Andela has acquired Woven, an Indianapolis-based technical assessment platform, as it shifts its focus from hiring “generic software engineers” to identifying highly specialised, AI-native engineering talent.
Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, the strategic intent is clear. Andela believes that by 2026, writing code will be relatively easy, while the real value will lie in the ability to engineer, scale and manage AI-driven systems.
The company, led by chief executive Carrol Chang, already owns Qualified, a platform that handles conventional coding assessments. The acquisition of Woven signals a deliberate move beyond standardised testing towards deeper evaluation of how engineers think and operate in real-world conditions.
Woven’s differentiation lies in what it calls a “Game Film” approach. Rather than asking candidates to solve isolated problems, such as those found on LeetCode, Woven drops them into a deliberately chaotic, broken codebase, complete with a simulated frustrated customer demanding: “Fix this bug before the system crashes.”
Founded by Wes Winham, Woven’s method is designed to assess attributes such as grit, debugging ability and systems thinking, skills that remain difficult for AI to replicate and increasingly critical in modern engineering teams.
The acquisition was accompanied by an internal memo outlining how Andela is redefining the meaning of “Engineer” in the AI era. According to Chang, companies are no longer searching for narrowly defined roles such as “Java Developers”. Instead, they are competing for three emerging profiles that barely existed two years ago.
These include builders, who not only use tools like ChatGPT but also write the underlying systems behind them, including large language models and retrieval-augmented generation; integrators, who connect AI systems to essential platforms such as Salesforce or Slack; and scalers, who ensure AI systems continue to perform reliably when deployed at massive scale.
With Woven’s technology, Andela says it can more accurately identify these capabilities, drawing a clearer distinction between superficial “prompt engineers” and truly AI-native engineers.
The deal also carries significant implications for Africa’s technology ecosystem. Andela was founded in Lagos with the mission of proving that world-class talent exists everywhere. By deploying Woven’s “AI Fluency” engine, the company aims to strengthen the continent’s engineering pipeline at a time of rapid change in global hiring standards.
The message to developers across Nairobi, Cairo and Cape Town is unambiguous: memorising syntax is no longer enough. As machines take over routine coding tasks, employability will depend on the ability to use AI to solve complex, real-world problems. “If the hiring landscape is an ocean of similar boats,” Chang said, “our vision is to become the ocean.”
By acquiring Woven, Andela is positioning itself as a critical gatekeeper in an AI-driven future, betting that the most valuable player will be the one that can reliably identify who is truly qualified to build, integrate and scale intelligent systems.
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