Call for Solutions: Cross Border Jobs Startup Competition

Focus Areas: Source bold ideas, spotlight existing solutions, and build momentum for safer, fairer, and scalable pathways for the African continent to move across borders; facilitate worker mobility across African or global borders through recruitment, placement and/or service management; offer enabling services focused on the needs of migrants such as finance, language training, compliance, housing, or recruitment; expand existing jobtech solutions into the labour mobility space.

Africa’s labour market is expanding at an unprecedented pace, with millions of young people entering the workforce each year but only a fraction finding formal sector employment. At the same time, regions like Europe and the Gulf face acute labour shortages in industries such as hospitality, construction, and nursing, creating both a challenge and an opportunity. African talent is eager to work abroad, yet the systems to connect workers with these opportunities remain broken, risky, and underinvested.

When migration is managed well, it has extraordinary impact. Individuals moving from low-income to high-income countries can experience dramatic income growth within a year, with ripple effects benefiting families and communities through better education, healthcare, housing, and remittances. Evidence also suggests that enhancing migration opportunities for skilled roles can increase the overall pool of skilled workers rather than deplete it.

Despite its promise, migration for young Africans today often involves risk. Workers frequently encounter brokers charging high fees, unclear contracts, and weak protections, leading to vulnerability and unsafe experiences. The current state of cross-border work can trap young Africans in low-quality jobs and debt.

This competition highlights the opportunity to make labour mobility safer, clearer, and more affordable. With Africa’s growing workforce and technology enabling new job corridors, platforms can create systems that ensure transparency, fairness, and quality in cross-border employment. Some platforms, such as Aedilo and Velocity, are already improving conditions for overseas workers and connecting skilled professionals to employers abroad.

The Jobtech Alliance, Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Tech Safari are collaborating to identify solutions, spotlight innovators, and build momentum for a more accessible labour mobility system. Startups that provide recruitment, placement, enabling services, or expand existing jobtech solutions into cross-border labour mobility are encouraged to participate. Top startups can receive grants, tech perks, mentorship, community access, and potential follow-on support.

The top 3 startups win grants worth $10k each, access to the Jobtech Alliance’s tech perks worth up to $200,000 per company (including AWS credits and more), mentorship and community access through Jobtech Alliance, LaMP, IOM, and partners, and eligibility for follow-on support for startups showing strong traction.

For more information, visit Jobtech Alliance.