Company:Indigenius AI

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Indigenius AI
FormerlyCDIAL (Centre for Digitization of Indigenous African Languages)
TypePrivate
IndustryArtificial intelligence
Founded2021 in Lagos, Nigeria
FounderOlayinka Iyinolakan, Shona O. Oluwatola
Headquarters
Lagos
,
Nigeria
Key people
Olayinka Iyinolakan (CEO), Shona O. Oluwatola (COO)
ProductsAgents Studio, Creative Studio, Indigenius 2 models
Websiteindigenius.ai

History

The company was founded in 2021 in Lagos by Olayinka Iyinolakan and Shona O. Oluwatola, and worked initially on digitizing African languages.[1][2][3]

In January 2023 the company released a dictionary translating modern terms into African languages.[4][5] In May 2023 it released a multilingual keyboard covering 180 African languages.[6][7]

Technology

The company's approach centres on speech rather than text. Writing in TechCrunch in June 2024, Dominic-Madori Davis and Tage Kene-Okafor described it as a chatbot covering most African languages and dialects, built around "speech patterns rather than text". They presented it as a response to the limited coverage of the continent's 2,000-plus languages in widely used systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

The company's platform is divided into two products. Agents Studio provides voice agents that handle inbound and outbound telephone calls, for uses including customer support, sales and debt recovery, appointment booking and identity verification. Creative Studio converts written text into spoken African-language audio and transcribes African-language recordings, and is aimed at film, podcast and game production. Both run on the company's Indigenius 2 model family, which it says is trained on 25,000 hours of speech across 11 languages, four of them African.[8][9][10][11]

Recognition

In November 2023 the company received a $50,000 prize at the Black Ambition competition founded by Pharrell Williams.[12][13]

In 2024 it received an award from the Federal Government of Nigeria as part of that year's MSME Day programme,[14] was selected for the first cohort of the Accelerate Africa programme,[15] and joined the eighth cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa.[16]

In June 2026 the company received $250,000 from Cascador and a $10,000 innovation prize from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named company
  2. ↑ "CDIAL Holds Panel Session on DigitiSing Indigenous Languages at 2022 Social Media Week". This Day. https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/03/05/cdial-holds-panel-session-on-digitizing-indigenous-languages-at-2022-social-media-week/#google_vignette. 
  3. ↑ "CDIAL aims to bridge the digital divide in Africa | Jamlab" (in en-US). https://jamlab.africa/cdial-aims-to-bridge-the-digital-divide-in-africa/. 
  4. ↑ Ijaseun, David (2023-01-21). "Firm launches dictionary for modern words in native languages" (in en-US). BusinessDay (Lagos, Nigeria). https://businessday.ng/news/article/firm-launches-dictionary-for-modern-words-in-native-languages/. 
  5. ↑ "CDIAL unveils dictionary for modern words in native languages". Vanguard (Lagos, Nigeria). January 29, 2023. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/01/cdial-unveils-dictionary-for-modern-words-in-native-languages/. 
  6. ↑ "Firm Launches Multi-lingual Computer Keyboard". This Day. https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/05/05/firm-launches-multi-lingual-computer-keyboard/. 
  7. ↑ Oba, John (2023-05-08). "Company launches keyboard to enhance communication in 180 African languages" (in en-US). Blueprint (Abuja, Nigeria). https://blueprint.ng/company-launches-keyboard-to-enhance-communication-in-180-african-languages/. 
  8. ↑ "Agents Studio". https://indigenius.ai/agents. 
  9. ↑ "Creative Studio". https://indigenius.ai/creative. 
  10. ↑ "Indigenius 2 Foundation Models". https://indigenius.ai/models. 
  11. ↑ Davis, Dominic-Madori; Kene-Okafor, Tage (2024-06-16). "Black founders are creating tailored ChatGPTs for a more personalized experience". https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/16/black-founders-are-creating-tailored-chatgpts-for-a-more-personalized-experience/. 
  12. ↑ "Pharrell Williams' Black Ambition Awards $3.2 Million Dollars to 36 Entrepreneurs at Third Annual "Demo Day" – Black Ambition Prize" (in en-US). November 14, 2023. https://blackambitionprize.com/announcements/pharrell-williams-black-ambition-awards-3-2-million-dollars-to-36-entrepreneurs-at-third-annual-demo-day/. 
  13. ↑ Eromosele, Fortune (November 15, 2023). "CDIAL.AI's 'Indigenius' wins prestigious black ambition prize". Vanguard (Lagos, Nigeria). https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/11/cdial-ais-indigenius-wins-prestigious-black-ambition-prize/. 
  14. ↑ "MSMEs Award: FG splashes millions, cars on 15 companies" (in en-US). Daily Trust. 2024-07-01. https://dailytrust.com/msmes-award-fg-splashes-millions-cars-on-15-companies/. 
  15. ↑ "Dabafinance - Accelerate Africa selects 10 African startups for pioneer cohort" (in en). https://dabafinance.com/news/accelerate-africa-selects-10-african-startups-for-pioneer-cohort. 
  16. ↑ Akintaro, Samson (2024-07-30). "Google selects five Nigerian startups for cohort 8 of Africa accelerator program" (in en-US). https://nairametrics.com/2024/07/30/google-selects-five-nigerian-startups-for-cohort-8-of-africa-accelerator-program/. 
  17. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named lba



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