[ilianam]

Yes, there’s a growing trend of connecting tech companies to untraditional talent, including in emerging markets. This is for good reasons: talent is everywhere, there’s a growing need for it in the tech sector, remote work and/or relocations are easier than before, and untraditional talent is less likely to be successful going through traditional application processes on their own.

The vision of these organizations is similar, and they take slightly different approaches. For instance, Andela is an agency (they hire the talent) and YouTeam and Andela are both remote-only. We took the approach of helping talent reach their dream jobs whatever they may be (including jobs at companies like Google in Europe) because that makes it possible to attract the best talent, and because ultimately we believe that will have bigger impact.

I’ve seen at least one example in SEA so far: https://pesto.tech/ If you find others, let us know!