Investing in Human Capital Could be Africa’s New Frontier

Whether you believe Jumia was “Africa’s first unicorn”, or Interswitch, or neither of them, what is undeniable is that it has always been assumed that sectors like e-commerce and fintech would be most likely to produce such companies. The relatively unpopulated and undeveloped African human resources (HR) technology space? Not so much. Yet Dr Emmanuel Okeleji, chief executive officer of Nigeria’s SeamlessHR, holds an alternative view. Founded in 2018 and describing itself as “Workday for emerging markets”, SeamlessHR is building an enterprise-grade, cloud-based HR platform that helps medium to large-sized companies automate and optimise their entire HR process, from recruitment to retirement. Disrupt Africa reported earlier this month the startup had closed a VC-led round of funding to unlock its next phase of growth, and in the press release announcing the round Okeleji said he believed SeamlessHR had the potential to become a unicorn. SeamlessHR is working with around 800 companies in Nigeria and Ghana, is growing fast, and is already profitable. Okeleji said it was now setting its eyes on pan-African expansion in the wake of the funding round.

SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA