Chaka bags $1.5 million pre-seed round

Chaka has closed a $1.5 million pre-seed round, the stock trading platform revealed today receiving the backings of Breyer Capital, 4DX Ventures, Golden Palm Investments, Future Africa, Seedstars, and Mush Ventures in the process.

“We are proud to combine efforts with a company that is levelling the investment playing field for Nigerians [and Africans at large]. We’re confident in the value Chaka provides through its digital tools, and we look forward to playing our part in supporting Chaka’s team on their mission to drive borderless investments in Africa.” Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital

The seed round comes on the back of Chaka getting the nod from SEC. With the duo of 4DX Ventures and Breyer Capital featuring in this round, this is their second joint deal for both in the space of two weeks, the first in Egyptian social e-commerce platform Taager.

Launched in 2019, Tosin Osibodu is the brain behind Chaka. The platform gives Nigerians access to more than 10,000 stocks and ETFs trading on local and foreign capital markets. The CEO maintains that the platform has levelled entry barriers for borderless investments in Nigeria by providing customers with compliant access to the capital market.

Chaka’s local assets are registered with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) and regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC). Dollar assets, on the other hand, are regulated by the US FINRA and the US SEC.

Asides from Chaka’s traditional stock trading app for retail investors, it also offers Chaka SDK, which allows asset managers and financial institutions to provide digital investments and Chaka for Business for direct business onboarding and trading tools for institutional investors.

Osibodu says the company will use its pre-seed investment to expand footprints to Ghana and other West African markets. Improving its technology and services and securing partnerships with major financial institutions, including apex ones, is also a priority.

“As we advance, I think something that we’re just very focused on is how do we continually reduce access barriers, and we are proud of the initiatives that we’ve brought and are to come. Watch this space for more partnerships, even with apex institutions in our markets as well.”.

Nigeria in focus