Zindi, a South African data science startup, has raised $1 million in a seed round to expand its network of data scientists

Zindi, a South African startup that operates as a professional network of data scientists, has raised a US$1 million seed funding round to help it continue to grow after experiencing rapid growth in its early stages.

The funding round was led by the San Francisco-based Shakti VC, with participation from other investors including Launch Africa Ventures, Founders Factory Africa, and five35 Capital Partners.

With the belief that data science should be accessible to everyone, Zindi was founded in 2018 by Celina Lee, Megan Yates, and Ekow Duker. Today, the company hosts a community of over 34,000 data scientists who are tackling some of the world’s most pressing business and social challenges with machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“We are an African platform with a global reach that has African roots.” So far, our primary focus has been on expanding our presence in the African market. For every data scientist and aspiring data scientist on the continent, we will be the go-to platform to which they can turn. According to Lee, “If we can get it right in Africa at scale, if we can create a world where companies, data sets, and talent are seamlessly connecting on the Zindi platform to create new exciting value, it is entirely possible that we will be able to replicate this model in other emerging market contexts where many of the opportunities and challenges are similar,”

“This means that all companies will be able to unlock the power of their data; people will be able to pursue careers in data science regardless of race, gender, or geography; and artificial intelligence solutions will be designed in a way that will positively impact the everyday lives of people all over the world,” Lee explained.

While Zindi charges companies to post challenges, it crowdsources machine learning solutions for those challenges.

Here, Zindi steps in to fill the void by making data science and artificial intelligence (AI) more widely available.

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