The archive
All articles
12 stories of African builders and the goals we're rooting for.
AWARENESS Lagos, Nigeria
Cluebase and the Error Message That Talks Back
A Lagos-based founder is building AI into the moment software breaks, when a user sees an error code and a developer is nowhere nearby. Spotlight is rooting for 50 new paying teams by end of Q1 2027
LAUNCH Nigeria
Bukki and the Bookkeeping Product for Both Sides
A Nigerian founder is building accounting software that a business owner can use directly and their accountant can trust. Spotlight is rooting for 100 new paying businesses by end of Q1 2027
AWARENESS Nigeria
Bachs and the Full Billing Stack for African Founders
A Nigerian founder is building the payments and billing platform African software companies have had to assemble by hand. Spotlight is rooting for the 50 university communities Bolu declared by Q3 2027
LAUNCH Nairobi, Kenya
Delivre and the Dashboard for Friday Evening Panic
A Nairobi engineer built last-mile logistics software for the restaurant with 5 riders, not the enterprise fleet with 500. Spotlight is rooting for 50 new paying businesses by end of Q3
WAITLIST Nigeria
Foodivio and the Meal Plan That Actually Speaks Jollof
A Nigerian designer is building AI meal guidance that starts from local ingredients and layers health goals on top, then has it checked by nutritionists. Spotlight is rooting for public launch by end of Q3
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
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
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.
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.