(Bloomberg) —
Venture Capital firms Greycroft Partners and Tiger Global Management LLC led a $15 million capital raise by Nigerian startup Bamboo, a platform that allows trading in U.S. stocks from Africa.
Bamboo, with over 300,000 account holders in Nigeria, plans to use the funds to expand into new markets including Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, according to Founder Richmond Bassey. More than 50,000 users have signed up in Ghana since the company announced plans to tap that market in April last year.
“Our goal is simple: we want to give Africans and their asset managers easy, fast and secure access to global investment options that will allow them to earn real returns,” said Bassey.
International investment firms are increasingly targeting African technology startups to take advantage of accelerating connectivity, faster data speeds and the popularity of mobile finance on the continent of 1.4 billion people.
Bamboo is working with regulators to allow Africans to trade across different exchanges on the continent and will also roll out products for those outside to invest in African financial instruments, Bassey said.
“Bamboo is enabling Africans to build wealth. We are thrilled to support the innovative, user-first approach the Bamboo team is bringing to market,” Alison Lange Engel, a Greycroft partner, said in a statement.
Both Greycroft and Tiger Global have invested in other companies on the continent, including the payment-services unicorn Flutterwave Inc.
The other investors in Bamboo include Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital and Michael Seibel of Y-Combinator.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
