Bamboo, a Nigerian brokerage app that lets Africans buy and trade US stocks in real-time has secured a $15 million Series A funding round to accelerate its growth across the African market.
The funding round was led by Greycroft and Tiger Global and also it saw participation from Motley Fool Venture, Chrysalis Capital, Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel and others.
The platform wants to use the fund as support to scale across new markets in addition to launching more products as part of the fund will be channelled into developing the company’s tech infrastructure to allow for easy withdrawal.
What they are saying about the funding
Richmond Bassey, Bamboo’s CEO and co-founder said, “Our goal is simple: we want to give Africans and their asset managers easy, fast and secure access to global investment options that will allow them to earn real returns. We’re building the technology infrastructure powering financial services in Africa such that if you’re investing in the global capital markets from Africa, you’ll be doing so using Bamboo, directly or indirectly.
“We also want to make it seamless for African investors in the diaspora to discover the best investing opportunities on the continent. We’re excited about our work with local regulators so far to make this a reality.”
Alison Lange Engel, Greycroft partner also expressed delight to support the innovative approach that Bamboo team is bringing to market.
What you should know
While the company has been looking to commence operation in Ghana as part of its expansion plan, the new fund will even allow the startup to enter Kenya and the South African market which it says has been demanding.
Last year, Security and Exchange Commission, SEC placed a ban on the activities of startups like Bamboo, Chaka, Rise and Trove as the CBN also accused the platforms of operating without licences, thus ordering that their accounts be frozen.
Commenting on this, the CEO stated that Bamboo is waiting for approvals from regulators to start offering Nigerian stocks later this year to allow everyone benefit from the scheme.
He said, “Stocks and selling stocks is a regulated business and currently, we are only live in Nigeria. Working very closely with regulators in Nigeria, we have to work within the ambit of what they are comfortable with and what they allow.”