NMotion Founder Raised $500k in His First Round - And He’s Still in College.
LINCOLN, Neb. – In just eight months, Bumper has gone from an idea to a fully functional mobile-first solution for Gen Z teens and their parents that has over 500 active trading accounts. The speed of its development helped Bumper secure a $500,000 investment round led by Invest Nebraska and joined by Nebraska Angels and Wisconsin-based Lancaster Investments this month.
“None of this would have been possible without the Nebraska startup community believing in me and investing in me on many different levels,” remarked Luke Moberly, CEO and founder, “I am thankful to NMotion, gener8tor, and all the mentors and investors for taking a chance on me and my team.”
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Luke Moberly’s gap year between high school and college took an unexpected entrepreneurial turn. His plan to study Spanish in Uruguay fell through so he sought out new options. While in London for a coding bootcamp, Moberly received an email from his Union Bank & Trust banker about the NMotion Venture Studio powered by gener8tor in Lincoln. He decided to apply and earned his spot after competing against 162 other applicants.
This 16-week program offers selected founders an initial $100,000 investment and hands-on guidance to develop a category-creating company. Moberly completed the program in April of this year and his team spent the summer developing the product, which debuted this past month. It was not an easy task given the regulatory environment of the financial technology sector.
“We chose to lead the investment round because Bumper is a unique combination of an exceptional founder paired with an audacious goal to solve a problem no one has been able to solve and doing it in a smart and differentiated way,” explained Ben Williamson, principal and general counsel for Invest Nebraska.'
Other investors took notice of the progress, too, recognizing the platform aims to solve a challenge many investors face with their own children or customers.
“Many of our angel investors have had the chance to watch the Bumper team evolve over the last year, demonstrating the ability to mold and change the solution based on customer and market feedback,” observed Stephanie Luebbe, executive director of Nebraska Angels, “This is one thing investors look for at such an early stage.”
The NMotion Venture Studio along with other accelerator and incubator partners have coalesced into what’s become a potent Nebraska startup ecosystem over the past decade. To date this year, Nebraska startups have already raised over $200 million from investors which is a high watermark in the state’s history.
“Bumper’s progress and growth in such a relative period of time comes from a lot of different people and organizations leveraging complementary strengths,” shared Scott Henderson, managing director of NMotion, “What’s equally exciting is that Bumper is just one of ten companies we’re building from scratch with $1 million of capital this year - so keep your eyes open for more stories like this.”
Moberly and his team at Bumper realize this is just one of many milestones to reach when he remarked, “We’re just getting started and have already begun to put the investment round to work. We’re hiring frontend and backend developers and will bolster our sales and growth efforts to reach as many Gen Z teens and their parents as possible.”
The press is already starting to come in - and we’re certain that Bumper has a bright future ahead of them.