Bamboo, a Nigerian fintech startup that offers brokerage services, has recently completed a $15-million Series-A funding round, as it seeks to expand its operations across Africa.
Bamboo is a digital investment platform that gives users real-time access to more than 3,000 New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks. Richmond Bassey and Yanmo Omorogbe founded the platform in 2020 to provide investment products such as fractional investing in Nigeria.
Its recent Series-A funding round was led by Tiger Global, a U.S.-based investment firm, and Greycroft, an American venture capital firm with more than $2 billion in assets in the global Internet, software, consumer and financial technology industries.
Other institutional investors that participated in the funding round include Chrysalis Capital, Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel and Motley Fool Venture, a VC firm focused on early-stage private companies.
The $15-million capital injection from investors will be used to expand its operations into new markets, as well as launch new products, with a portion of the funds going toward developing the company’s technology infrastructure for smoother processes and faster withdrawals.
The fintech startup also revealed that its next market is Ghana, where over 50,000 users have joined its waitlist since it announced plans to launch in the neighboring West African country. Based on market demand, it is also considering Kenya and South Africa.
Richmond Bassey, Bamboo’s CEO and co-founder, commented on the recently completed funding round, stating that the firm is building the technology infrastructure to power financial services in Africa, so that users can invest in global capital markets directly and indirectly through Bamboo.
“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,” he said.
