Brokerage platform enabling Africans buy and trade United States stocks in real-time, Bamboo, has closed a $15,000,000 Series A funding round to accelerate its growth, move into new markets and launch more products.
With participation from Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital and Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel, amongst others, Greycroft and Tiger Global led the series A round for Bamboo.
Bamboo plans to further accelerate its growth, doubling down on unlocking new markets and launching more products with the funds.
Richmond Bassey, Bamboo’s CEO and co-founder said the company’s goal is to give Africans and their asset managers easy, fast and secure access to global investment options that will allow them learn 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.”
Greycroft partner, Alison Lange Engel noted her delight to support the innovative, user-first approach the Bamboo team is bringing to market.
“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,” she said.
Bamboo was launched as an investment platform in 2020. The company was built on a goal to unlock global markets for Africans by providing real-time access to dollar-denominated assets via its platform. Users can fund with their dollar or local currency balance almost instantly and start investing in stocks.
Having gained over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria, Bamboo affirms that about 20 percent are active daily traders, while 75 percent never traded stocks before using the platform. In 2021, repeat depositors made up 85 per cent of deposits on the Bamboo platform.
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