Bamboo, an investment application that allows Nigerians access and invest in foreign stocks has raised $15 million in series A funding to expand operations to other countries in Africa.
Investors that participated in the Series A round are, Greycroft, Tiger Global, Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital and Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel.
Bamboo launched in January 2020 was founded by Richmond Bassey and Yanmo Omorogbe. The company reportedly has over 300,000 Nigerian users signed up on its platform while more than 50 percent of the users are new into stock investment and trading.
In most situations, an average Nigerian save and invest in Nigeria, However, Bamboo investment App through its partnership with DriveWealth LLC allows Nigerians to buy and trade U.S. stocks in real-time. Meanwhile, users can fund their accounts with ‘Naira’ the local currency. The company plans to expand operations to other African countries.
Speaking on the company’s goal, 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 investment opportunities on the continent. We’re excited about our work with local regulators so far to make this a reality.”
The CEO asserted that the company is considering offering Nigerian stocks to its users by the second quarter of 2022, this is after getting approvals from regulators. This intending development will allow Africans including those in the diaspora to access stock investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Yanmo Omorogbe said, “what we essentially want to do is to make investing in the global stock market easy for Africans.
“In accessing investment options, especially in capital markets, both locally and globally, we want to make that easy for Africans because we’re driven to help Africans create and preserve wealth by owning shares in the world’s most successful companies.”
Following the funding round and expansion plans, Bamboo said its next target market is Ghana. This is after 50,000 users joined the company’s waitlist when it announced intentions to launch in the neighboring West African country. Other countries on the expansion list are Kenya and South Africa.
Speaking on the funding, Greycroft partner Alison Lange Engel said, “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.”
