Sayna, a Madagascar-based edtech and crowdsourcing platform, has raised 600,000 euros (US$638K) in its first seed round from international venture capital firms including Launch Africa Ventures, Orange Ventures, and the MAIC Investors Club.
This money will enable the Malagasy company to grow into other geographies, allowing it to become a global player.
Sayna, an employment and education platform launched by Matina Razafimahefa in 2018, employs about forty individuals in France, Madagascar, and, most recently, the Ivory Coast.
According to CEO Matina Razafimahefa, this money will be used to finish Sayna Academy, a mobile video game, and Sayna Work, a work platform.
The business will be able to hire key personnel in a variety of sectors, including research and development and operational management.
She also remarked that the time has come to encourage new microtasking communities in Senegal, Ethiopia, and Tunisia, which are made up of developers who work on paid computer microtasks.
Since its inception, the company has developed tremendously. Orange Madagascar, Axian, Société Générale, the World Bank, and Access Bank are among Sayna’s 60 customers.
Over 450 students have been educated or are currently undergoing training. Approximately 90% of the company’s former employees have found work.
According to the CEO, Sayna has sold over 15,000 computer micro-tasks, and the company has expanded by 172 percent in a year.
Sayna’s gamified education methodology “offers an affordable training program that disintegrates web programming talents into sequential learning targets through videos, games, quizzes, and practical projects,” according to Zach George, Managing Partner of Launch Africa Ventures.
With an emphasis on soft skills development, mentorship, and a peer-to-peer learning environment, Sayna has the potential to become a direct pipeline for projects, experience, and cash for young people across the African continent.
According to Grégoire de Padirac d’Orange Ventures, they are ardent believers in the potential of crowdsourced microservices applied to information technology projects.
When paired with an online and gamified training solution for emerging digital vocations, Sayna becomes a strong tool for addressing the continent’s job challenges and developer scarcity.