Fuzu, an Africa-focused recruitment, and career service site has received undisclosed development funding from Developing Markets Platform, a funding program of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Developing Markets Platform funding is usually granted to Finnish companies with operations in developing markets. Fuzu, which operates in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda will use its latest round to research and develop among other things, next-generation artificial intelligence-based machine learning models to develop its service.
“We grant a grant of up to 50% of the total acceptable costs of the project for SME research projects,” the Developing Markets Platform stated on its site.
It also gives collateral-free loans of up to 70% of R&D project costs for SME beneficiaries at 1% interest for up to ten years.
“If the project fails or its results cannot be utilized in your business, the loan may be partially uncollected” or converted to a grant, the site explains.
Fuzu previously raised $3.8m and prides itself of 7.5m lifetime users and not only connecting graduates to employers but also candidates without formal qualifications to opportunities.
“In Africa, a large proportion of people do not have official degrees at all, but with the help of Fuzu’s service, they can demonstrate their own competence potential,” Fuzu CEO, Jussi Hinkkanen said.
At Fuzu, it is believed that the future of work is moving from degrees or certificates to skills such that applicants must be able to demonstrate their competence to land a job.
Fuzu is a leading career development and recruitment platform in Africa. It began operations in 2015 with the Kenyan launch before moving to Uganda three years later and expanding into Nigeria in 2021.