Semicolon Africa, an EdTech startup in Lagos, focused on creating employment and economic opportunities by training software engineers and techpreneurs has closed a $1.2 million seed round of funding to allow for an increase in its training, talent management, and project delivery capacity.
The startup wants to bridge the gap in digital training in African which currently has a low count compared to other parts of the world where the number is high; as well as solve unemployment issues. This is as a joint report by Google and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2020 disclosed that there are only 690,000 professional developers in Africa compared to the US with over 3.87 million.
While there is a need to grow more tech talent in order to strengthen the ecosystem that is capable of changing the course of Africa’s history, most training pathways for professional developers in Africa are being self-taught and not through university programs.
 What Semicolon Africa is doing differently
Guided by a mission geared towards developing a generation of software engineering talent that will solve problems and create economic opportunities by addressing tech-skill gaps, nurturing talent, fostering innovation, and building a thriving tech ecosystem, the one-year intensive training offered by the startup focuses on problem-solving, software engineering, and business management skills.
Semicolon has onboarded nine cohorts and graduated four cohorts of software engineers since inception. The startup has provided critical support needed for techpreneurs in its program to develop their startup ideas into blustering businesses by renewing its focus on Semicolon ventures, an arm of the business that has already birthed 20 new startups from its students.
In addition to services such as corporate training, project delivery, and project outsourcing carried out through its labs, Semicolon also serves as a strategic partner to companies seeking a digital transformation of their operations.
