Although Silicon Valley investors have been pretty slow to
invest in African digital start-ups it seems like Zuckerberg and his
wife are betting on Africa’s technological talent. The Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative, Marc Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropic
organization, just made its first major investment.
The charitable foundation, launched after Zuckerberg and
Chan’s first daughter was born, is leading a $24 million investment in
Andela, a startup that trains software developers in Africa and places
them in client companies. GV (formerly called Google Ventures) along
with Spark Capital, the Omidyar Network, and Learn Capital also invested
in the African company.
Zuckerberg is one of the business moguls who has signed the
Giving Pledge, a campaign that encourages to contribute to
philanthropic causes. When his daughter was born, he and his wife
pledged to give 99% of their Facebook shares during their lives to
charity in order to advance human potential and promote equality. Today,
those shares are valued at approximately $46 billion.
“We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but
opportunity is not,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Andela’s
mission is the close that gap.”
Unleashing Africa’s Talent
Founded by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Jeremy Johnson, Andela is
an ultra-selective software developer program. The company takes
advantage of today’s global economy to connect Africa’s best developers
with client companies based in the United States. Some of Andela’s
clients include Microsoft, IBM, the Muse, and Udacity. Created in 2014,
the company plans to expand across the continent and train 100,000
developers in the next 10 years.
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