Recently, Andela Inc. announced they had locked in $24 Million in Series B funding from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC and others such as GV formerly Google Ventures. Andela Inc. is a startup that trains software developers in Nairobi and Lagos and has so far trained 200 software developers in the last two years of operations and received over 40,000 applications from interested candidates.
On the back of this funding, Andela has announced the appointment of Wambui Kinya as the Chief Strategy Officer. Wambui has over 18 years of experience, working in companies such as Praekelt Consulting, IBM Global Business Services and Digitas (Publicis Groupe). She was formerly Group Managing Director, Pan Africa and South America, for global technology consulting firm ThoughtWorks, where she was responsible for the strategic evolution of the business. To Andela, Wambui brings experience in digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting critical in spearheading the company’s strategy in Africa as well as ramp up the company’s efforts to recruit.
Andela hopes to train 100,000 developers over a period of 10 years and will use the venture funds for expansion into a third African country while doubling the number of software developers graduating from the program. Kinya will be based out of Andela’s Nairobi headquarters.