Cardano's commercial arm invests in youth-focused talent network Goodwall

The official commercial arm and a founding member of the Cardano blockchain, EMURGO, and its regional entity, EMURGO MEA, announced its strategic investment in and partnership with Goodwall. The skills-based social network helps young talent find learning and earning opportunities. Goodwall was a TOP 100 Swiss Startup and Scaleup.

Goodwall is the skills-based social network for Gen Z. Today, it serves and supports over 2 million talent in more than 150 countries on their learning and earning journeys. Goodwall helps youth showcase their skills on a digital profile, strengthen their skills by participating in social challenges, and access skills-based opportunities. To help fuel its growth and nurture its talent pool, Goodwall is building an ecosystem of partners aligned with its values, including UNICEF, Randstad, and SAP. Goodwall is exploring how blockchain can support its mission to level the playing field for youth everywhere.

EMURGO and EMURGO MEA's investment will support Goodwall's sustainable growth into a Web3 service leveraging Cardano's environmentally-friendly blockchain. The focus will be on driving youth awareness of Cardano through joint education initiatives; providing curated Web3 skills programs for youth to build on Cardano; connecting Goodwall's global skilled talent pool to micro-financial services, micropayments for work opportunities, P2P transactions, scholarships, and more via Goodwall's in-app Web3 wallet; enhancing transparency and accountability through on-chain skills certifications and NFT skill badges for youth to utilize for work and educational opportunities; implementing decentralized identifiers to strengthen trust and authenticity and for future on-chain voting initiatives in its app; and, bridging Goodwall's talented youth community and the global Cardano community to exchange ideas, information, and resources.

"Web3 presents a unique opportunity. From facilitating cross-border micropayments and powering a skills-based global economy to certifying the progress of a learner's journey in a distributed public and verifiable ledger, we're exploring how blockchain can help make the future of work, work for everyone. We are excited to have found a strategic partner in EMURGO to guide us in seizing this opportunity to level the playing field and bank the unbanked," said Goodwall co-founder and COO, Omar Bawa.

"The Cardano blockchain and its growing ecosystem of Web3 products and services seek to provide essential services to those that have been overlooked and most in need. EMURGO believes these values mutually align with Goodwall's mission to connect talented young people with opportunities for better education, work, scholarships, financial assistance, and more," said EMURGO CEO Ken Kodama.

The move also addresses the global shift in the youth demographic. According to the World Economic Forum, young Africans are expected to constitute 42% of global youth by 2030 and there are concerns about how to equip them for an increasingly evolving knowledge economy. This highlights the need for services that can bridge a rapidly growing youth population with the right opportunities for education and jobs that fit their skill sets. Goodwall recently also partnered with the Nation Media Group to help tackle youth unemployment on the African continent and has launched its services in Nigeria.

Founded in Geneva in 2012 by Taha and Omar Bawa, Goodwall was a TOP 100 Swiss Startup in 2016 and 2017 and was voted a TOP Swiss Scale-Up in 2019.


Goodwall's co-founders, Taha Bawa (CEO) and Omar Bawa (COO)