Andela, a Global tech-recruiting company that aids tech companies in building remote engineering teams has raised $200 million Series E at a $1.5 billion valuation. This new funding brings Andela’s total raise to $381 million.
The funding round was led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, the venture capital arm of the Japanese conglomerate – SoftBank.
Other investors in the round include new investor, Whale Rock, and existing investors like Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spark Capital.
What you should know
In 2014, Andela began as a talent accelerator for African software developers in Nigeria before evolving into a worldwide technology network. The company received a $24 million injection two years after it was founded, backed by Mark Zuckerberg. This year, the company started expanding globally.
Andela changed its business strategy in July 2020, shutting its physical offices in Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda to become a totally remote company. The company now has a global network of engineers from over 80 nations across six continents. Thousands of engineers have been placed in top technological firms such as GitHub, Cloudflare, and ViacomCBS thanks to Andela.
In the next years, the company hopes to tap into a talent pool of approximately 500,000 engineers.
SoftBank’s investment in Andela is the company’s second major investment in Africa following the $400 million Series C round of fintech platform OPay.
This year, Africa has seen four unicorns, and Andela is the next to join the list of Flutterwave and Opay.
What they are saying
As part of the investment, Lydia Jett, founding partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join Andela’s board. In a written statement, Jett said that “hiring remote technical talent is one of the top challenges that companies face today, and we believe Andela will become the preferred talent partner for the world’s best companies as remote and hybrid work arrangements become the norm.”
“Andela has always been the high-quality option for those building remote engineering teams. Now that the world has come to embrace remote work, Andela has become the obvious choice for companies because we can find better talent, faster,” said Jeremy Johnson, CEO, and co-founder of Andela. “If you are a talented engineer, Andela opens up a world of possibilities for you, no matter where you are based.”
