Ethiopian startup Gebeya raises $2m in seed funding

Ethiopian edtech startup and online marketplace company Gebeya has raised $2-million in seed funding in a round co-led by Partech and Orange Digital Ventures and followed by Consonance Investment Managers.

The Addis Ababa headquartered startup — which has a presence in Senegal, Kenya and the US as well — made the announcement last Thursday (6 February) in a post on LinkedIn.

The edtech, which was founded in 2016 by Amadou Daffe and Hiruy Amanuel, said it has graduated over 600 tech talents, more than a third of whom have been matched with startups across Africa and the world.

The startup said it plans to scale up its training and marketplace services in Francophone Africa as well as launch its online African talent marketplace.

Gebeya has raised $2-million in seed funding in a round co-led by Partech and Orange Digital Ventures

Last year the International Finance Corporation (IFC) granted $500 000 in funding to Gebeya to provide scholarships to aspiring female software engineers.

Gebeya said in the same blog post that it plans to train a total of 250 aspiring female software engineers.

Said Tidjane Deme, General Partner at Partech Africa: “At Partech Africa, we’ve been watching this space closely and we believe there is a large opportunity to address unmet demand and create value for the growing pool of African talent on the global stage.

“With Gebeya’s model and the team’s dedication to this challenge and the amazing progress they’ve made so far, we are really excited to join them in the next stage”, Deme said.

Featured image: Gebeya via LinkedIn