Aya Data, a Ghana-based AI consultancy startup, has successfully raised $900,000 in a seed funding round. The investment, which includes both debt and equity, will be used to expand two of its key AI products, AyaGrow and AyaSpeech, while also recruiting new talent to further the company’s growth. This latest round brings Aya Data’s total funding to $1.15 million, following a previous $300,000 raise from investors including Microtraction, Savannah Fund, and UK-based investors. The current round was led by 54Collective, alongside participation from other angel investors. Founded in 2021 by Freddie Monk and Ama Larbi-Siaw, Aya Data specializes in data collection and annotation—processing images, videos, and text—to support the development of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini. The company also trains its employees in more advanced technical roles such as data engineering and data science, employing 11 individuals across these roles. Aya Data’s product lineup includes AyaGrow, an AI-powered crop and field monitoring tool designed to enhance precision agriculture for farmers, and AyaSpeech, a speech-to-speech solution that supports interaction in local African languages for businesses, consumers, and governments. In addition to its products, Aya Data offers custom AI solutions to businesses and provides data annotation services to global clients like MIT, Seedtag, Unilever, and Labelbox. In 2023, the company generated $500,000 in revenue and currently serves around 20 active clients. The startup is part of a growing movement of AI companies globally—such as Shaip, Sama, iMerit, and Cloudfactory—that focus on collecting and annotating data for AI systems. Global tech companies, including Meta and OpenAI, often outsource these tasks to firms like Aya Data in emerging markets. Aya Data’s co-founder and COO, Ama Larbi-Siaw, highlighted the company’s commitment to building local expertise to address Africa’s most pressing challenges through AI. "We are focused on building AI capabilities locally to solve problems unique to our continent," she said. Gillian Hammah, Aya Data’s Marketing and Strategy Officer, emphasized the operational efficiency of controlling all processes in Ghana, allowing them to deliver faster results without relying on third parties. Aya Data’s future plans include training 1,000 data annotators, engineers, and scientists and further enhancing its AI product offerings. The company's long-term goal is to enable African businesses and individuals to benefit from AI while fostering the development of world-class technology in Ghana and other emerging markets.
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