It’s less than two weeks since Andela announced a new partnership with Google to launch the Andela Learning Community (ALC 2.0) program in Kenya. Under this programme, Andela aims to identify and certify Android developers through Google’s Udacity course. And now the company has again announced that it has 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 is the second largest funding Andela has received. In 2016, the company received a $24 Million in a round led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. This funding saw the company catalyze its growth by announcing the launch of its third African market in Kampala, Uganda.
This round is one of the largest investments ever led by an African venture firm into an Africa-based company and brings Andela’s total venture funding to just over $80M.
So what exactly does Andela aim to do with this new round of funding? Well, the company says it will use the capital to fuel its aggressive expansion plans. It aims to launch offices in two additional African countries over the next year, doubling its developer base from 500 to 1,000 to meet growing demand.
“In the two years since we launched Andela Kenya, we’ve already become home to three hundred brilliant engineers who are redefining the meaning of leadership on the continent and building a reputation for technological excellence,” says Joshua Mwaniki, Country Director of Andela Kenya. “When we look back at the key drivers that turned Kenya and Africa into economic giants, Andela will be remembered not as a footnote in the story, but as a major catalyst.”
Pule Taukobong, Founding Partner of CRE Venture Capital, adds that at present, there is more capital to fund ideas globally than there are people to build them. ‘’Andela is providing a solution to this global talent dilemma while building a business case for one of Africa’s greatest assets: our people.”
Alongside this round, Pule Taukobong of CRE, Julia Gillard, former Australian Prime Minister and Amplo Board Partner, and Omobola Johnson, Senior Partner at TLcom and former Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria, will be joining Andela’s board.
The says it has hired 500 developers to date in the three African countries it operates in– the top 0.7% of more than 70,000 applicants from across the continent.
