Ethiopia looks to be announcing a major entry into the African startup space this year on a grand scale. Gebeya, the edtech and online software outsourcing marketplace has closed its $2 million seed investment round.
“This investment, made possible by global investment firms dedicated to Africa’s technological advancements, marks a pivotal moment for Gebeya. This investment will enable us to further strengthen the community of top-notch tech talents and position Gebeya as the go-to for other companies as well as startups,” Amadou Daffe, co-founder and CEO of Gebeya, said.
Here Is The Deal
- Gebeya’ s seed round was led by Partech Africa and Orange Digital Ventures, with Consonance Investment Managers participating.
- This round of financing follows a previous funding round that saw Gebeya securing $500,000 from the International Finance Corporation in 2019 towards supporting the startup’s efforts in balancing the gender gap within the African tech sphere.
- The startup plans to use the seed funding to scale up its training and marketplace services in francophone Africa as well as launch its online African talent marketplace. The marketplace will provide substantial transparency for clients in choosing ideal talents best suited for their projects.
- This expansion follows the establishment of the newly formed Senegal branch, which services regular corporate clients as well as Senegalese Startups.
Why The Investors Invested
‘‘With Gebeya’s model and the team’s dedication to this challenge and the amazing progress they’ve made so far, we are really excited to join them in the next stage,” General Partner at Partech Africa, Tidjane Deme said.
Partech Africa, one of the investors of this round, has been very active within the African startup space. In 2019, Partech Africa invested in about 8 startups, with its ticket sizes ranging from above $200,000 in each round. Globally, Partech maintains offices in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, and Dakar.
Partech presently has capacity to invest about $1.4 billion through its fund. Its investment in Gebeya is its first African investment this year.
On its own, VC firm Orange Digital Ventures Africa is a €50M dedicated investment initiative of Orange group on the continent with an ambition to support tech entrepreneurship in Africa.
“With more than 60% of VC backed tech startups in Africa created in the last 5 years, our ecosystem is growing very fast and investments are booming, yet the talent gap remains wider. Skills shortage is a critical barrier to startups successfully exploiting the power of new technologies,” said Marieme Diop from Orange Digital Ventures Africa. She went on to add, ”At ODV Africa, we are happy to support the hardworking Gebeya team and strongly believe in their ability to build the appropriate and sustainable pipeline of really talented African engineers to meet future skills needs on a global scale.
Consonance aims at finding new ways of leveraging the vast human capital of Africa. The company’s Investment Managers invest in early-stage and growing businesses across subSaharan Africa. Consonance backs entrepreneurs who are building large and profitable enterprises that create systems to enable national wealth creation. It focuses on the following sectors and themes: Access to wealth creation, financial and capital markets infrastructure,
access to essential services (education, health & power), culture and media, logistics and mobility, retail at scale, food and its distribution systems and technology infrastructure services.
“Human Capital, the ability and productivity of people, is by far the most important asset any country that wishes to develop must nurture. We believe Gebeya’s platform would do just that across Africa, starting from Ethiopia. We are proud to partner with Gebeya and our co-investors on this journey,” said Mobolaji Adeoye, Founding Partner, Consonance Investment Managers.
A Look At What The Startup Gebeya Does
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Gebeya allows project managers to hire specialized developers from its talent pool for a price ranging between $15 and $25 per hour to work on a project’s team either remotely or in-house. Gebeya also helps African youth to develop technology skills through training, turning them into technology specialists, before linking them to possible employers.
The startup claims to have produced over 600 tech talents, out of which over 30 percent had been matched with companies across Africa and the world.
Gebeya acquired CODERS4AFRICA, a software engineering firm that had a network of more than 3,500 African developers in six countries.
According to Gebeya CEO, Daffe, the endgame for the startup is to become the go-to brand for digital and tech talents in Africa, and most importantly, to become an African-based $100 million revenue company.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com