Greycroft and Tiger Global led the US$15 million Series A round, which included participation from Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, Chrysalis Capital, and Y-Michael Combinator’s Seibel, among others. Bamboo intends to use the funds to accelerate its expansion by doubling down on expanding into new areas and developing new goods. More than 50,000 Ghanaians have signed up for the Bamboo waitlist since the company launched plans to start in the country in April 2021. Bamboo, which launched in January 2020, is an investment platform that gives Africans real-time access to dollar-denominated assets through its platform. Users can fund with their dollar or local currency balance almost instantly and start investing in stocks. Bamboo has around 300,000 accounts in Nigeria so far. Meanwhile, asset managers, fintech companies, and other consumer-facing platforms and financial institutions can use an API solution to connect Bamboo’s API and provide global access to their users. “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. 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,” said Richmond Bassey, Bamboo’s CEO and co-founder. “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.” Greycroft partner Alison Lange Engel said she was “thrilled” to support the innovative, user-first approach the Bamboo team is bringing to market. “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,” she said.
