Orange Digital Ventures Invests in Gebeya EdTech Company

Orange Digital Ventures (ODV) Africa announces its latest investment as it leads pre-series A round financing of Gebeya (“marketplace” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s national language).

Headquartered in Ethiopia, Gebeya is a new age EdTech company solving the Global Tech Talent shortage by producing top talented African Software Engineers and matching them with clients across Africa and the globe to develop technology solutions, improve development efficiency as well as scalability.

With this investment, alongside Partech Africa and Consonance Capital, Orange is confirming its commitment to leveraging its key assets to support tech entrepreneurship in Africa through its dedicated investment initiative, Orange Digital Ventures Africa, created in 2017.

Orange will expose Gebeya to commercial partnerships with its African subsidiaries (its West African subsidiary, Sonatel is already a client of Gebeya’s) and to other companies, as well as supporting its expansion across French-speaking Africa.

Amadou Daffe, Gebeya’s founder and CEO, said, “This investment will support the implementation of several vital changes a decisive time for the startup. It will allow the startup to gear up for future growth and implement its vision to Empower Africa through Technology”.

The company intends to put in place a reinforced executive team to provide further strategic and operational leadership advancing its future ventures. Furthermore, with the incentive of expanding to French-speaking Africa, Gebeya will vigorously act on the training of tech talents who will be pivotal in the digital transformation of Africa.

“With more than 60 per cent of VC-backed tech startups in Africa created in the last five years, our ecosystem is growing very fast and investments are booming, yet the talent gap remains wider. Skills shortage is a critical barrier to startups successfully exploiting the power of new technologies,” said Marieme Diop from Orange Digital Ventures Africa.

She went on to add, “At ODV Africa, we are happy to support the hardworking Gebeya team and strongly believe in their ability to build the appropriate and sustainable pipeline of really talented African engineers to meet future skills needs on a global scale.”

Orange Digital Ventures is an international early-stage technology investment fund worth €125 million. It invests in innovative startups in connectivity, networks, SaaS for companies (cloud, AI, big data, cybersecurity, etc.), FinTech and the Internet of Things.

Supported by the Orange group, the fund offers “smart money” by helping to create synergies with various business units and its customers.