This Startup Pays Kids in Africa to Learn How to Code, Then Gives Them High-Paying Jobs at Fortune 500 Companies

Business Insider
Updated
LEWEB 2014 - CONFERENCE - LEWEB TRENDS - DISRUPTION AS AN ECOSYSTEM - JEREMY JOHNSON (ANDELA) - PULLMAN STAGE
LeWeb14/FlickrAndela founder Jeremy Johnson at the LeWeb conference 2014.

By Celena Chong

Africa has the largest pool of untapped tech talent in the world, according to Jeremy Johnson.

The 31-year old says that for two reasons:

  1. Human brilliance is evenly distributed around the world, but opportunity isn't.

  2. There are four jobs for every software developer in the U.S.

Johnson's solution is Andela, a program that finds the best and brightest students or programmers in Africa, trains them up, and places them in jobs at hot startups like Udacity and Fortune 500s like Microsoft. His startup, which launched last July, is disrupting the tech sphere by creating a new model for how companies hire and staff their talent.

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