Fintech Spotlight: How Chaka Unlocks Global Investment Opportunities For Africans

The digitization of financial markets in Africa will continue to accelerate as local investors seek diversified access to higher-yield financial products.

That’s according to Chaka founder and CEO Tosin Osibodu, who suggests investors are yearning for ways to hedge against the effects of currency depreciation and inflation.

“Something unique about the African market is that it’s virgin,” Osibodu said. “We’re about a year old, so there is no before and after. It is just happening.”

Riding on the secular trend of digitization, Chaka is a fintech that offers Nigerians stock trading in more than 40 countries through its API- and app-based platform.

With as little as $10, Chaka users can invest fractionally in over 4,000 global stocks and ETFs.

“We came to market because of a problem Nigerians faced for a long time,” the company's founder said of leveraging his data engineering background to benefit Nigeria’s emerging fintech infrastructure.

“Nigerians couldn’t access this stuff. We noticed there were a lot of barriers when it came to [know your customer], payments and in general the financial technology.”

The Core Product: Chaka presents the go-to financial markets gateway for underserved African investors.

The firm’s core solution is a regulatory compliant, low-commission investing app that provides nearly 50,000 users access to education, actionable insights and fractional investing functionality.

“Individuals can build balanced portfolios that they want. Not because of the share price, but because of how much they have and their actual goals,” Chaka's founder said. “So, for as low as $10, people can have access.”

Additionally, after attracting the use of high net worth individuals, Chaka recently expanded the depth and breadth of its portfolio to cater to those institutions and asset managers searching for low-cost, fast access to markets.

“We have individuals on our platform who have hundreds of thousands of dollars individually,” he said. “We’ve also started pilot partnerships where some asset managers are levering our tools to service their customers. That’s an area that we’re very excited about moving forward.”

Chaka's Growth And Functionality: In further bolstering its commitment to local capital formation and innovation, Chaka is looking to provide users with access to products beyond traditional investing functions.

“We have a community of over 40,000 people, and over $30 million in transactions,” the platform's founder said in reference to its growth since launching one year ago.

“We have a robust pipeline, and we’re really excited about our vision to accelerate global investing in Africa.”

Having received multiple pre-seed investments, Chaka intends to divert more of its resources to the addition of partnerships and advanced functionality, such as analyst ratings and technical tools.

“We particularly focus on how we can maximize trust and bridge the knowledge gap through content and other ways people can learn,” Osibodu said in a mention of Chaka’s written and visual evergreen content.

“Overall, we’re really excited to continue to provide access to global markets, and help digitize further the local markets,” he said. 

To trade and invest in U.S., Nigerian, Chinese and global companies with Chaka, click here.

Courtesy photo.