Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Funds African Startup Andela

Mark Zuckerberg and Dr Priscilla Chan
Mark Zuckerberg and Dr Priscilla Chan

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr Priscilla Chan’s “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative” has announced its first major investment since it was set up in December 2015.

The Chan Zuckerberg Intiative will provide $24 million in funding to New York based startup Andela, a tech company which trains people in Africa on programming. Andela has a strong presence in Nairobi and Lagos and its CEO Jeremy Johnson says the funding will enable Andela move toward its goal of expanding its training programme to even more people.

Andela already provides companies like Facebook and Google with top programmers but the initiative has said that this had nothing to do with why Andela was selected.

Mark Zuckerberg said “We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not, Andela’s mission is to close that gap.”