Andela Chases Ambitious New Conquest After Shedding Off Its Old Skin

Andela, the global marketplace for remote technical talent, appears to be on the quest for more. The company has launched a new platform, designed to create a more direct, personalized, and successful hiring experience for both talent and recruiters.

The company – now pursuing the objective of being a source pool for global engineering talent from over 100 countries after going through a bit of a ‘forced weight-loss programme’ between 2019 and 2020 when it undertook a series of layoffs – has now expanded its offering to include designers, product managers, and data talent. To reflect this growth, Andela is also unveiling its new brand identity. These announcements come after Andela closed a USD 200 M Series E last September, valuing the company at USD 1.5 B.

“Amazon, Apple, and Netflix have changed every aspect of our lives — from how we shop to how we consume culture and everything in between. As a result, personalization has become a basic expectation,” said Jeremy Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Andela.

“This is why we’ve built our new platform — to help talent find jobs that match more than just their technical skills. Instead, we help them find careers that match their lives. This works well for recruiters, too. Instead of wasting time sifting through resumes and screening calls, our platform identifies talent that fits their exact needs, helping companies find top talent in less than two weeks, and often in just two to three days.”   

Andela is a global talent network that connects companies with vetted, remote technical talent in emerging markets. Andela’s clients can now choose their level of service – their existing white-glove hands-on supported approach or rapid self-service through their new platform. The company says its new platform uses data-driven technology and algorithms to make match recommendations in a short time. With no lengthy contract periods or unnecessary calls with sales teams, the platform cuts down the time it takes for hiring managers and recruiters to move through the hiring lifecycle. Instead, it focuses on presenting quality talent immediately. 

Agnes Muthoni, Director, Andela Learning Community at Andela said  “Our data-driven approach to connecting talent with global opportunities now offers personalised and bespoke experiences for recruiters and candidates alike. Talent can now choose offerings that better suit their skills and lifestyle, while recruiters can quickly identify and hire candidates with the right skills and experience for their organization in as little as 48 hours, helping them increase efficiency and productivity”.

To get started on the new platform, hiring managers are to create a company profile, post a job, and can see their curated candidates instantly. Andela’s matching accounts for depth and breadth of skill requirements, timezone and working hour overlaps, industry expertise, and team fit. 

Talent can see how well their skills match up to roles via a clean and easy-to-digest graph, helping users — both talent and recruiters — visualize compatibility, including overlap in skills and preferences.

As users accept or reject recommendations, they are also asked for specific feedback. With each bit of feedback, the platform becomes more personalized. 

To date, Andela has focused on helping companies build remote engineering teams by giving them access to skilled software engineers globally. Per the company, hundreds of leading companies like GitHub, Goldman Sachs, and Cloudflare already leverage Andela’s platform to scale their engineering teams quickly and effectively. The company has now expanded its offering to include high-quality talent matching in new practice areas: design, data, and product management. 

Alongside a new platform, Andela reveals a new visual brand identity meant to better reflect the evolution of both the company as well as the global talent industry that it has helped to spawn. According to the company, the brand evolution brings a contemporary look while better connecting with the company’s human-centric mission.

“It’s always hard to change a brand that’s become iconic. In many ways, Andela’s brand has been a source of inspiration to software developers around the world who share our belief that brilliance is evenly distributed. That said, brands have to evolve alongside the companies they represent. I’m proud of what the team delivered and excited to show the new Andela to the world.” says Johnson.