Bamboo — Africa’s leading digital brokerage service platform has raised the sum of $15 million in a Series-A funding round.
The company announced the round today, stating that the round was led by Greycroft and Tiger Global with participation from Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital and Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel and others.
Bamboo intends to utilise the funds raise, using it to further its growth, unlock new markets and also, launch products to that’d aid Africans earn useful investment returns and build wealth. Also, since it’s announcement to launch in Ghana in April 2022, more than 50,000 Ghanaians have joined the waitlist.
The platform was launched in January 2020 as a brokerage app that lets Africans buy and trade US stocks in real-time, has over 300,000 accounts. Despite the fact that during its novel stage of having 75% of its Nigerian users as “newbies” to the stock market, Bamboo has in recent times, grown its popularity with retail investors.
The mobile app makes it possible for retail investors to best discover global and local companies and asset classes to invest in. Also, Bamboo is providing access to B2B (Business-to-Business) for its customers, API products that permits asset managers, fintech companies and other financial institutions integrate Bamboo into their offering structure and provide their customers access to global security.
In August 2021, Bamboo alongside Risevest and other fintech organisations had their accounts frozen by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This was as a result of allegations levelled on them, that they had illegal foreign exchange (FX) transactions which were contrary to the CBN’s rule on FX trading.
Moving forward, in October 2021, Bamboo alongside others outlined and sanctions by the CBN had their accounts unfrozen.
“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,” said Richmond Bassey, Bamboo CEO/Co-Founder.
“Bamboo is enabling Africans to build wealth by creating an investing platform that is helpful to both experienced investors and to those new to the stock market. We are thrilled to support the innovative, user-first approach the Bamboo team is bringing to market,” said Alison Lange Engel, Greycroft Partner in regards to the funding.
Notably, in 2021, repeat depositors on the Bamboo platform made up to 85% on their deposits. Repeat deposits are indications that Bamboo users has gained faith in trading in US stocks in the global market.
Presently, the wealth management of the African market seems underdeveloped, its high potential is visible. It is expected to grow from the 1% in ownership of global wealth in the coming years.
