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The latest Series A round was led by Greycroft and Tiger Global with participation from Chrysalis Capital, Motley Fool Ventures, Saison Capital, and Y-Combinator’s Michael Seibel, amongst others. According to the founder Bassey, the platform aims to give Africans and their asset managers easy, fast, and secure access to global investment options that will allow them to earn real returns. They are building a technology infrastructure powering financial services in Africa such that if one wants to invest in the global capital markets from Africa, they will do so with Bamboo, directly or indirectly. Most Nigerians have only a handful of ways to save and invest. Over the years, Nigeria’s currency, Naira, has experienced devaluation against the dollars and the inflation rate is at 16%. Therefore, investing in dollars is a great way to escape the falling currency and inflation. Bamboo and other startups such as Chaka, Trove, and Risevest offer Africans the opportunity to invest in U.S. stocks. On the virtue of its 2 years of accelerated growth, the startup seeks to enter new markets like Kenya and South Africa since it launched in Ghana last year April. Bamboo launched in Ghana and more than 50,000 Ghanaians have joined the waitlist. Bamboo plans to use the funding to accelerate its growth, doubling down on unlocking new markets and launching more products that will help Africans earn strong investment returns and build wealth.
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Since its launch in January 2020, Bamboo has gained over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria. While investing in stocks is new in Nigeria, nearly 75% of Bamboo users have never traded stocks before. Bamboo has rapidly grown in popularity with retail investors. Bamboo also provides access to B2B customers Powered by Bamboo, its API product that allows asset managers, FinTech companies, and other financial institutions to integrate Bamboo into their offerings to provide their customers access to global securities. Also in 2021, repeat depositors made up 85% of deposits on the Bamboo platform. Repeat deposits show that Bamboo users rapidly gain confidence in trading US stocks. Although Africa’s wealth management market is currently underdeveloped, it holds high potential. Africans account for over 16% of the world’s population, yet they own less than 1% of global wealth. However, this is expected to change. According to AfrAsia Bank, private wealth in Africa will increase by 30% to reach $2.6trillion by 2030. Featured Image Source: InvestBamboo
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