Franklin Templeton Investments, a global investment management firm, has led a $3m Series A funding round in Bambu, a global provider of robo-advisory technology.

Singapore family office Octava and Japanese fintech investor Mamoru Taniya, have also participated in the round.

Founded in 2016 by industry experts Ned Phillips and Aki Ranin, Bambu is situated in Singapore with subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, as well as representatives in Middle East, Africa and the Americas. 

The year 2018 has already become a marquee year for the two-year-old startup, signing clients in both North and South America as well as across Asia, and newly opened offices in London and Kuala Lumpur. 

Bambu has recently grown to a team of 33 members, mostly based in their Singapore head-quarters, and with offices in Malaysia, Hong Kong and London.

Bambu also continues its commitment to its proprietary A.I. research and solutions, with further hires and completion of the team's first research publication.

Ned Phillips, Bambu CEO and founder, said: ”We are incredibly grateful for the support of all our existing and new investors and customers in helping us to build a leading global robo-advisory technology company. Early this year we already surpassed the growth targets we had set for 2018, with seven new clients preparing to go live between the Asian and US. markets.” 

“This proves our B2B business model is working, as there is real global scalability without large capital requirements. Our next ambitious goal is to get a million end users on the platform by 2019," he added.

In 2017, Bambu, completed a funding round led by Franklin Templeton Investments, Wavemaker Partners, one of Singapore’s leading venture capitalists and part of the Draper Venture Network, brings the first venture capital funding for Bambu, and fintech investor Robby Hilkowitz, an early advocate of, and investor in robo-advisors globally.

"Since our initial investment in 2017, the Bambu team has shown its ability to drive constant in-novation in the digital wealth management space. This makes Bambu a great long-term partner for us, and we are excited to continue our support of the team and their global expansion efforts," Harshendu Bindal, Managing Director, Head of Retail at Franklin Templeton Investments, commented.