Sparkmind.vc leads €3.4m Series A for Fuzu
Press Release 10.03.2020
Sparkmind.vc announces its first investment in Fuzu, domiciled in Finland, on their Series A to build their learning proposition.
Sparkmind.vc, a new Nordic education focused venture capital fund has acted as a lead investor in Fuzu Series A, making an investment of €1.5m on Fuzu’s €3.4m Series A. The investment round supports development of the next phase of the Fuzu.com platform and learning proposition, helps to strength the team across core markets and accelerates expansion across Africa.
“We are impressed about Fuzu team and what they have built so far, and we look forward to work with Jussi and his colleagues. Fuzu fits well in our investment focus as a prime example of digitally distributed, personalized lifelong learning solution that can be made accessible to tens of millions of users.”, says Sparkmind.vc Partner Vesa Laakso.
Today, Fuzu has a community of close to a million users in Kenya and Uganda and more than 1,000 organizations have used the platform for finding and nurturing talent. The potential for growth is significant with the African working age population more than doubling 2020 and 2040 to 1.1 billion people, making Africa the largest job market globally.
”We firmly believe that every human being is born with talent and that every organization wants to maximize their value to their clients. But lack of access to opportunities,support and talent make career builders and organizations fall short of their true potential. We change this by providing access to opportunities and personalized learning and guidance; and by ensuring that organizations can access just the right talent and market data, maximizing their chances for success. Our aim is to transform the African job markets and to help people learn and grow throughout their careers.”, says CEO of Fuzu Limited Jussi Hinkkanen.
Other investors in Series A include Finnfund, Cornerstone Enterprises, Aucfan Incubate, Seedstars International, Kepple Africa Ventures and Barona as well as a group of individual investors.
Additional Information:
Fuzu Limited was founded in 2013 in Finland by an experienced team of Africa and emerging market specialists. Fuzu combines the strengths of the world-renowned Finnish education and innovation system with deep understanding of the end-user, their needs and aspirations. Fuzu aims to change the landscape of job search and recruitment and to become the undisputed home of African talent by preparing people and organizations for success. Name Fuzu comes from Swahili and means ‘self-made success’.
Mr. Jussi Hinkkanen,CEO of Fuzu Ltd Tel: +358 40 767 4008 Email: jussi.hinkkanen@fuzu.com
www.fuzu.com/about
About Sparkmind.vc
Sparkmind.vc is the first Nordic venture capital company focused on the learning sector. The company invests in teams transforming early childhood, K12, higher, secondary and vocational education as well as corporate and lifelong learning. The investment sweet spot of the company is from seed to international growth phase with single investments up to €5m. For more information, please visit www.sparkmind.vc.
Mr. Vesa Laakso,Partner, Sparkmind.vc Tel: +358 400 523127 Email: vesa@sparkmind.vc
www.sparkmind.vc