Nigerian tech firm raises $1.5m seed round

Decagon has raised a $1.5m seed round in equity funding, even as it closed a student loan financing facility of $25m from Sterling Bank Plc. According to TechCrunch, Decagon is a Nigerian tech talent accelerator company that hopes to train and connect local engineers to work remotely with both local and international companies.

The Founder, Chika Nwobi, said, “Microsoft, Facebook and Google have all invested in building engineering offices in Nigeria, but most other companies can’t afford to do that; so we help them access top talent to work as remote engineers.”

The company runs a six-month paid software engineering programme and selects its candidates based on merit. Its new student loan financing ensures that students can take loans to finance their way through the programme.

The company described itself as the first to create such merit-based loan financing for students in Nigeria.The financing is in partnership with Sterling Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria, and allows Decagon to offer a pay-after-learning plan that provides the trainees with laptops, accommodation, internet, meal allowance and a stipend.

Decagon said more than 80,000 people had applied to partake in its programme, but it has only accepted 440 candidates. The Divisional Head, Sterling Bank, Obinna Ukachukwu, said, “We got involved to support alternative education by providing loans for Nigerian students complemented with financial literacy training. Based on the excellent performance of the current portfolio, it made sense to scale our support to Decagon.”

For its equity round, Decagon raised money from Kepple Africa and Timon Capital and others.A partner at Timon Capital, Chris Muscarella, said, “We’re thrilled to work with Decagon to build up the top 0.5 per cent of vetted engineering talent in Africa and help connect them to global tech opportunities.

“The frequency of engineering leaders from US and European companies in our network ask about sourcing African and Nigerian technical talent has increased at a rapid clip, and we’re excited to lean into that and help Decagon on their mission.”