AltSchool Africa, the Nigerian company committed to training the next generation of top software engineers, has announced that it has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to scale its work in Africa, TechCrunch reports.
The VCs in this round include Voltron Capital, Nestcoin, Pledges, and Odba VC.
The company, founded in October 2021 by Adewale Yusuf (also Co-founder and CEO of TalentQL), Akintunde Sultan, and Opeyemi Awoyemi, has received funding to sponsor students through the program, from tech and music stars, including Flutterwave Co-Founder & CEO, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola; Paystack Co-Founder & CEO Shola Akinlade; and entertainers Ajebutter22 and Falz.
In 2020, Adewale Yusuf, the CEO of AltSchool, experimented with the idea of establishing a physical campus where he and his team could prepare software engineers for international opportunities. Yusuf attempted to pull this off by meeting with educational stakeholders at the Obafemi Awolowo University, a town near Lagos, but the agreement fell through.
The team opted to concentrate on growing sister company TalentQL, introducing products like Pipeline, which trained mid-level engineers, promoted them to senior engineers, and placed them in international companies. However, after further research, Yusuf realized what was needed to make his previous idea work: a remote-centric approach.
AltSchool provides an online school with a curriculum to improve/upskill non-technical people with technical and soft skills while partnering with higher institutions to provide diploma certificates
More than 8,000 people have applied to join in AltSchool’s software engineering program, which begins in April (the application fee is N10,000, almost $20). These applications came from 19 countries (14 of which were African), with Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Botswana receiving the most entries, according to Yusuf.
AltSchool, according to TechCrunch, aims to utilize this fund to expand its content and curriculum, technology infrastructure, and community concept, which will bring students together offline to network and learn.
