Business News
Andela raises $100 million in series D funding
Tech startup, Andela has raised $100 million in series D funding. Generation Investment Management (Generation IM) led the current funding round.
Funds raised so far
Prior to the current fundraising, Andela had raised a total of $78 million in three funding rounds.
In 2015, Andela raised $14 million as series A funding. In 2015, the firm raised $24 million as series B funding. Spark Capital and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) were the lead investors in the first two funding rounds.
In 2017, Andela raised $40 million in Series C funding. The funding round was led by CRE Venture Capital, a South African Venture Capital firm, and backed by DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and TLcom Capital.
Why Generation IM invested
Lilly Wollman, Co-Head of Growth Equity at Generation Investment Management, stated that the private equity firm believes there is room for growth in Andela’s area of operations.
“The global demand for software engineers far exceeds supply, and that gap is projected to widen. Andela’s leading technology enables firms to effectively build and manage distributed engineering teams. We are great admirers of the outstanding team, mission and culture Andela has built across two continents and five countries.”
Use of the proceeds
Proceeds of the funds, according to Andela’s country director Omowale David-Ashiru will be used for expansion.
“Due to our unwavering commitment to our mission throughout the last four years, Andela has grown into a thriving platform for hundreds of technologists in Nigeria. With this investment, Andela will accelerate the development of Africa’s best tech talent in Nigeria and beyond.”
How Andela works
Andela, trains engineers for six months, before outsourcing them. The company bills its clients per worker and passes some of the revenues to the engineer as a salary. The rest is kept for running costs as well as recruiting and training new engineers.
The engineers have a four year contractual period with Andela. During this time. they can not work for local firms.
About Andela
Andela was founded in 2004 by Ian Carnevale, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Jeremy Johnson and Christina Sass. The firm outsources developers to tech firms across the world.
Andela has offices in Lagos (Nigeria), Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the United States.
About Generation IM
Generation IM was founded in 2004, by former US Vice President Al Gore and one time Goldman Sachs Asset Management head David Blood. As at December 2017, the firm had a total of $18.5 billion in assets under management.
Hospitality & Travel
Passengers can now arrive 90 minutes before departure for domestic flights – FG
The Federal Government has announced the reduction of arrival time for passengers from three hours to one hour and a half before departure for domestic flights.
This was disclosed in a tweet post by the Minister for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, through his Twitter handle on Monday, July 13, 2020.
The minister said that the decision was arrived at after they have reviewed passenger facilitation at the airport while noting that passengers should check-in online.
In the tweet post, Sirika said, ‘’My colleagues and I have reviewed passenger facilitation at our airports, consequently I am happy to announce that, henceforth travellers are to arrive one hour and half before their departure time for domestic flights. Travellers are advised to check-in online, please.’’
My colleagues & I have reviewed passenger facilitation at our airports, consequently I am happy to announce that, henceforth travelers are to arrive one hour and a half before their departure time for domestic flights. Travelers are advised to check in online, please 🙏🏽🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🙏🏽
— Hadi Sirika (@hadisirika) July 13, 2020
It can be recalled that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had earlier in June issued flight resumption protocol for both international and local passengers across the country, advising passengers to arrive at the airport three hours before their time due to the new COVID-19 safety checks for domestic flight operations and five hours for international flight operations.
Economy & Politics
Seyi Makinde Proposes N3 billion investment plan for water supply
The local governments in Oyo are advised to submit a list of 10 faulty boreholes in the LG.
The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde announced the proposal of a N3 billion investment plan dedicated to water supply in rural and urban areas of the state.
Speaking through the Chairman of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Mr. Najeem Omirinde in Ibadan on Monday, he added that N500 million of the N3 billion would be used for repairing broken and faulty state-owned boreholes.
All Chairmen of each of the Local Governments in Oyo are advised to submit a list of 10 faulty boreholes in the Local governments.
The Oyo State governor also ordered that all new boreholes must be compliant with solar-powered pumps, to enable their longevity and save costs.
Urging residents to patronize the agency if they need to dig up boreholes for water, citing that it would be cheaper if done through the state agency than with private drilling companies.
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed stated last year that Nigeria needs an estimated N36 trillion annually for the next 30 years to solve Nigeria’s infrastructure problem. The investment, although a tiny fraction of what Nigeria needs is a bold step by the Oyo State government.
Economy & Politics
FG asks UK court for more time to appeal $9.6 billion arbitration judgement
Malami stated that the Evidence of P&ID’s highly orchestrated scam had only recently come to light.
The Federal Government has approached a UK court to appeal for more time to appeal the $9.6 billion arbitration award against it over the breach of contract with Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) Ltd.
Nigeria has said that it needs more time to pursue its argument that the 2010 gas supply contract with Process & Industrial Development Ltd was a sham.
The legal dispute with P&ID is coming against the backdrop of the huge drop in the country’s revenue due to the collapse in oil prices globally. Nigeria had applied to US courts in March seeking for documents from 10 banks which includes Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co, in a bid to prove its corruption allegations.
P&ID, however, has denied any wrongdoing in the whole transaction, arguing that Nigeria missed its opportunity to appeal.
The Nigerian Lawyer, Mark Howard, on Monday, the first morning of a 2-day hearing, said ‘’It is very unusual in a fraud case to discover a single smoking gun. By its very nature, fraud is conducted in secret, which makes it hard to detect and justifies an extension.’’
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The legal representatives for Nigeria are seeking another hearing for the judge to decide whether any misconduct has taken place and whether it justifies overturning the contract
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami in a statement said, ‘’Evidence of P&ID’s highly orchestrated scam had only recently come to light.’’
It can be recalled that last year, a UK judge upheld an earlier arbitration award to P&ID, which had accumulated to about $9.6 billion. The arbitration decision was over a failed contract to build a gas processing plant in the Southern city of Calabar.
The Nigerian lawyers disclosed that they have uncovered alleged bribes to government officials and their family members dating back to 2009.
Malami in his court filing on March 24, submitted that ‘’There is good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria.’’
Passengers can now arrive 90 minutes before departure for domestic flights – FG
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Seyi Makinde Proposes N3 billion investment plan for water supply
Coronation Research releases report on the Nigerian Investment terrain
FG asks UK court for more time to appeal $9.6 billion arbitration judgement
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