Tech in Africa
The Gradient Boost has received a $30,000 investment from Olumide Soyombo, their second strategic investor in an announcement shared to Tech in Africa. The company had previously raised an undisclosed amount from the Chief Data Officer at Kobo360; Dumebi Okwechime. He brings in a wealth of strategic experience from Bluechip Technologies with a history of supporting Nigerian data science communities from his experience in early-stage tech startups.
Gradient Boost is incorporated in the United States but runs its main offering on the African continent. At the moment, their training is fixated on the Nigerian market. The team comprises Emmanuel Sibanda, Jasmine Desvarieux, and Rofhiwa Nemudzivhadi and is working on the end-to-end platform that trains and intelligently matches data science talent to companies. To build talent, the company offers a full 6-month training program for learners across Nigeria and charges no upfront fees to those learners. The training covers top-class mentorship from experienced data scientists who share weekly tutorials while offering peer-to-peer learning in an effort to increase the practicality of the training.
The team transitioned from a 4-month Introduction to Data Science program to the current offering that gives a learning experience that best stimulates the work environment.
The online mentor-guided school believes the term data science means different things to companies depending on their ‘data maturity’, industry, and business priorities. With that in mind, Gradient Boost aspires to become a platform where companies can communicate their immediate and near-term requirements for us to match them with talent suited to their requirements. This includes hiring people for a data role that doesn’t fully match their strengths and interests reducing company churn and ensure that companies are better suited to fully utilize their data science hires.
Emmanuel Sibanda, the CEO and co-founder of The Gradient Boost, said, “We see both investors are strategic investors given the stage we are in and our current needs, bringing in value beyond ‘just money’.
