On Monday, January 31, 2022, Bamboo announced that it had secured $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Greycroft and Tiger Global with the participation of Motley Fool Ventures, Chrysalis Capital, and Y-combinator’s Michael Seibel.
Bamboo is an investment platform founded in 2019 and launched in 2020 by CEO Richmond Bassey and COO Yanmo Omorogbe. The platform allows Africans to invest in or trade stocks listed on the U.S. stock market in real-time access from their mobile phones or computers. Since 2019, the platform has recorded over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria.
According to Greycroft Partner Alison Lange Engel, “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 brings to market”.
Before Bamboo, minimal opportunities gave an equal chance and access to Nigerians who were willing to invest. With Bamboo, discovering the top global and local firms to invest in is quick and straightforward. Users can almost instantaneously fill their dollar or local currency account and begin buying and selling stocks with just a few taps or diversify their assets by purchasing a stock bundle (called an ETF).
According to co-founder Richmond Bassey, “We essentially want 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.”
In the official publication sent to account owners with the platform, the company mentioned that the funding would help the company accelerate its growth, unlock new markets and launch more products to help users earn more investment returns and build more wealth.