Tech startup raises Sh10.13b funding

Talent development firm Andela has secured $100 million (Sh10.13 billion) from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other partners to train more software developers in Africa.

The Series D funding brings the startup’s total venture capital to $180 million (Sh18.24 billion).

It was led by former US Vice President Al Gore’s firm Generation Investment Management. Other participating entities included investors such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, Spark Capital and CRE Venture Capital.

“Andela was founded in 2014 to connect Africa’s engineering talent with the demand for software developers worldwide,” said Jeremy Johnson, co-founder and chief executive.

In four years, Andela has assessed more than 100,000 applicants, hired 1,000 software developers and integrated them into hundreds of companies such as Safaricom, Percolate and InVision.

Mr Johnson said with the latest round of funding, the firm would upgrade its technology platform to enable it to identify, develop and match talent at scale.

“By so doing, Andela will provide its customers with the data they need to understand developer performance and better manage distributed teams,” he said.

The company will also expand its presence across Africa to meet the global demand for high-quality engineering talent.

“It’s increasingly clear that the future of work will be distributed, in part due to the severe shortage of engineering talent,” said Mr Johnson.

Companies to watch

“Given our access to incredible talent across Africa, as well as what we’ve learned from scaling hundreds of engineering teams around the world, Andela is able to provide the talent and the technology to power high-performing teams and help companies adopt the distributed model faster.”

Last year, The Wall Street Journal named Andela as one of the 25 technology companies to watch.