Of investment platforms, continental expansion, and high growth VC funds

Several discussions with my Dad revealed how he missed out on investing in companies like Nestle in the 80s and 90s. The stock market sounded so distant and looked like land only the initiated would dare approach. Imagine what foreign exchanges would feel like if the local stock market was out of reach for the average Nigerian

No, this did not get better with time. Only a relatively minute percentage of Nigerians invested in the local stock market in 2020, but a group of technology-enabled platforms began springing up. Chaka, Bamboo, Trove and Risevest created platforms to help Nigerians invest in local and global stock markets. 

Take a minute: Why Nigeria’s stock market may need more than technology to thrive.

A few years later, these platforms have gained popularity and regulatory attention. 

On January 31, 2022, Bamboo announced that it raised $15 million co-led by the seemingly tireless US-based investors Tiger Global and Greycroft to aid its ambition to make stock investments easy for Nigerians. 

The numbers: Bamboo says it has gained more than 300,000 users in over two years of operations, with 75% having never traded in the stock market before. The company plans to expand to Ghana and Kenya and use part of its funding to scale its tech infrastructure.

The elephant in the room: Seemingly out of the blues, between 2020 and 2021, two of Nigeria’s regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), came up with orders that affected players in the country’s investment tech space. 

In December 2020, the SEC issued a memo to restrict Chaka from selling or advertising stocks. In April 2021, it declared the activities of investment tech platforms illegal, and by July, Chaka bagged the commission’s first digital stock trading licence. 

A sign of regulatory progress, it seemed, but in August 2021, the CBN’s accused these platforms of sourcing for foreign exchange illegally, and a federal high court issued an order to freeze their accounts for six months. The accounts were promptly unfrozen following another court session, but skies did not seem clear. 

Why we’re discussing this? As Nigeria’s digital native population increases, the stock market could become an attractive proposition for thousands of Nigerians, if not Africans. Provided our pockets survive February, that is. 

Sidebrief for continental expansion

Operating in more than one jurisdiction is no small feat, even for multinationals and large business entities. This involves everything from fitting into the new market and not infringing on any legal requirements. In simple terms, not even the thinnest line should be crossed when talking about business compliance in any market. This sounds like a lot of work, right?

In 2019, three professionals — Eunice Olopade, Usman Sotunde, and Abdulwaheed Yusuf — teamed up to address this challenge by building a platform — Sidebrief — where African startups can seamlessly expand into any of the 54 countries without having to interface with multiple lawyers, multiple advisors, or multiple regulatory bodies.

Remember this? The hurdles of building a pan-African tech product.

Oluwanifemi spoke with Eunice Olopade(CEO, SIdebrief) to find out how the startup simplifies all these tasks while maintaining competitive costs. 

Read more: How Sidebrief is making continental and global expansion a breeze for African startups

The rise of high growth VC funds