Mark Zuckerberg came to Lagos, Nigeria in part to meet with Andela, a startup he’s backing. But he got a sense of the city from more than the tech workers he met with. On the way to his meeting, Zuckerberg walked the streets of Yaba, a neighborhood in Lagos.
Surrounded by cars in Yaba’s busy streets, Zuckerberg made his way to Andela, a startup that recruits tech talent across Africa. Andela has offices in Lagos, Nairobi, New York and San Francisco.
Andela has raised $41 million for its mission to provide tech companies with talent in Africa that otherwise might not be matched. The company gets 30,000 applicants and has an acceptance rate of 0.6 percent for the positions it matches with tech companies. Its technical leadership fellows go through a six-month vetting process.
So far, Andela has matched candidates with companies including Microsoft and IBM.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s philanthropic venture,led Andela’s Series B round of funding, which raised $24 million in June. Andela was the recipient of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s first lead investment round.
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