The A.I. Builders in Africa: A Unique Outlook From This Founder’s Perspective
Rebecca Ejifoma
As artificial intelligence continues to dominate conversations from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen, a new wave of innovators is emerging from an unexpected corner of the world: Africa. But while the global narrative often paints the continent as a future consumer of AI, some founders are quietly working to ensure it becomes a producer. One of them is Nnaemeka Clinton Ezeji, founder and CEO of Spark, an AI-powered engagement platform transforming how Africa connects, collaborates, and scales innovation.
Speaking from Nairobi, Kenya, ahead of the upcoming Africa Startup Festival, Ezeji shares a perspective that is both refreshingly grounded and globally ambitious.
“AI isn’t just about machines making decisions,” he says. “For us, it’s about making ecosystems smarter. It’s about helping people connect more meaningfully, faster, and with more context.”
His startup, Spark, is a product-led company redefining how events and ecosystem infrastructure are managed across the continent. From investor forums to startup expos, Spark uses AI to automate matchmaking, surface relevant insights in real time, and generate deep post-event analytics — functions that are often manual, informal, or simply non-existent in many regional tech environments.
But the journey hasn’t been typical. Unlike counterparts in more resourced ecosystems, Ezeji and his team had to build with constraints as a feature, not a flaw.
“When you don’t have unlimited cloud budgets or massive R&D funding, you start focusing on solving only what really matters,” he explains.
“Our AI doesn’t try to do everything. It focuses on doing the right things — matchmaking, behaviour prediction, engagement tracking — with precision and relevance.”
Ezeji’s approach is also rooted in context. Rather than building tech that mimics what’s trending elsewhere, Spark is tuned to the friction points in African ecosystems — limited data continuity, high dropout rates between conversations and deals, and the absence of structured infrastructure to track interactions beyond the event floor.
This context-aware approach to AI is gaining traction. Spark’s software has been used in over 10 countries, helping bridge startups with investors, partners, and enterprise leads in real time. Its modular architecture allows for white-labeling, making it an attractive infrastructure layer for hubs, accelerators, and governments looking to digitise economic engagement.
Yet for him, it’s not just about product success. It’s about narrative correction. “Africa doesn’t need to wait to be included in global AI,” he says. “We are already building. What we need now is visibility, trust, and access to more global collaboration.”
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in every aspect of life — from business to government to education — the stories of founders like Ezeji serve as a timely reminder. Innovation doesn’t always come from scale or hype. Sometimes, it comes from solving difficult problems in overlooked places with elegance, purpose, and clarity.
