Yahya Bouhlel started coding in his early teens. Within this timeline, he interned at several companies in Palo Alto, California. Most of his work revolved around building apps and iPhone games.
When he came home to Tunis, he met many students who wanted to build products like him each summer. And it was one such summer in 2017 that he had the concept of GOMYCODE.
After completing his studies in France and working a year for Amazon in London, Amine Bouhlel, Yahya’s older sibling, moved back to Tunisia. His new job was to open a subsidiary for a French open source tech startup and that required hiring developers on the ground. However, finding a sizable number in Tunis was tough.
“At that time, I had just graduated from high school and I had a free summer. Amine was struggling to find higher web developers,” CEO Yahya Bouhlel told TechCrunch in an interview. “So the idea of building a school or a learning experience with the spirit of Silicon Valley came, and we started GOMYCODE as a summer project and camp and grew that year.” Amine, the company’s chief operating officer, held the title of CCO for Jumia Tunisia from 2018 to 2020.
The edtech, launched in 2017, is announcing today that it has closed an $8 million Series A round. It’s the largest round at this stage on the continent (barring Andela if it’s not counted as an edtech). AfricInvest, through its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and French-based development finance institution Proparco, co-led the early-growth round.
This brings GOMYCODE’s total financing to $8.85 million. It raised $850,000 seed in October 2020. One of its investors from the seed round, Wamda Capital, doubled down in this new financing.
In addition to Tunisia, GOMYCODE is present in Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Nigeria. The startup hopes that the Series A funding will drive its presence in 12 countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. It also plans to deepen its presence in the countries already present, especially Egypt and Nigeria.
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