Fuzu, the fast rising career development startup that took the Kenyan market space by surprise five years ago has continued its rise with EUR3.4 million (US$3.86 million) Series A funding round to support its expansion drive to other markets in Africa, and also raise the bar in the next phase of its career development. Established in 2015 to help employers unimpeded and fast access to potential employees in the job market cutting off lots of the obstacles in the job market, Fuzu has been providing artificial intelligence powered personalised guidance to individual users, and talent acquisition and data services to organisations.
Over the last five years it has become the most popular career development platform in Kenya, and having expanded to Uganda in 2018 it has more than 7.5 million lifetime users. Last funded in 2016, it has now secured Series A backing to expand its platform, team, and geographic coverage.
Explaining the objectives behind the founding of Fuzu, company CEO Jussi Hinkkanen said that the company firmly believes that every human being is born with talent and that every organisation wants to maximise their value to their clients. But lack of access to opportunities, support and talent make career builders and organisations fall short of their true potential. He added that “we change this by providing access to opportunities and personalised learning and guidance; and by ensuring that organizations can access just the right talent and market data, maximising their chances for success. Our aim is to transform the African job markets and to help people learn and grow throughout their careers.”
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Investors in Fuzu’s latest funding round include Sparkmind.vc, Finnfund, Cornerstone Enterprises, Aucfan Incubate, Seedstars International, Kepple Africa Ventures, Barona, and a group of individual investors. “We are impressed about the Fuzu team and what they have built so far, and we look forward to working with Jussi and his colleagues. Fuzu fits well in our investment focus as a prime example of a digitally distributed, personalized lifelong learning solution that can be made accessible to tens of millions of users,” said Sparkmind.vc partner Vesa Laakso.