Build Germany's most trusted placement company for African talent

Germany has a deep, structural shortage of workers across healthcare, trades, and vocational sectors. The supply of qualified African candidates already exists: organisations across the continent are training and preparing people for German roles, and producing strong, German-speaking nurses and vocational candidates today.

The biggest bottleneck is the demand side, though not the only one. The German employer market is fragmented and hard to navigate: thousands of SMEs, hospitals, logistics firms, and trade businesses, each hiring in small numbers. They are also deeply sceptical of international recruitment because most agencies cut corners, so they default to distrust and many under-hire relative to the labour they actually need.

That is the gap. There is no trusted German partner connecting high-quality African supply to German employers at scale. Strong supply organisations in Africa need someone on the ground in Germany who can vouch for them to employers, reduce the complexity of hiring internationally, and carry the accountability that earns trust. Whoever does that unlocks placement capacity that existing operators cannot serve. That is where the value is created, and that is the company we want to build.

A recent change to the WHO health-worker safeguards classification has opened nurse recruitment from additional countries, expanding the pool of corridors a placement company can serve. Demand in Germany continues to grow, candidate supply is already being produced, and the market is wide open for an operator employers can actually trust.

The impact can be significant. Malawi is a particularly strong example: a capable worker who might earn around $1,500 a year there, double the country's GDP per capita, could earn roughly $53,500 in a German nursing role. That would be a 35× increase for the same person with the same talents, and most workers stay long-term and send remittances home that lift their families too.

The company partners with strong supply organisations on the Africa side rather than building training pipelines from scratch. You source pre-vetted candidates from those partners and deliver trusted, accountable placements to German employers.

On the supply side, you add value by independently testing German language proficiency, preparing candidates for employer interviews, and verifying qualifications. On the demand side, you build direct employer relationships, vouch for the supply partners, and reduce the complexity of hiring internationally so employers can hire with confidence. You are the trusted German face of the pipeline, not a one-off agency.

The business model is primarily success fees paid by hiring companies on each placement, with healthy margin available to an operator who can build trust and deliver. There is also potential for a secondary revenue line through financing agreements with candidates, for example income share agreements or loans in corridors where employers do not pay a fee up front.

The focus in year one is first placements, real employer relationships, and a working operational model, with a first placement targeted within a few months of launch.

This is a demanding, cross-border building job. The founder would be based in Germany, where the employer relationships are won, with regular travel to Africa to work with supply partners. The right founder is:

• Fluent or native-level German. Essential for winning employer relationships and operating with credibility in Germany.
• A strong business developer. Most of the early work is selling to German employers and earning their trust.
• High-agency. Ready to operate independently across two continents with limited infrastructure, and to figure things out as you go.
• Comfortable cross-border. Able to manage relationships in both Africa and Germany at once.
• Values-aligned. Motivated by the mission, and willing to prioritise lower-income, higher-impact source countries where the opportunity exists.

Prior experience in labour mobility or recruitment is a strong bonus but not required. Experience working in or with Africa is a bonus too, but not required.

We back exceptional founders to build new companies from the ground up. We bring sector expertise, networks, and hands-on operational support, including help structuring partnerships, identifying early employer clients, and shaping the candidate vetting process. We expect founders to bring ambition, rigour, and genuine commitment to the mission.

You would not be starting cold. We already have at least two supply partners lined up in East Africa, alongside strong networks across the wider labour mobility ecosystem, so the candidate pipeline and key relationships are there to build on from day one.

We invest in two stages. First, a pilot and scoping investment of around $50,000 to validate the opportunity, test the core assumptions, and establish proof of concept. Where that clears the bar, we follow on with a scale-up investment in the low hundreds of thousands to build out operations and place the first cohort of workers. We invest primarily through debt and revenue-based financing, with equity or grants only in exceptional circumstances.