Trove Finance, an App that Helps Nigerians Invest in US Equities Secures Funding from Venture Platform
Trove Finance, a Nigerian investment app has raised an undisclosed funding from private equity firm, Venture Platform. This is Venture Platform’s latest portfolio investment and it also represents a huge opportunity for Trove Finance to exit beta stage.
Founded in 2018, Trove Finance is a pretty interesting finance app. The app is a micro-investing solution that allows Nigerians invest in financial securities anywhere in the world. Using the app, users can invest in bonds, cryptocurrency and stock markets including Nigerian, US and Chinese equities.
By linking users’ bank records, Trove Finance makes it easy for users to buy and trade equities.
This is quite an interesting financial offering.
For years now, financial inclusion has been one of the biggest issues in Nigeria’s financial system. From large numbers of unbanked population to a high number of underserved customers, too many Nigerians lack deep access to financial resources required to transform their lives.
Meanwhile the world is now rapidly globalized with the global financial system relatively very open. Yet the average Nigerian still finds it difficult to participate in the global financial system because there are too many gaps in the country’s domestic system.
Equities trading is one of such areas where many Nigerians badly want to delve into.
Equities trading in Nigeria is far too complicated by traditional limitation and lack of information for many Nigerians to delve into. As a result, many Nigerians simply hear about the benefits of stock trading, but have no idea how to enter the system.
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Meanwhile, since 2009, IPOs of companies like Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Lyft, Zoom and even Jumia have created serious wealth for global investors. It makes little sense that Nigerians should be shut out of these lucrative endeavours. After all, the hallmark of the capitalist system is free market.
Trove Finance offers a significant solution to these issues. It basically frees Nigerians and allows users to invest in stock markets ranging from the NSE to the NYSE, Nasdaq and even the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
With as little as N1000, Nigerians, both the rich and the middle class, can invest in global stock markets with ease.
Trove Finane works with a host of partners including Paystack, Verve, 213 Capital, Visa and a Mastercard to ensure market access. Importantly too, the app partners with Sigma Securities Limited, a SEC-registered company and NSE-member to enable the securities trading.
What this means is, unlike other fintech apps like PiggyVest and Alat, Trove Finance investments are not insured by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC). But investment finance is typically not regulated by the NDIC; every investor knows this.
Trove Finance app is still in beta, but it is available on the Google Play Store. Installs have been growing slowly since it debuted a few weeks.
The new investment from Venture Platform offers a lot of validation for Trove Finance. It also means Trove Finance is now one of the firms many portfolio companies, some of which include PayStack, Accounteer, WeSabi, and MDaaS.
