Staffmate, an African HR-technology company addressing frontline workforce retention, today announced that its Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Happy Rugbere, has been selected as a 2025 Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneur, receiving seed funding as part of the Foundation’s flagship entrepreneurship programme.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme supports African entrepreneurs whose businesses demonstrate the potential to catalyse economic transformation, job creation, and sustainable growth across the continent.
Happy Rugbere is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of operating experience, having begun his entrepreneurial journey in the hospitality industry more than ten years ago. Working extensively across Nigeria’s North-East, Happy built and scaled hospitality operations in challenging environments, where he experienced firsthand the operational and financial impact of chronic frontline staff turnover.
Those lived challenges ultimately inspired the creation of Staffmate.
After years of managing high attrition rates, inconsistent service quality, and the rising costs of constant recruitment and retraining, Happy identified staff turnover as one of the most under-addressed but value-eroding problems facing African businesses particularly in hospitality and service-led industries.
Staffmate was founded to address this gap.
The platform helps businesses predict employee resignations, strengthen employee financial security, and improve people management practices, enabling organisations to retain talent, stabilise operations, and improve long-term productivity.
Commenting on the selection, Happy Rugbere, Founder & CEO of Staffmate, said:
“Staffmate was born from experience, not theory. After spending years building hospitality businesses and losing great people to avoidable challenges, it became clear that Africa’s workforce problems required structured, technology-driven solutions. Being selected by the Tony Elumelu Foundation validates the importance of this work and strengthens our resolve to scale impact across the continent.”
With the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s support, Staffmate plans to accelerate product development, expand its footprint across key African markets, and deepen partnerships with businesses seeking sustainable people-first growth models.
Website: www.staffmate.ng
