Zindi, a professional network of data scientists based in South Africa, has raised a US$1 million seed fundraising round to assist it continue its rapid expansion. The seed funding was led by San Francisco-based Shakti VC and including Launch Africa Ventures, Founders Factory Africa, and five35. 

“We are a platform with African roots but global reach. So far our main focus has been on penetrating the African market. We will be the go-to platform for every data scientist and aspiring data scientist on the continent. It is entirely possible that if we can get it right in Africa at scale, if we can create a world where companies, data sets, and talent are seamlessly connecting on the Zindi platform to create new exciting value, we could replicate this model in other emerging market contexts where many of the opportunities and challenges are similar,” CEO Celina Lee said.

The startup plans African expansion following in the funding. 

“We already see, for example, data scientists from Kenya, Tunisia, and India who met on Zindi, teaming up to solve a problem for an organisation in South Africa. We shared a frustration seeing companies in Africa sitting on unprecedented amounts of data and an excitement about data science, AI and machine learning, but not knowing how to even start. They often assumed that they had to look outside of Africa to find the people they needed to help them.”

A Look At What The Startup Does

Zindi is a community of over 34,000 data scientists that use machine learning and AI to solve some of the world’s most important economic and societal concerns. It was founded in 2018 by Celina Lee, Megan Yates, and Ekow Duker with the concept that data science should be accessible to everyone.

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Companies come to Zindi to find the best solutions and people for their businesses. Its registered users come from 150 different countries, and Zindi’s user base has roughly doubled in the last year. The company has completed over 100 challenges and provided over 100 machine learning solutions to clients.

Companies pay a fee to publish a challenge on Zindi, and the business then crowd-sources machine learning solutions for them.

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“We also make money in talent placement. We source top candidates with the right skill sets for companies. We are able to draw on the candidates’ actual performance and engagement on the Zindi platform,” Lee said.

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