Socium, a Senegal-based HR tech startup has secured $5M in seed funding to expand its presence in West Africa and venture into new markets.
The funding was led by Breega, through its Africa Seed fund, with participation from international investors including Partech, Chui Ventures, Orange Digital Ventures, Sonatel, Outlierz Ventures, Super Capital, and DNA. Other prominent African business angels such as Mossadeck Bally, founder of the Azalaï group, Hassan Bourgi, founder of Djamo, and Babacar Seck founder of Askya Investment Partners also joined the round, underscoring growing support for local startups.
“This investment reinforces our vision to bridge the gap between companies and top talent through technology,” said Socium’s CEO, Aissatou Diagne.
Co-founded in 2021 by École Polytechnique alumni Samba Lo and Serigne Seye, Socium is an AI-powered platform for recruitment, onboarding, and workforce analytics with a mission to modernize HR processes across the region. The company uses AI to easily score and match CVs to job offers and to aid in writing job descriptions. It aims to address the continent’s fragmented HR landscape with scalable, tech-driven solutions.
Socium empowers businesses to streamline hiring and workforce management, boosting efficiency and competitiveness. This enables HR managers to focus on more important roles such as managing and supporting teams to meet their goals.
Over 90% of mid-sized companies in Francophone Africa lack efficient HR solutions, relying on time-consuming manual processes that expose them to financial, legal, and operational risks.
The funding marks a significant step in Socium’s mission to modernize HR processes across Africa, offering businesses seamless, data-driven hiring and workforce management solutions.
With this funding, Socium aims to strengthen its presence in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, while expanding into new markets like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Morocco.
The funds will also accelerate the development of AI-driven innovations to simplify payroll and compliance, continuing to transform HR for its 100+ clients and beyond.
“Focus on people means focus on performance, their evaluation and competence and career path for each individual. And for this reason, our main focus is to continue to help them to work, to manage their daily tasks more easily and to be able to be focused on the most important part of the HR. And I think the most important part for HR is weighted to people inside the company,” said Lo.
As part of its expansion strategy, the startup is planning to integrate with tax agencies to automate tax and regulatory filings for companies, alleviating more headaches for companies.
“The solution’s adoption across more than 15 African countries speaks to its commitment to meet the needs of local businesses by optimizing HR operations,” said Ben Marrel, co-founder and CEO of Breega. “We are thrilled to continue supporting Socium and its outstanding founders, Samba and Serigne, in their mission to become the leading HR solution for medium-sized companies in Francophone Africa.”
To date, the Socium says it has over 100 active clients, cutting across 10 industries and 15 countries, and becomes one of the few HR techs in Africa that have raised funding in recent times.