Tech in Africa
Semicolon a Nigerian startup working to develop software engineering talent has raised $1.2 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by top venture capital firms Launch Africa Ventures and Consonance Investment Managers. The funding will go towards increased talent management, training, and product delivery capacity.
Sam Immanuel founded Semicolon Africa in 2019 and works to solve problems while creating economic opportunities through addressing tech skill gaps, fostering innovation, nurturing talent, and building a thriving tech ecosystem. This is through a one-year intensive training program focused on software engineering, problem-solving, and business management skills.
On completion, the students have two career path choices – employment with their hiring partners or investing in techpreneurship. Since its inception, Semicolonhas onboarded nine cohorts while graduating four cohorts of software engineers.
In 2020, Google and the IFC e-Conomy Africa 2020 report disclosed that there were only 690,000 professional developers in Africa and all top training pathways were self-taught through university training programs. This represents 0.2 percent of the 1.3 billion people across Africa while reinforcing the need to grow more tech talent while strengthening an ecosystem capable of changing Africa’s historical course.
Semicolon provides also supports for techpreneurs to develop their ideas into blustering businesses through Semicolon Ventures a business arm that has already produced 20 new startups. The startups cut across healthcare, finance, transportation, construction, education, insurance, tourism, etc.
Source: Disrupt
Something “Hoooooge” has arrived 💃🏾
Thank you and welcome aboard our investors who believe as intensely as we do in bridging the digital gap for the African continent and the global economy. #softwareengineer #seedfunding #investor #tech#semicolon pic.twitter.com/NdB99f1Sax
— Semicolon (@semicolonafrica) November 4, 2021
