Andela Makes Kigali its 4th African Market, launches Pan-African Tech-Hub
Last year Andela announced that it was planning to expand its footprints to other African markets. The announcement came after the global engineering organization that helps technology companies build high-performing engineering teams with Africa’s most talented softwares developers received received a $24 Million in a round led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.
Andela then went ahead and opened a new hub in Kampala, making Uganda as its third market.
In October 2017, Andela also announced that it had secured $40 million in series C funding led by pan-African venture firm CRE Venture Capital with participation from DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and Africa-focused TLcom Capital. This was the second largest funding the company has received bringing its total venture funding to just over $80M. The company said it will use the capital to fuel its aggressive expansion plans. It aimed to launch offices in two additional African countries, doubling its developer base from 500 to 1,000 to meet growing demand.
Andela has now decided to make Kigali, Rwanda as its fourth market by partnering with the Government of Rwanda through the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), an organization responsible for transforming the country into a dynamic global hub for business, investment, and innovation.
Through this partnership, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) will support Andela’s efforts to build a pan-African workforce and support the development of Rwandan and other African talent. This Andela says will catalyze its mission to invest in Africa’s most promising talent and build the continent’s future technology leaders, adding to the 700+ Andela developers based in the company’s existing locations in Lagos, Nairobi, and Kampala.
“We are thrilled to have found a partner in the Government of Rwanda whose mission is so closely aligned with our own: to grow and sustain a pan-African elite tech workforce. In Kigali, we have found a location that makes travel to-and-from other African countries seamless and also has the modern and connected infrastructure we require to collaborate with a global workforce,” said Andela co-founder and CEO Jeremy Johnson.
Andela will open applications to candidates from any African country looking to jumpstart a global career in software development in August of 2018, and launch its Kigali tech campus in December of 2018. It will also open applications for the Andela Learning Community (ALC), which provides free resources and mentorship to aspiring technologists, in Rwanda and Tanzania in August of 2018.
Seni Sulyman, Andela VP, Global Operations, said “As the first fully 4G African city, Kigali continues to push towards ICT excellence and is fast becoming one of East Africa’s key tech hubs. Connecting talent with opportunity on a global scale is Andela’s ethos, and with the opening of our Kigali hub, we expect to extend opportunities to thousands of more software engineers from across the continent who will make their mark on the global tech scene via Kigali.”
