Andela Closes $200 million Series E round led by SoftBank, at a valuation of $1.5 billion
Andela, a global company that helps tech companies build remote engineering teams, has today announced the close of a $200 million Series E round at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
The round was led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, the $30 billion venture fund of Japanese conglomerate, SoftBank Group.
The round also saw participation from Whale Rock, a new investor, and existing investors like Generation Investment Management, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spark Capital.
This latest investment brings the total venture funding raised by Andela to $380 million since it was founded in 2014.
The company was previously valued at $700 million when it raised a $100 million Series D round in 2019.
As part of the terms of this deal, Lydia Jett, Founding Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers and one of the most respected consumer technology investors in the world, will join Andela’s Board of Directors.
In a written statement, Jett said “hiring remote technical talent is one of the top challenges that companies face today, and we believe Andela will become the preferred talent partner for the world’s best companies as remote and hybrid work arrangements become the norm. We are delighted to support Jeremy and the Andela team in their mission to connect these companies with brilliant engineers, and in the process, unlock human potential at scale.”
Andela currently has over 300 employees and will use the new capital to increase its workforce, particularly in product, engineering, and growth. In addition, the company will also invest in growth, continued expansion of technology and product development, and M&A.
Launched in Lagos, Nigeria in 2014, Andela started as a pan-African software developer training and outsourcing company. The company has since attained a track record of linking talented, well-trained engineers to global opportunities.
In 2016, the company received a $24 million cash infusion, led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Following this investment, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO would later visit the company’s headquarters in Lagos.
In the heat of the pandemic last year, Andela tweaked its business model and transitioned into a fully remote company, closing its physical offices in four African countries including Nigeria, Egypt, and Rwanda.
In April this year, Andela announced the global expansion of its engineering talent, welcoming developers from Latin and South America. This, the company said will enable clients to have more flexibility to build diverse teams across country borders, skill sets, time zones, and cultures. At the time, the company said it has seen applications from qualified engineers outside of Africa increase by more than 750%.
Today, the company boasts of a network of engineers from more than 80 countries and six continents. Through Andela, thousands of engineers have been placed with leading technology companies including Github, Cloudflare, and ViacomCBS.
“Andela has always been the high-quality option for those building remote engineering teams. Now that the world has come to embrace remote work, Andela has become the obvious choice for companies because we can find better talent, faster,” said Jeremy Johnson, CEO, and co-founder of Andela. “If you are a talented engineer, Andela opens up a world of possibilities for you, no matter where you are based.”
Last month, Andela Learning Community (ALC), the developer training arm of the company announced a new milestone. The ALC announced that the learners in its community have now exceeded 100,000. The ALC offers access to on-demand technology courses from learning partners as well as connecting engineers to employment opportunities through its job network initiative. Previous ALC learning partners have been Pluralsight, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, and Microsoft, among others.