The Ethiopia-based Gebeya, a SaaS-enabled, pan-African talent marketplace, has announced an undisclosed pre-Series A investment from a Japanese VC firm to drive its ongoing expansion.
Headquartered in Addis Ababa with offices in Kenya and Senegal, Gebeya connects startups, SMEs, and multinational corporations with vetted, skilled talent and professional services in more than 30 countries across Africa.
The company has raised various rounds of capital since being founded six years ago, including a US$2 million back in 2020 that made up part of a wider US$4 million seed round, and has now banked an undisclosed pre-Series A from Inclusion Japan (ICJ), a Tokyo-based VC firm that has made Gebeya its second investment in Ethiopia after mobility startup Dodai.
Gebeya will use the funding to evolve from being a simple two-sided tech talent marketplace into being a provisioner of marketplaces under a “Marketplace-as-a-Service” model.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with ICJ and are confident that this investment will help us to take our company to new heights. We are excited to see what the future holds and are committed to delivering the best possible products and services to our customers,” said Amadou Daffe, Gebeya’s CEO and co-founder.
“Gebeya has always thrived off of strong partnerships with like-minded firms who recognise Africa’s potential and that pooling resources is critical to achieve impact at scale.”
Yasuhiro Yoshizawa, director and co-founder at ICJ, said he was “delighted’ to be investing in Gebeya.
“As a fund manager with a us$100 million investment budget that will focus on the Africa region, I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to invest in Gebeya, which has the greatest potential in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
