denominated stablecoins to a bundle of cryptocurrencies
Demo of Snowball High Yield Staking portfolio - Focused on user needs
Our platform was designed following simple linear steps from beginning to end. No need to open crypto wallets and worry about additional security. Snowball users completed 5,000+ surveys during our public beta and our Founder writes for Forbes on Product Market Fit - Safer investing
Snowball never stores user bank or credit card information. We use trusted third-party payment service providers with secure banking and Money Transmitter Licenses. Our technology enforces that your snowball account must be backed by greater than 100% assets. Because it is an open financial system, this is fully transparent and auditable at any time [by anyone]. - Smart contract auditing
We are evaluating reputable partners for smart-contract auditing to ensure that the assets of our users will be safe and secure with Snowball - Insured accounts
We will offer optional insurance by partnering with top players in the smart contracts insurance space - Snowball API
A core part of our business is allowing innovators, institutions, wallets and other partners to access Snowball's proprietary offerings via our API
Traction
220k+ waitlist and counting
- Growing user base
Over 220k+ verified email addresses in lin and 10,000+ downloads during the public beta release - Solid partnerships
Partnerships include Monarch Wallet, which will give their 400k+ users access to Snowball's portfolios, Artsquare.io which allows our user to invest in art including Andy Warhol and Andra Capital giving access to their VC portfolio which consists of late-stage pre-IPO tech companies - Award-winning concept
The Snowball app won the annual Product Hunt Kitty award for the "Crypto Product of the Year 2019," which has been awarded to Coinbase, CryptoKitties, and Revolut Crypto in previous years. Snowball was also a winner of the SF Blockchain pitch battlefield during blockchain week 2019. - Innovative environment
Snowball is now a part of the "Blockchain at Berkeley" spring 2020 cohort of startups. - Market credibility
“How to find Product-Market Love" published on Forbes.
CMO has 6M+ followers on social media
Hundreds of micro and macro influencers on board
Press Features:
Customers
Don't take our word for it
Business model
On track to break even in 12 months
Beta version released
Snowball launched a beta version of its DeFi iOS app based on Ethereum blockchain with zero fees in Q2 2020. The app is available for testing for a limited number of VIP beta testersMinimize user fees
Snowball Money’s goal is to minimize user fees, as there are several additional opportunities for the company to generate revenue. Snowball's support of additional blockchains will allow monetizing the in-app swaps between cryptocurrencies with up to a 1.5% fee while being able to charge between a 10-20% share of the staking rewardsHigher earning rates
Snowball is developing a yield-optimization smart contract that aims to provide users with higher than market-rate interest, achieved by the optimal allocation of funds among various decentralized lending protocols across the various stablecoins. Snowball's revenue model is to charge between 10-20% of the interest generated on the total value on Snowball's platform. Snowball will also earn fiat on-ramp/off-ramp fees and variable referral fees, depending on the partnerFinancial projections
We forecast that we will break even in 12 months, with approximately $1.4M of gross revenue
Market
A $10 trillion opportunity
- Decentralized Finance
Blockchain technology can substantially increase the scope and efficiency of peer-to-peer transactions, turning previously infeasible business models into viable ones. Empowered by blockchain technology, financial services can become more decentralized, innovative, interoperable, borderless, and transparent. The DeFi space has gained tremendous traction, going from $150 million in April 2018 to $1.2 billion in February 2020 - Cryptocurrency space
Leading analysts estimate that the Crypto market has a $10T total addressable market - Massive global market
Today there are some 250 million retail investors (those that invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds) just between China and the U.S. alone, and perhaps over 1 billion throughout the entire world, who currently have no exposure to cryptocurrency or blockchain investments. This represents some $69 trillion in equity value and $82 trillion in debt globally - Huge upside potential
If just 6% of every portfolio were allocated to cryptocurrency, the market cap would be over $10 trillion, or about 50 times larger than it is today
Competition
Yield-optimization smart contract and revolutionary crypto portfolios
Snowball competes with both: interest generating accounts of traditional financial institutions and dApps, allowing access to the decentralized lending protocols
1. Snowball yield-optimization smart contracts aim to provide up to 20% higher interest rate than DeFi competitors and substantially higher interest rates than banks
Historically, the interest rates offered by the centralized financial institutions have been significantly lower than the rates of DeFi lending protocols (averaging around 5% in the prior months)
The interest rates provided by the greatest US bank JP Morgan Chase on their savings account is just 0.01% - 0.05% dependent on tier. The greatest European bank - HSBS provides 0.01%-0.15% and the greatest banks of China provide up to 0.35% interest rate. The current rates (as of May 5th, 2020) of the selected highest -yield accounts provided by the centralized financial institutions:
*Interest Rate data from 05/04/20 and is subject to change
Additionally, due to the nascent stage of DeFi lending, there is a significant variance of interest rates among different lending protocols, which creates opportunities for yield-optimization by the optimal allocation of funds among the lending protocols
The graph below illustrates the dynamics of interest rates among different protocols during Feb-Apr of 2020
We estimate that the Snowball yield-optimization smart contract will provide up to 20% higher interest rates than the benchmark in DeFi lending represented by the Compound protocol
2. Revolutionary features
In addition to the high-interest account, Snowball provides access to the features that the crypto market has never seen before: our proprietary risk-adjusted portfolios, tokenized gold, shares of the early-stage technology companies, and staking portfolios
Vision and strategy
A global leader in crypto investing
- Mission
Our mission from day 1 has been to democratize information to the masses. This information comes in the form of savings and earnings opportunities, that were otherwise only available to the tech-savvy pioneers in the crypto sphere - Product launch
Phase 1 was a public beta in which we launched a centralized app in July 2019 only available to a USA audience in 36 states. Given the evolving and global legal landscape with respect to cryptocurrency and the commitment to finding product-market fit, Snowball has moved to Phase 2, a global DeFi platform
4. Our vision
Our longterm vision is to be a Decentralized NEO Bank built on the blockchain. We want our users to make high interest from their cash and open their world to investment opportunities in the digital assets space.
We are moving into a world of global WiFi in which several billion people will be entering the biggest economy of the world—the internet. We aim to be a leader in both the traditional and new world via wealth generation using the currencies of the internet, be it denominated in USD or gold. Snowball will always be committed to finding a legal path to success. Our purpose is to contribute to building an open financial system that increases economic freedom.
Funding
Over $1.1M raised to date
We have raised over $1.1M from investors including: