Fuzu Limited has raised a 3.4 million EUR Series A round to support the development of the next phase of the Fuzu platform and the learning proposition, to further strengthen the team across core markets and to accelerate expansion across Africa.
The lead investor Sparkmind.vc will invest €1.5 million, followed by Finnfund, Cornerstone Enterprises, Aucfan Incubate, Seedstars International, Kepple Africa Ventures and Barona as well as a group of individual investors, together accounting for the remaining €1.9 million.
Fuzu.com was launched in September 2015 and has over the past five years become the most popular career development platform in Kenya and Uganda with more than 7.5 million lifetime users.
Fuzu platform provides AI-powered personalized guidance to individual users, and talent acquisition and data services to organizations, supported by a world class team in Kenya, Uganda and Finland, where Fuzu Ltd is incorporated.
Today, Fuzu.com has close to a million registered users in Kenya and Uganda and more than 1,000 organizations that have used the platform to find and nurture talent. The potential for growth is significant with the African workforce more than doubling between 2020 and 2040 to 1.1 billion people.
Fuzu Limited CEO Jussi Hinkkanen says the company believes that every human being is born with talent and that every organization wants to maximise their value to their clients. But lack of access to opportunities, support and talent make career builders and organizations fall short of their true potential.
“We change this by providing access to opportunities and personalized learning and guidance; and by ensuring that organizations can access just the right talent and market data, maximizing their chances for success. Our aim is to transform the African job markets and to help people learn and grow throughout their careers.”
The investors had a lot to say about the Fuzu product and why they have staked their funds in its development.
Sparkmind.vc Partner, Vesa Laakso, says that they are impressed about the Fuzu team and what they have built so far, and look forward to working with them.
“Fuzu fits well in our investment focus as a prime example of a digitally distributed, personalized lifelong learning solution that can be made accessible to tens of millions of users.”
Finnfund CEO Jaakko Kangasniemi affirmed Fuzu’s ability to narrow the employability gap especially among young working-age population by combining the strengths of the Finnish education and innovation systems with deep understanding of the end-users. The company’s first investment in Fuzu was in 2016 and the need for a platform like it has just grown over the years.
“As an East African investor, we understand the importance of talent and data in accelerating the growth of the local private sector. Fuzu rides the wave of job market transformation and we are excited to be on board”, said Cornerstone Enterprises Ltd Chairman Davinder Sikand.
Aucfan Incubate Inc. CEO Masatoshi Inoue stated that Fuzu is their first investment on the African continent and expressed excitement about the potential with the Fuzu concept and the continent as a whole.
Fuzu Ltd. COO, Edward Vaisberg closed the remarks with confidence that this group of investors will help Fuzu catalyse the African talent ecosystem and prepare millions of people and thousands and organizations for success.
