Local Seedstars World competition winner Jobartis is banking on growth of internet penetration in Angola to earn it significant revenues, having already established itself as the number one jobs site in the country.
Disrupt Africa reported last month jobs and learning platform Jobartis emerged the winner of the Angolan leg of the global Seedstars World competition, and will now proceed to the global final in Switzerland next year to pitch for up to US$500,000 in funding.
Launched in 2013, the startup has all the main features of a jobs board, such as candidate matching and filtering, as well as others more adapted to local specifications, such as a combination of email and CRM candidate submission, and the possibility to ask questions to candidates embedded in the job offer.
Taking advantage of its first mover status, Jobartis already has 200,000 registered candidates, 3,000 clients in the corporate and public sectors, and is the fifth most popular local website in Angola, with 250,000 monthly visits. The startup made US$165,000 in revenues in its first year, and has earned US$260,000 so far in 2015.
Jobartis director Luis Verdeja told Disrupt Africa both usage and revenues are expected to grow as Angola experiences an “internet revolution”.
“We have a golden opportunity to consolidate our position in Angola and expand to other African countries. As everywhere else in the world, one job board will be making millions in Angola in a few years, Jobartis is the better prepared to be that job board,” he said.
“Internet has only recently started achieving prominence in Angola. In 2009, the penetration rate was three per cent. Today it is 25 per cent. In 2013, Angolans had no other way to look for a job than offline traditional means or walking around the city leaving their CV at different companies. Likewise, companies had no structured way of reaching candidates in a cost-effective manner.”
Initially funded by the founding team, Jobartis raised subsequent rounds from business angels and is now looking for an institutional investor to help it consolidate and expand to other countries.
“We have started expanding into other businesses in Angola. In particular, by the end of the month, we will be launching an education platform, making Jobartis not just a job board but a wider career one-stop-shop,” Verdeja said.
“Also remarkable is the bet we are currently doing on mobile. Before the end of the year we will develop a new optimised app as well as our CV generator, unique in its class.”
Jobartis, which charges companies for posting jobs at affordable prices and will charge for branding and lead generation on its educational platform, has experience challenges in being a first mover.
“We are developing a new market. Companies are not used to a service like ours, which means that we have to be extremely didactic in what we do, and accompany companies through part of the process. We need to be a job board plus,” Verdeja said.
