- Aya Data, a Ghana-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has raised $900,000 in a seed funding round led by 54 Collective, with contributions from several angel investors.
- The company, which offers data collection and annotation services, will use the funds to expand two core products: AyaGrow and AyaSpeech. Part of the investment — a mix of equity and debt — will also go towards hiring new talent to boost its workforce.
- This latest round brings Aya Data’s total funding to $1.15 million. The company had previously raised $255,000 from investors including Microtraction, Savannah Fund, and Scott Bell.
Founded in 2021 by Freddie Monk and Larbi-Siaw, Aya Data specialises in data collection and annotation, supporting the development of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini.
The startup employs individuals to label data, including images, videos, and text, needed to build these advanced AI models.
Aya Data is part of many AI-focused companies, including Shaip and iMerit, helping train large-scale AI models by helping global tech companies like OpenAI and Meta complete data labelling tasks.
Aya Data’s product suite includes AyaGrow, an AI-powered crop and field monitoring tool designed to help smallholder and commercial farmers through precision agriculture, and AyaSpeech, a speech-to-speech solution that allows businesses, consumers, and governments to interact using local African languages.
Aya Data is positioning itself as a key player in the continent’s growing AI ecosystem, tackling challenges in agriculture and communication through advanced technology.
Larbi-Siaw, the company’s Co-FounderChief Operating Officer (COO), remarked on the company’s mission, saying, “We are dedicated to building local expertise that can leverage AI to tackle the continent’s most pressing challenges.”
The startup, which charges money for data annotation services, serves major global clients such as MIT, Nvidia, Seedtag, Unilever, and more than a dozen other active clients. It claims to have generated $500,000 in revenue in 2023.
The company says it offers training to its workforce, equipping them with skills for high-level technical roles such as data engineering and data science. It plans to train 1,000 data annotators, engineers, and scientists for its growth strategy.
According to Gillian Hammah, Aya Data’s Marketing and Strategy Officer, the AI startup is focused on building expertise locally to improve efficiency and deliver solutions without third-party involvement.
“We are increasingly focused on helping African businesses leverage AI to increase their competitiveness,” Hammah noted, underlining the startup’s commitment to supporting local enterprises while continuing its work with international partners.