Cross Border Jobs Startup Competition 2025

The Jobtech alliance is launching the Cross Border Jobs Startup Competition to identify and support bold startups shaping the future of labour mobility for Africans. This competition seeks to source bold ideas, spotlight existing solutions, and build momentum for safer, fairer, and scalable pathways for the African continent to move across borders

If you’re building a platform or service that helps African talent move, connect, and thrive across borders, they want to hear from you.

The Challenge: Africa’s labour market is expanding at an unprecedented pace. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 10–12 million young people are joining the labour market annually, yet only about 3 million formal sector jobs are being created. This gap leaves millions without viable and formal employment options at home.

Meanwhile, regions such as Europe and the Gulf are grappling with acute labour shortages in industries and sectors like hospitality, construction and nursing, among others. This mismatch creates both a challenge and an opportunity: African talent is eager to work, and the global demand is rising, but the systems to connect workers with the demand remain broken, risky and underinvested.

Labour mobility for young Africans can become safer, clearer, and more affordable. With population demographics likely to make Africa the ‘labour basket of the world’ over the coming half-century, either we develop safer and better quality pathways for labour mobility, or the poor quality status quo will represent the future too.

There is immense potential to reshape cross-border work. With new job corridors opening and technology expanding, platforms do have a chance to build systems that make cross-border work safe, transparent, and fair. Some platforms that the Jobtech Alliance has started working with are already leading the way: Aedilo is a digital recruitment platform for overseas workers, improving the conditions and quality of blue collar labour mobility between Africa and the Gulf, while Velocity bridges critical skills gaps by connecting skilled professionals (initially Kenyan healthcare workers) with employers in Europe through a technology-driven language skills and matching system.

Their role: The Jobtech Alliance, Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Tech Safari are collaborating to convene this competition, with support from the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE). They want to identify what solutions are out there, shine a spotlight on innovators tackling these barriers, and create momentum for a more transparent and accessible labour mobility system.