OUR JOURNEY
Tunga was founded on the conviction that geographic borders are not a measure of capability. This is the story of how that conviction became a company.
How it started
Tunga was founded in 2015 in the Netherlands by Ernesto Spruyt, together with Butterfly Works, with its initiative We Are Bits as a partner. The starting point wasn't a business plan. It was an observation: there are highly talented software developers across Africa who have limited access to the international job market. And there are companies in Europe who struggle to fill roles, often because local hiring is too slow, too expensive, or simply not producing the right candidates.
The gap between those two realities felt unnecessary. And fixable.
The early years were about figuring out how to make this work in practice. Finding good people turned out to be the easier part. The harder part was everything after: contracts across borders, payments, onboarding, keeping people, and replacing them when needed.
That's where Tunga found its identity: taking that whole staffing side off the client's hands, and keeping it there for as long as the role runs.
Vetting in progress — paired session on a real codebase.
What drives us
Tunga was built on the belief that economic opportunity should flow toward talent, wherever it exists. That's not a marketing line. It's the reason the company exists.
The model is designed to create value for everyone involved. Clients get the staffing side handled, by people who stay. Professionals get interesting international work, good fees paid on time, and a personal contact at Tunga. Communities benefit from the structural economic impact of sustained, well-paid work.
We call this win-win-win, and we mean it literally. When any one side of that equation stops working, the model breaks. So we protect all three.
This is also why Tunga built its own Academy. Not as a separate product, but as an investment in the talent pipeline. The Academy develops professionals specifically for the kind of international collaboration Tunga facilitates. Better preparation means better matches, better performance, and longer-lasting relationships.
Where we are today
Tunga's core team operates from four locations: Rotterdam (headquarters), Lagos, Kampala, and Nairobi (Academy HQ). As of September 2026, our pool includes 3,500 vetted professionals across 38 African countries. We've worked with 300+ client companies across Europe and North America. In 2025, about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job; so far in 2026, none have.
The team that runs Tunga spans both continents. The people who do the matching, the support, the cultural bridging: they live and work in the same ecosystems as the talent they represent. That proximity is not incidental. It's how the model works.
We started with software engineering. Today, we place professionals in a broader range of digital roles: AI operators, product managers, designers, business analysts, and more.
Key facts
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters | Rotterdam, The Netherlands |
| Office locations | Lagos, Nigeria · Kampala, Uganda · Nairobi, Kenya |
| Founder & CEO | Ernesto Spruyt |
| Talent pool | 3,500 vetted professionals across Africa |
| Countries | 38 African countries |
| Clients served | 300+ companies across Europe and North America |
| Roles | Software engineers, AI operators, product managers, designers, data specialists, and other digital roles |
| Figures as of | September 2026 |
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