KAMPALA — Software development giants Andela, has announced a massive purge of over 300 staff in 3 African countries, including; Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria.
The Cyclone Times, a local tech website quoting sources reports the most affected in the purge are Ugandans, followed by Nigeria.
Its understood that Andela is now seeking to restructure and work with more experienced developers to catch up with global market demands.
The massive purge of staff mostly junior developers especially from Uganda and Kenya comes as the firm released it first-time earnings figures indicating it will surpass $50 million in annual revenues for 2019.
“We’ve seen shifts in the market and what our customers are looking for…toward more experienced engineers,” Jeremy Johnson Co-founder and CEO, was quoted by Cyclone Times.
He was quoted adding that “It has also become clear, however, that the majority of the demand is for more experienced talent, and to keep up with it, we need to grow our senior talent base even faster.”
Industry experts have pointed out financial distress and decreasing demand for the company’s goods as a key reason for the massive purge.
Founded in 2014, Andela has offices in New York and five African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Egypt.
For those who may not know Andela’s business, the startup’s client-base is comprised of more than 200 companies around the world that pay for the African developers Andela selects and trains to work on projects.
Before changing its underlying business model, Andela’s premise that talent is evenly distributed while opportunity is not, proved a major draw for global investors. Keeping pace with its track record of big-ticket rounds, Andela announced a $100 million Series D round in January—one of the largest ever single rounds raised by an African-focused tech company.
