A report published in 2015 by Russel Reynolds Associates pointed out that businesses operating in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa face a growing executive talent gap and are confronted with a gap in traditional management skills such as team building and change management among leadership talent.
However, the report went ahead to point out that the African diaspora is an important source of talent, though historically, it has been hard to tap into. As the economy expands, this diaspora is becoming easier to recruit in Kenya and Nigeria.
Talent2Africa, a human resources startup specialised in recruitment and sourcing for talent has raised funding to solve that exact problem.
An official press release Digest Africa has received indicates that Talent2Africa has raised $1 million from Saviu Ventures - a Seed and Pre-seed Mauritius-based micro-VC. Although the details regarding the deal have just been revealed, it was made public on January 18, 2019.
According to Arthur Thuet, Saviu Venture's co-founder, this is the first round the startup has raised and made up their seed round.
The startup which describes itself as the matcher of "global African professionals with opportunities in the continent" aims to make it easier for both the businesses and professionals to identify each other.
"Talent2Africa has arisen as one of the fastest growing companies in the HR sector, specialized in attracting international talents from the diaspora and top local talents willing to explore opportunities in their homeland or other African countries"
Talent2Africa was founded in 2016 by Chams Diagne quickly joined by Youssef Debbagh (digital marketing expert) and Benoît Martin (formerly Figaro Classifieds and Le Monde Group).
Chams Diagne is notable for co-founding Viadeo - a professional social network with at least 6.4 million users - per the startup's website. He is also credited for kickstarting Talent2Africa by launching it in Dakar, Sénégal towards the end of 2015 before the other co-founders joined.
In September 2017, Talent2Africa embarked on global expansion by opening up their second and third offices in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire and Paris, France.
In January last year, they decided to set up their headquarter in Mauritius followed by another office in Nairobi, Kenya, by February 2018 in partnership with the French chamber of commerce of Kenya. However, the startup is looking to cover more ground. This financing, therefore, will be used to fund Talent2Africa’s continued African expansion and continue the development of its proprietary technology platform.
Currently based in Dakar, Abidjan, Nairobi, Casablanca, Paris and Mauritius; the company plans to open agencies in Lagos, Johannesburg, and Montreal in the short term.