Nigerian investment startup Bamboo secures $15M in Series A funding

Nigerian investment platform Bamboo – a brokerage app that allows Africans to invest and trade US stocks – secured $15 million in a Series A in January. The company said the fund is targeted toward expansion, scaling across new markets, and launching more products. Part of the fund will also be channeled to developing the company’s tech infrastructure, according to Bamboo.

The round was led by Greycroft and Tiger Global. Other investors include Motley Fool Venture, Chrysalis Capital, Y-Combinator Michael Seibel, among others.

CEO and co-founder Richmond Bassey says the company's goal is to provide Africans and asset managers in Africa with easy, fast, and secure access to global investing.

“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,” Bassey said. “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.”

Founded and launched in 2020, the Bamboo platform was created to help the average African invest in foreign stocks via fractional investing. This concept was pioneered by US investing platform Robinhood, a platform that gives access to securities in fractions, so average investors can own smaller shares in big companies. There has recently been a growing need to invest in US stocks over the world, and platforms that offer fractional investing services make this possible.

Since its 2-year launch in January 2020, the startup has seen significant growth, raising $2.4 million to drive its services. Bamboo’s services were first offered in Nigeria with plans to expand to other countries in Africa. Plans have been ongoing for the company to expand to Ghana, with the new funding, the company will likely expand to Kenya and South Africa.

Early last year, the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission placed a ban on fintech startups like Bamboo claiming that they operated without licenses by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). In effect, all accounts and activities of fintech startups in Nigeria were frozen. In the meantime, Bamboo offers investment in foreign stocks while awaiting approval by the Nigerian regulatory bodies to start offering Nigerian stocks.

“Stocks and selling stocks is a regulated business and currently, we are only live in Nigeria, we have to work within the ambit of what they are comfortable with what they allow,” he added.

The CEO reportedly said that Bamboo has received a court order to unfreeze its accounts which is an encouraging step for the startup to continue its operations seamlessly in Nigeria. Being stationed in Nigeria, the founders of Bamboo hope to work closely with Nigerian regulators to ensure that their operations tally with what the regulators allow.