TalentQL — a Nigerian talent outsourcing and incubator company — announced today its entry into Techstars Toronto’s class of 2021 to kickstart its operations in East Africa as it eyes plans for global expansion, Techpoint Africa reports.

TalentQL will join the accelerator alongside nine other tech startups and also receive $120,000 in funding to support their business.

TalentQL — founded by serial entrepreneurs Adewale Yusuf, Opeyemi Awoyemi and Akintunde Sultan — was officially launched last November in an effort to strengthen Africa’s developer talent space to assist international companies in search of new talent.

According to the startup, its efforts were fueled by its desire to help democratize opportunity for Africa’s top tech talents to get noticed and offered more prime job opportunities.

You heard the news!

We’re excited to be part of @techstars Toronto Accelerators 2021 Cohort.

More than ever, we are committed to providing innovative companies with top vetted tech talents whilst ensuring that top talents have access to amazing job opportunities, globally. pic.twitter.com/YVyr9lt7Kg

— TalentQL (Hire vetted Talents) (@TalentQL) March 30, 2021

“At TalentQL, we realized that a lot of the career growth opportunities for developers were concentrated in a few key locations,” the company’s website shares. “And it was getting harder for top talent outside of those locations to get noticed by innovative companies. So, we set out on a mission to decentralize access to career growth and work opportunities for African tech talents.”

TechCrunch shares that the pandemic revealed an increased need for global companies to have access to cheaper and remote talent around the world. With this in mind, TalentQL is hoping to tap into what it believes to be a revolutionary idea.

The outlet also reports that Sunil Sharma — managing director of Techstars Toronto and an investor in five Nigerian startups — believes the accelerator’s investment in TalentQL gives it a chance to capitalize off of the flourishing tech talent space in Africa.

“The rise of Nigeria is more widely appreciated now in terms of technology sectors like finance, mobility and e-commerce, where talented Nigerians are not only bringing innovation and disruption but are doing so rapidly and at scale,” he tells TechCrunch. “Equally as intriguing is the opportunity relating to talent itself as Nigerians and Africans across the continent are contributing more to supporting tech companies across the world, and we think this is just the start.”

According to TalentQL CEO Adewale Yusuf, the company plans to leverage its backing from Techstars to focus on securing global opportunities for its pool of African talent and jumpstart its expansion plans across Africa.

“On April 1, 2021, we’ll be opening our office in Kenya, and kickstart operations there,” Yusuf tells Techpoint Africa. “Maybe in the next quarter, we’ll activate markets like South Africa or Egypt.”

The outlet shares that since remote work has greatly increased over the last year, it’s much easier for startups to scale and expand — which is why TalentQL’s plan is to meet the talent where they are.

“We don’t need to have a physical office, just the right resources,” Yusef points out to Techpoint Africa. “We want culture, and we want people in the markets that understand the culture. We don’t want to go there as Nigerians, so we plan to activate each country one step at a time.”

With over 100 tech skills and more than 2,000 developers available on its platform, Talent QL is eyeing the best African talent around the world to turn the company into a global phenomenon, not just an African one.

For more information about TalentQL, visit its website.

TalentQL

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