Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business #42: Andela - How the engineering hiring platform is connecting companies with software developers in Africa & emerging markets
Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Andela - the software developer recruitment platform. We’ll explore the Andela story across 6 areas:
- Labor markets in Africa context
- Andela's founding and early history
- Fundraising & Growth
- Product & monetization strategy
- Competitive positioning & potential exit options
- Overall outlook.
This episode was co-hosted with Iyinoluwa "E" Aboyeji & recorded on Nov 7, 2021
Companies discussed: Andela, Fora, 2U, Bookneto, Spark Capital, CRE Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), SoftBank (Vision Fund), Gebeya, Semicolon, Decagon, CRE Ventures, Spark Labs & Generation Investment Management
Business concepts discussed: Emerging market talent recruitment, economic development, remote work, labor productivity, outsourcing, youth unemployment & economic development
Conversation highlights:
- (01:00) - Andela context & Background
- (01:30) - Context on Africa’s labor markets
- (21:20) - Bookneto, Fora & 2U
- (53:50) - Andela cofounders & early founding story
- (1:00:00) - Fundraising and investors
- (1:11:00) - Traction - Revenue, users, employees, margins
- (1:14:23) - Product and monetization strategy
- (1:25:22) - Competition and options for exit
- (1:48:46) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
- (1:55:17) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
- (2:01:00) - E’s overall thoughts and outlook
- (2:09:01) - Recommendations and small wins
Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:
- Recommendation: Syncback Pro (works better than OneDrive & Google Drive clients for backing up stuff) & Money Talks Bloomberg article about how Zillow stopped selling houses: By Afrobility legend Matt Levine
- Small win: Got a new larger air fryer. It's awesome
Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:
- Recommendation: Tete Muo Bu Muo by Tony Tete Harbor & The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo
- Small win: Great birthday dinner :)
E’s recommendations & small wins:
- Recommendation: Prosperity paradox (by Efosa Ojomo) & Founders at work (Jessica Levingston)
- Small win: 3 companies I’m working with got into YC Winter 2022 batch
Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!
Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com
Investors: It would be great to link up with you to drive the ecosystem forward. Contact us at info@afrobility.com
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