African-focused talent recruitment and outsourcing company TalentQL in the present day introduced that it has been accepted into Techstars Toronto.
The company will be a part of 9 different startups within the accelerator’s class of 2021. This comes two weeks after Nigerian bus-booking platform Plentywaka announced its participation in this system as nicely.
TalentQL was launched final November by serial entrepreneurs Adewale Yusuf, Opeyemi Awoyemi and Akintunde Sultan. Before TalentQL, Yusuf co-founded Nigeria-based tech media publication Techpoint Africa; Awoyemi co-founded on-line recruitment web site Jobberman; and Sultan based nonprofit tech accelerator DevCareer.
The company has a “talent pool” builders be a part of earlier than passing by completely different assessments. Once the engineers go the assessments, they’ll be a part of the company’s “talent network” to entry alternatives.
The pandemic accelerated the necessity for worldwide firms to search cheaper and distant talent world wide. TalentQL is hoping to faucet into what it thinks is a gold mine. According to CEO Yusuf, the company, which can be U.S.-based, needs to decentralize entry and democratize alternative for Africa’s prime tech skills.
For most of its native shoppers, TalentQL primarily assists with recruitment. The different mannequin entails hiring vetted engineers for worldwide firms, managing them, and offering tax and medical health insurance companies.
“We’re coming to the market to support the talent with health insurance, some tools to work with and a community to be part of. These are some of the offerings I think sets us apart from other companies,” Yusuf mentioned to TechCrunch over a cellphone name.
But regardless of that, the company has confronted the identical problem that has plagued the area — the shortage of senior engineering talent. When most engineers attain that degree of experience, they have an inclination to depart the nation to the U.S. and Europe for higher alternatives or, higher nonetheless, launch their very own startups. It’s an issue Andela confronted prior to now, ensuing within the layoff of 400 junior builders “due to market demand for more senior engineering talent.”
Yusuf says that is why the company is pursuing a Pan-African and diasporan play (Africans within the U.S. and Europe), hoping to fill within the hole with senior talent from these locations. And to further consolidate its Pan-African ambitions, it’s planning to open an workplace in Kenya within the coming months.
Although TalentQL is totally distant, Yusuf says this has to occur to set up the proper of understanding between on-the-ground recruiters and the engineers.
“We want a situation where when we’re recruiting from other countries, our technical recruiters are from those countries. We want them to be able to speak the language of these engineers and understand the culture of their countries,” the CEO added.
The TalentQL workforce. Image Credits: TalentQL
TalentQL at present has over 100 tech expertise obtainable with greater than 2,000 builders on its platform. These builders cater to shoppers from the U.S., Europe, Nigeria and Kenya. The CEO says the company can be in talks with some Fortune 500 firms to execute placements for his or her African enlargement.
In addition to the $300,000 pre-seed secured last year, the 6-month-old company will obtain a $120,000 funding from Techstars. But in addition to the funding, Techstars’ backing will likely be essential in two methods, in accordance to Yusuf. First is the way it operates going ahead in a crowded tech talent market with the likes of Ethiopia’s Gebeya and Nigeria’s Decagon and Semicolon. The different can be serving to the company to be a global company, not simply an African one.
For Sunil Sharma, the managing director of Techstars Toronto and an investor in 5 Nigerian startups, Techstars’ funding in TalentQL provides the accelerator an opportunity to take part within the burgeoning tech talent area.
“The rise of Nigeria is more widely appreciated now in terms of technology sectors like finance, mobility and e-commerce, where talented Nigerians are not only bringing innovation and disruption but are doing so rapidly and at scale,” he mentioned. “Equally as intriguing is the opportunity relating to talent itself as Nigerians and Africans across the continent are contributing more to supporting tech companies across the world, and we think this is just the start.”
