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By Amanda-Ellen Jojo
AFRIBLOCKS was founded in 2020 in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was founded by Tongayi Choto and Roger Roman. A few months before establishing AfriBlocks, Choto who works for a US-based startup, created a WhatsApp group for some of his former classmates, fellow software developers, and tech enthusiasts in Zimbabwe.
Hence, AfriBlocks is a pan-African Saas-enabled freelance marketplace that connects the world with the top African tech talent for Web3 and emerging technology gigs. The company is building the technology infrastructure for the future of work in Africa and beyond.
This robust infrastructure will equip freelancers and customers with intuitive project management tools, secure payment integrations coupled with professional skills development resources; that make it easy for individuals, businesses, and organisations to easily access skilled affordable remote services. The model was built with both the customer and the freelancer in mind.
It was developed so as to address the pain points plaguing most labor marketplaces. For freelancers they are building a robust upskilling and reskilling program that allows people to compete for the gigs of today and the jobs of tomorrow. For customers, they provide hands-on support (if they need it) throughout the duration of their project to make sure they are successful.
All their operations are hinged on the vision to provide the rails for the future of work in Africa and beyond.
Milestones
- May 2020 – Launched MVP (The marketplace)
- September 2020 – Participated in The Transparent Collective Accelerator (San Francisco, CA, US)
- Jan 2021 – Accepted in Techstars Accelerator (Seattle, Washington, US)
- March 2021 – Launched a partnership with Datacamp to offer free Data Science, machine learning and AI development courses to our freelancers
- May 2021 – Hosted the First AfriBlocks Freelancers Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe
- July 2021 – Published the first edition “Africa & The Future of Work” report
- July 2021 – Integrated Western Union into our platform to make payments easier for our freelancers
- October – Selected as 1 of 50 startups to receive an investment from Google’s Black Founders Fund
