The Entrepreneurial Case for Tech Investing in Emerging Markets
Monday, October 23, 2017
“Genius is evenly distributed; opportunity is not.”
These seven words are the driving principle behind Andela, an African startup seeking to train 100,000 software developers across its continent in the next decade. Since opening its doors in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2014, the company has matched candidates with companies such as IBM and Microsoft. Its Series C offering also raised a total of $41 million from notable investors including the Omidyar Network, Spark Capital and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Zuckerberg himself visited Andela’s office in 2016.
Then there are Jumia — Africa’s first unicorn — and Interswitch, a fintech company strongly positioned to be a billion-dollar company. Mobile-payment service M-Pesa started in Kenya but has gone pan-African, helping resolve payment issues across the continent. These and numerous other tech companies are tackling local challenges with innovative technology.
Image courtesy of Andrew Magill.
Source: Entrepreneur (link opens in a new window)
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- Finance, Investing, Technology
