In 2024, Utiva undertook a comprehensive assessment of its four-year journey, focusing on its mission to train and place African tech talent across the continent. This evaluation revealed a significant number of alumni who had successfully secured positions at leading global tech companies such as Amazon, Samsung, Mastercard, Square, and Shopify, often achieving these placements without direct support from Utiva. This marked a considerable evolution from Utiva's initial aspirations in 2020.

Originally, Utiva aimed to integrate digital skill and employability training directly into university curricula. However, this initiative faced a common hurdle: a failure to establish partnerships with Nigerian universities. This roadblock prompted a swift and strategic pivot. Utiva transitioned into an edtech platform, specializing in providing technical skills training across diverse fields including cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, product marketing, and product management. To date, this renewed focus has led to over 20,000 students being trained or successfully placed in jobs, demonstrating the effectiveness of its adapted model.

Building on insights gathered from its alumni survey, Utiva is now embarking on its next phase of growth. The company has identified a significant opportunity in helping companies in the global North hire talent from emerging markets in Africa. While the past decade has seen a rise in African tech talent finding global opportunities through platforms like Andela and Gebeya, much of this talent has primarily been absorbed by tech startups in Europe and North America, with fewer placements in non-tech industries. Utiva perceives this as a critical gap.

Unlike platforms such as Andela, which concentrate on facilitating remote work for African developers in global tech companies, Utiva is now strategically targeting non-tech companies that are keen to hire from Africa but lack the necessary experience and infrastructure to do so effectively. To address this need, Utiva is evolving into an AI-powered hiring and payroll platform. This innovative solution is designed to simplify the process for these companies to find, onboard, and pay African professionals with unprecedented ease.

Utiva’s current operational framework revolves around three core services: learning, hiring, and payments. A substantial portion, over 70%, of its current operations is dedicated to Utiva Hire and Utiva Pay. These platforms are meticulously built to enable global companies to seamlessly hire and compensate African tech talent. Through Utiva Hire, the company functions as an employer of record, meticulously managing all aspects from recruitment and regulatory compliance to payroll administration.

To further streamline the hiring process, Utiva leverages an advanced AI agent that intelligently scans LinkedIn, identifying and recommending highly qualified talent based on the specific needs of employers. This technology significantly reduces the burden of manually sifting through thousands of profiles. Eyitayo Ogunmola, CEO and Founder of Utiva, elaborates that their AI stack is built upon existing Large Language Model (LLM) systems, with a primary focus on GPT-based models. They are actively developing custom layers on top of these models to enhance the matching, assessment, and management of global tech talent for client companies.

Beyond serving employers, Utiva’s AI agents are also being designed to empower job seekers. Ogunmola reveals that these agents will assist candidates by recommending relevant roles tailored to their profiles, refining CVs to align with specific job requirements, and even generating personalized cover letters, thereby significantly improving their chances of securing interviews. Since pivoting to this model approximately a year ago, Utiva has already successfully placed 32 talents across 14 different companies. Furthermore, it has initiated partnerships with outsourcing companies, providing them with robust infrastructure to enhance the efficiency of their hiring and payment processes.

Despite its intensifying focus on hiring and payroll solutions, Utiva remains committed to its foundational roots in tech training. In fact, it is actively expanding this offering. A key upcoming initiative is a mini MBA program specifically designed for talents placed in global companies. This program aims to cultivate essential soft skills such as effective communication, confidence, strategic thinking, and leadership. Although not yet live, Utiva envisions a future where even companies that have not directly utilized its hiring services can enroll their teams in this crucial development program.

In terms of its business model and revenue generation, Utiva charges companies a monthly fee for hiring and managing talent. This fee ranges from $500 to $950 per talent, varying depending on the specific skill set and role. This charge is applied in addition to the employee’s salary and comprehensively covers technology access, compliance, vetting, and ongoing operational support. For companies that exclusively utilize Utiva Pay without requiring recruitment assistance, a flat fee of $29 per employee per month is applied. While initially aiming to offer services directly to companies, Utiva has also found success with outsourcing firms, having already secured one such client. Although specific revenue figures were not disclosed due to an ongoing fundraising round, Ogunmola confirmed that Utiva has maintained profitability since 2022.

Utiva’s team has expanded to over 50 employees, strategically distributed globally. The operations and product development teams are based in Nigeria, overseeing training, onboarding, and local compliance. Conversely, the growth and partnerships teams are situated in the US and Europe, where they collaborate closely with client companies to facilitate talent acquisition, onboarding, and relationship management. The training arm also continues to serve as a vital revenue stream, with all content developed internally by subject matter experts and further refined through collaboration with industry professionals.

Despite operating in a competitive landscape alongside established global players like Rippling and Deel, Ogunmola expresses confidence in Utiva’s strategic position. Rather than attempting to outcompete rivals based on sheer scale or technological firepower, the company is sharply focused on serving a distinct market segment: global companies aspiring to hire African tech talent but lacking the inherent infrastructure or prior experience to do so. Ogunmola states, “Our competitive advantage is not necessarily the technology or that we’re better or smarter. It’s just the niche markets that we understand and are unravelling.”

As part of this pivotal shift, Utiva has made substantial investments in refining its business model and overhauling its internal processes to meticulously align with the complex demands of employer-of-record services and cross-border payments. The company has also actively built out dedicated growth teams in key international regions, scaled its technological infrastructure, and acquired crucial compliance licenses to support hiring operations across multiple jurisdictions. Looking ahead, Utiva’s ambitious plan is to onboard 600 companies globally within the next 12 months. To underpin this significant expansion, the company is preparing for the imminent launch of version two of its technology platform. This enhanced platform will feature advanced payment rails, a sophisticated multi-layered assessment system, and a robust compliance engine meticulously designed to simplify cross-border employment. The broader vision for Utiva is to ultimately make its comprehensive infrastructure available to other players as a versatile, plug-and-play global hiring and payment solution.