Pan-African coding school Andela has announced it has secured US$40 million in Series C funding from a host of investors in a landmark round, taking its total venture funding to over US$80 million.
Launched in 2014, Andela announced a US$24 million Series B funding round led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in June of last year, and in May of this year made Uganda its third market after Nigeria and Kenya.
It has now secured additional funding of US$40 million in a round led by pan-African firm CRE Venture Capital, taking its total funding to over US$80 million. Andela will use the capital to fuel its expansion plans, and is aiming to launch offices in two additional African countries over the next year and double its developer base to 1,000.
DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures and TLcom Capital also participated in the round, as did existing investors such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV and Spark Capital. Pule Taukobong of CRE, former Australian Prime Minister and Amplo board partner Julia Gillard, and Omobola Johnson of TLcom and former Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria, will join Andela’s board.
“Andela is investing in our continent’s future technology leaders, who are already playing a much-needed role in solving both African and global problems,” said Seni Sulyman, country director of Andela Nigeria.
“With each new partnership, we are simultaneously proving to the global tech industry that brilliance is evenly distributed irrespective of gender, culture or nationality. As we unleash an entire generation of technologists, we will secure Africa’s role as an equal partner working alongside the rest of the world to advance human potential.”
Taukobong said there is at present 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,” he said.
