Gebeya Plans to Drive 100 Thriving Marketplaces to Transform Africa’s Tech Scene

The tech sector in East Africa is expanding at an unheard-of rate, and companies there are transforming a variety of industries.

However, a big obstacle still exists: a lack of qualified coders. Amadou Daffe and Hiruy Amanuel, two Ethiopian businessmen, created Gebeya in 2016 with the goal of educating and connecting pre-screened tech talent with African businesses after realizing this. Consider Andela in Addis Abeba.

According to a recent Google study, there are over 716,000 developers in Africa, with more than half of them residing in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. The developer pool on the continent is less extensive than those in the US, Europe, and Asia despite a 3.8% rise from prior years.

In Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, Gebeya, which means “marketplace,” has played a crucial role in bridging this divide. The business, which was founded in Ethiopia, has expanded its reach by offering services in Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, and other countries. With a mission to nurture a new generation of knowledgeable developers prepared to satisfy market expectations, Gebeya has a huge impact.

Amadou Daffe, co-founder and CEO of Gebeya, says “We’re more than just a marketplace.” “Our goal is to create a talent ecosystem that is scalable and sustainable, thereby empowering East Africa’s digital economy.”

In order to increase its talent pool, Gebeya purchased Coders4Africa (C4A), a US-based software and consultancy company. Daffe was recognized as one of the top ten contenders for Africa Business Heroes in Q4 2022, demonstrating the organization’s dedication to excellence and innovation.

With the help of its ground-breaking Marketplace-as-a-Service architecture, Gebeya now intends to serve 100 active tech markets in East Africa. With the help of this program, businesses may obtain top-notch engineers without having to worry about hiring and managing them. Three service suites are available. G-Made for hiring talent for project-based work, G-Staffing for finding full-time employees, and G-Talent for finding tech talent.

Gebeya changed from being a traditional two-sided IT talent marketplace to a provider of marketplaces using the “Marketplace-as-a-Service” model in January after securing undisclosed Pre Series A funding.

Amadou Daffe, co-founder and CEO of Gebeya, asserts that the company “is not creating the marketplaces, but rather supporting the success of existing marketplaces. Instead of creating these marketplaces from scratch, we help those that already exist and have strong entrepreneurial foundations.

“One of the biggest problems facing entrepreneurs in East Africa is finding capital. To grow up the African gig economy, Gebeya seeks to reinvest funds in 100 East African marketplaces and to extend its technical support to help 1000 marketplace entrepreneurs across Africa in the next years. Added Daffe.

Forging alliances and providing marketplace-as-a-service to Lifeline Addis Home-based Healthcare, Eshi Express, Utentic, and other pioneer markets, among others, is how Gebeya has already started carrying out this program to reach this goal.

Mesirat, which means “to work” in Amharic, is a program under Gebeya’s $48 million partnership with the Mastercard Foundation that intends to provide 100 entrepreneurs in East Africa with multi-sided gig marketplaces. Additionally, it aims to offer 1 million employment opportunities to women (70% of the population) and equip 2 million young people with marketable skills.

According to Bernard Laurendeau, Managing Partner at Laurendeau & Associates, a Mesirat partner, “Ethiopia’s economy needs to create close to 8,000 jobs every business day.” “The gig economy can defuse this ticking time bomb; the diffusion process begins with the Mesirat program today.”

The attempt of Gebeya to promote already-existing East African markets is fantastic. Gebeya is assisting in the development of Africa’s economy by bridging the talent gap in the tech sector and giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to succeed.

Visit www.gebeya.com for more details on Gebeya and its services.