₿trust, a non-profit organisation that decentralises development of Bitcoin software, acquired Qala, a Lagos, Nigeria-based organization training African Bitcoin and Lightning engineers.
The amount of the deal, which was completed on 1st September 2023, was not disclosed.
The acquisition will see Qala to rebrand as the ₿trust Builders Programme, to strengthen ₿Trust’s mission to drive the development and education of Bitcoin open-source engineers from across the Global South. As part of the deal, Femi Longe, CEO of Qala, and Stephanie Titcombe, Programmes Manager at Qala, will officially join ₿trust as Programme Leads at ₿trust Builders.
Qala trains and matches African software developers with Bitcoin companies, equipping its engineers with sought-after skills in the global Bitcoin talent market. To date, it has built an online community of Bitcoin developers spanning over 42 countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda.
₿trust focuses on fostering developer talent and supporting the free and open source Bitcoin ecosystem by locating, educating, and remunerating Bitcoin open source engineers from the global south. Its ₿trust Builders is a comprehensive engineering programme designed to train the next generation of Bitcoin and Lightning developers. The programmes’ alumni have secured roles at the likes of Galoy, SphinxChat and Bitnob, as well as open-source grants from ₿trust and Superlunar.
To launch the next phase of its growth journey, ₿trust Builders’ programme will pivot to focus on open-source training and has launched a call for its next cohort of senior African software developers seeking to transition into building for Bitcoin and Lightning.
In September 2023, the company will launch the ‘Build for Africa’ Hackathon, which seeks to encourage makers to build solutions that solve African challenges and increase bitcoin adoption in Africa. This will serve as a platform for open innovation and collaborative problem-solving, where makers will converge to generate novel ideas through an idea hack focused on tackling Africa-specific challenges, and accelerate their bitcoin projects through mentorship in design, development, and lightning integration. The hackathon is a key pre-event for the Africa Bitcoin Conference on 1 – 3 December in Accra, Ghana, which ₿trust is proud to support for the second year running.
Originally funded by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z, ₿trust is currently headed up by a board of directors – Abubakar Nur Khalil, Carla Kirk-Cohen, Obi Nwosu and Ojoma Ochai. Under their leadership, the organisation has launched the Africa Open Source Cohort, which offers support to its pioneer member, Vladimir Fomene, working on the Bitcoin Development Kit, and sponsors the Africa Bitcoin Conference, an annual gathering for Bitcoin stakeholders from all around Africa and beyond.
FinSMEs
05/09/2023