AfriBlocks

AfriBlocks is a pan-African marketplace of vetted African freelance professionals, aimed at making it easier for international and local clients to find and work with remote African talent. The company positions its approach against general freelance websites, which its CEO argues present too many options without adequate vetting and lack collaboration tools for completing projects on time.

When a client posts a job, AfriBlocks uses automation to surface three matching freelancers rather than requiring the client to search thousands of profiles and portfolios, and assigns a project manager to the engagement. Payment is held in escrow and released after completion, at which point AfriBlocks collects a transaction fee. The company also provides community and skills-development resources to help freelancers remain competitive, delivered in part through the nonprofit Ingressive for Good, which gives AfriBlocks community members free access to technology and data courses on Coursera and Datacamp.

The founders frame the business around African unemployment and the global freelance market, which the company sizes at more than $800 billion. Its stated long-term goal is to build technology infrastructure for the future of work in Africa and to make the continent a global hub for technical and creative freelancers.

Founding story

Co-founders Tongayi Choto and Roger Roman started AfriBlocks in July 2020. Choto, who grew up in Zimbabwe, previously worked as a product manager at BillMari, a pan-African remittance service built on bitcoin technology. Roman, raised on the west side of Chicago, is also an active angel investor and a VC scout. The company was created to address high unemployment across African countries by making it easier for people to find remote contract work, and to overcome the difficulty clients face in locating African freelancers.

Business model

AfriBlocks operates a two-sided marketplace connecting clients with vetted African freelance professionals. Jobs posted on the platform are matched, via automation tools, to three freelancers fitting the client's qualifications, and a project manager is assigned to the selected freelancer to oversee the project through completion. Payments are held in escrow and released on completion.

AfriBlocks collects a transaction fee on completed jobs, taken when payment is released from escrow.

Traction

Within less than a year of founding, the company reported onboarding more than 2,000 freelancers and more than 400 buyers, completing up to 250 jobs and generating over $60,000 in revenue. It was selected for the Techstars Seattle 2021 class and has received funding and networking support from Techstars and Google.