Bamboo, a brokerage and retail investment app, today announced that it has raised $15 million in a new financing round.
Greycroft and Tiger Global, as well as Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital, and Y-Combinator CEO Michael Seibel, led the Series A investment round, according to a statement released by the investment platform.
The company says a part of the funds will be used to scale its tech infrastructure for easier processing and speedier withdrawals. Bamboo will also deliver additional products to complement its B2B product, allowing asset managers and fintechs to integrate the platform into their customer and trademark stock-trading offerings.
Although stock investing is still relatively new in Nigeria, Bamboo, which launched in January 2020, has swiftly amassed outstanding numbers, demonstrating proficiency in customer acquisition and retention. According to the company, it has over 300,000 members and its repeat depositors accounted for 85 percent of all deposits on the Bamboo platform in 2021.
“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, ” aid Richmond Bassey, who co-founded the company with COO Yanmo Omorogbe.
It’s unclear where Bamboo stands with the CBN’s August 2021 court order to freeze the accounts of investment firms for six months pending the apex bank’s investigation. Bassey, however, confirmed to TechCrunch that the company received a court order to unfreeze its accounts.
