Swedish-born Alexander Wallin is scaling up his social trading app Sprinklebit all over the world by partnering with banks.Business Insider Nordic had a one-on-one with him in the fintech startup's New York office.He reveals new plans to include cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin and ethereum, on the platform to compete with Coinbase.Stock pickers can beat the market if they team up. That is the idea behind Alexander Wallin's fintech startup Sprinklebit, which he runs from an office at 48 Wall Street, smack in the center of the finance mecca.It's an address that still opens doors in the traditional banking world and might have helped when they raised$10 million in private equity last year.Even though based in New York, Wallin spends much time elsewhere trying to persuade bank bosses that social is the future of investing."My goal is to teach as many people around the world how to invest," Wallin told Business Insider Nordic.Founded in 2011, Sprinklebit was born a global company. It has offices in New York and Stockholm, while coders are working from Ukraine. Asia is the company's biggest market, where it's growing so fast the company is now on a recuriting spree."We're hiring almost one per week. Today, we have a staff of 25 people, but it should be doubled until next year."In Sweden they have partnered up with Swedbank, one of the Nordics' largest banks. When launched last spring, Swedbank's customers were offered to download the app as an extra service.Sprinklebit partners exclusively with one bank in each region, and is now scaling up all over the world. Alexander Wallin says that they are talking with 60 banks right now, of which 16 are "really interested and some in pipeline"."The nice thing is that we don't have to spend a cent on marketing. Content that goes viral is also important for ususers share their trades and invite their friends."A meeting point for tradersThe plan is to become the go-to-place for investors online by offering all kinds of services. A sort of Facebook for traders, where they can socialize, follow each other's portfolios, compete in quizzes and trade with virtual money.Users in the US are also able to buy and sell stocks directly in the app, which will soon be the case for Swedish users as well, according to the plans."People who realize that if they only put a tenth of the time they spend on Facebook can start making money on money."One of the core features is a system for user generated stock recommendations. A so-called Value prediction index' measures the users' perception of a certain stock. It is not based on judgement, but on their actual trades.Wallin became fascinated by the topic after reading the book 'Wisdom of the Crowds' by James Surowiecki."He says that the consensus in a room in many cases is smarter than the smartest person. That is a good question to ask when it comes to stock picking: Can we make better investment decisions together' That's how it all started."At the time, he was a student at Harvard and was about to return to his home university UCSD in San Diego. Back in California, he asked the professor Harry Markowitz, a Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist, for help to figure out if crowdsourcing' leads to better decisions. He combined it with Markowitz' well-known efficient portfolio theory."The results showed that we could predict which stocks that would outperform or underperform the market with an accuracy of 87 percent. Already by then, I got offers from hedge funds that wanted to buy the algorithm.""But it was not hard to say no. I've never been driven by money. During the same period, I worked at a private equity firm and experienced the bad side of money. We made acquisitions, fired a lot of people and sold the companies for twice what we paid."Wallin is also patient about taking his company public. It is a long-term goal, but not until the turnover reaches $100 million."We have a strict time plan, but we keep it to ourselves. When we've reached our milestones we go public."Next step: Bitcoin and ethereumThe next step for Sprinklebit will be to catch on to one of the world's hottest investment trendscryptocurrencies. The company is about to launch a cryptocurrency exchange, integrated in the app, where users can trade bitcoin and ethereum.It should all be up and running by next year, according to the plans. Then they will be competing against Coinbase, an app that has skyrocketed on App Store during the recent bitcoin mania."We will launch it in the US first and then decide if we take it to Sweden and other markets."Wallin himself is a cryptocurrency enthusiast who has made a great deal of money on bitcoin. But he stresses the importance that investors know what they're getting into."It is more important than ever to be well-informed about cryptocurrencies. We have already put together a dedicated group at Sprinklebit to educate people so they can do their homework and not just get drawn into the hype."He is convinced that blockchain technology will shake up the entire financial industry. All businesses that act as a middle man and relies on trust will be affected, he says.But even if bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency today, it is uncertain if it will dominate in the future."Bitcoin will not be a currency, it was never designed for that. What's important is that it's the world's best book keeper. It has a 100 percent reliable record of all transactions. Bitcoin is safer than Citibank and Chase and all of the others."Putting one's money in cryptocurrencies will soon be as common as investing in stock, Wallin predicts."Within five years, the average Joe will most certainly have bitcoin in his portfolio."MORE FROM BUSINESS INSIDER NORDIC:After getting fired for looking at job ads, this Estonian entrepreneur built a 'secret recruitment app' thats now used by TransferWise, Slush and 700 other companiesA full-blown price war is emerging between Norwegian Air and SASSpotify just moved to its brand new Stockholm headquartersSEE ALSO:A 39-year-old who sold everything he owned in exchange for bitcoin now lives on a campsite waiting for the ultimate cryptoboomJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains what to do if you're attacked by a dog
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