Andela Acquires Woven to Strengthen AI-Native Engineering Assessments
Andela, one of the world’s largest marketplaces for technical talent, has acquired Woven, a technical assessment firm known for its real-world engineering simulations and AI-enabled evaluation tools.
The acquisition was announced on Thursday and is expected to accelerate Andela’s product roadmap by integrating Woven’s assessment content, technology, and domain expertise into Andela’s talent platform. The move aims to improve how accurately companies can predict engineers’ real-world, on-the-job performance.
Third Major Startup Acquisition This Month
With the Woven deal, Andela becomes the third Nigerian-founded startup to announce a major acquisition this month, following Flutterwave’s acquisition of Mono and Paystack’s acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank.
Andela said the acquisition reflects growing enterprise demand for engineers who can move beyond AI experimentation to production-ready deployment at scale.
Meeting Enterprise Demand for AI-Native Engineers
According to Andela, companies are increasingly seeking three categories of AI-native engineers:
- Builders, who translate business needs into functional AI components
- Integrators, who connect models, data, and tools into autonomous workflows
- Scalers, who ensure AI systems operate reliably while managing governance and risk
By integrating Woven’s assessment technology, Andela said it can now more precisely evaluate engineers across these archetypes, enabling better talent matching at every stage of an organisation’s AI adoption journey.
Leadership Reacts to the Acquisition
“To power the AI ecosystem at scale, the world needs AI-native, enterprise-ready engineering talent en masse,” said Carrol Chang, CEO of Andela.
“Andela plus Woven equals the best technical assessment engine in the world to ensure AI fluency and real-world job success,” Chang added.
Woven Founder Joins Andela
Andela’s global talent marketplace currently includes more than 150,000 technology professionals. As part of the acquisition, Woven’s founder and CEO, Wes Winham Winler, will join Andela to lead the development of next-generation assessments focused on predicting success in AI-assisted software development and AI system creation.
The company said it gains access to Woven’s extensive library of real-world engineering scenarios, AI-driven scoring systems built on years of performance data, and the technical expertise of Woven’s founding team.
Unified AI-Powered Assessment Platform
Barun Singh, Andela’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, said the acquisition enables faster and more consistent benchmarking of skills across the company’s talent network.
He noted that Woven’s real-world scenarios can be deployed immediately to ensure enterprise clients are matched with engineers who best fit their technical and operational requirements.
Woven’s technology is built on Andela’s previously acquired Qualified platform, which focuses on assessment creation. Andela said combining the two creates a unified foundation for scalable, AI-powered engineering assessments across multiple technical domains.
