Local tech start-up selected for African accelerator programme

UmuravaWork, a local tech start-up that is building a Pan-African customized talent marketplace and end-to-end workforce outsourcing platform, has been selected among 45 other African start-ups for the Village Capital’s Future of Work Africa Accelerator programme. Selected from a pool of 196 applicants, the 45 firms are sourced from 23 countries in the region and are building for-profit and market-based solutions in education and employment that can help young people in sub-Saharan Africa better prepare for the future workplace. Each start-up selected for the accelerator will work closely with mentors, potential clients and partners, as well as investors to help scale their impact, using tools developed to help their self-evaluation. UmuravaWork’s platform enables businesses and organisations to easily hire, outsource, manage, and pay Africa’s talents and teams. According to Vivens Uwizeyimana, Founder and CEO of the company, it is also developing and connecting Africa’s talents to the global job opportunities in the in-demand fields for the digital economy – both locally and globally. He declared that being selected for the programme reflected different factors including that their founding and management team understands Future of Work Industry due to the research they conducted prior to launching the solution, adding that achieving great milestones in their first year of existence in both revenues and impact was also a key contributor. He believes that the programme will help his company grow in terms of business mastery and execution strategies; secure partnerships with employment and education stakeholders, and access investments. “Those three things,” he continued, “are here to push our growth in terms of scaling the solutions and services to more businesses and organisations as well as increase our impact regarding training and providing more digital jobs to young people.” Uwizeyimana also noted that their enrollment into the programme is testament that Rwanda’s start-up ecosystem can do more if the players involved keep building solutions and products that are rooted for. How the platform is tackling unemployment Uwizeyimana said that within UmuravaWork’s 14 months of operation, they helped 1,020 people applying for jobs via its online marketplace. Among them, he continued, 250 were vetted and 180 have secured various jobs, gigs, and projects. The startup is also tackling unemployment issues among African youth with innovative and scalable methodologies that include providing in-demand skills. “We are going faster in terms of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and this 21st Century is bringing a lot of demands in terms of how the work is done. So, we are also investing in the in-demand sectors where there are more jobs,” said Uwizeyimana. He added: “We are now moving ahead in terms of leveraging on the outsourcing, remote working, and freelancing industries to create massive digital jobs for African young people. This model compliments the existing methodology of only thinking about local full-time jobs.” What else have they achieved? According to Uwizeyimana, UmuravaWork was recently valuated USD1m within their 14 months of existence on the market and it became the second Rwandan startup to be listed on Get Equity, an investment facilitation platform. He noted that they have also attracted some potential and big brands locally and globally, adding that their talent vetting process has touched the interests of Rwanda Development Board’s Chief Skills Office Wing – a gesture he expects to flourish. Moreover, he said that they have also raised USD12,0000 impact investment from OVO, won USD 5,000 in Generation Unlimited and got selected among top 45 startups that emerged in the Hanga PitchFest.

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Local tech start-up selected for African accelerator programme