A publication by fref
We don't just tell their stories. We back them with a public goal.
LAUNCH Nigeria
Cloudpen and the Cloud IDE Built to Run on a Phone
A solo Nigerian developer spent months building a browser-based development environment for the device most emerging-market coders actually own. Spotlight is rooting for 50 new paying developers by end of Q3
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AWARENESS Lagos, Nigeria
Decide AI and the Test the Frontier Labs Didn't Take
A 3-person Nigerian team chose to submit to independent verification on the SpreadsheetBench leaderboard. Spotlight is rooting for 500 new paying customers by end of Q3
AWARENESS London, UK
Greenbaq and the Data Infrastructure African SMEs Don't Have Yet
Ijeoma Akwiwu's second company is solving the same problem her first did, in a different language. Spotlight is rooting for 100 new SME profiles by end of Q3
WAITLIST Birmingham, UK
Peppasync and the Pivot from Anti-Scam to Build-to-Order
Peppa was a Techstars '22 anti-scam app for emerging-market social commerce. Three years later, Banky Alao has rebuilt it as enterprise orchestration software for build-to-order factories.
AWARENESS Lagos, Nigeria
Pewbeam is Building AI for the Church, Fully in Public
Dara Sobaloju tweeted an idea, built in public for 6 months, and now has paying churches on 3 continents. Spotlight is rooting for 150 new paying churches by end of Q3
GOALS London, UK
OnBuddy and the Quiet Bet on AI-first HR Operations
A London-built HR platform is going after a function most AI tools have ignored. Spotlight is rooting for 50 new paying teams by end of June.
COLLAB London, UK
The Bet Behind Metrifox's Datamellon Partnership
A 6-month-old billing platform is spending real margin on early-stage AI founders. The decision says something about how infrastructure startups now find their first customers.