Botlhale AI, a South African artificial intelligence startup that aims to increase the application of AI systems in Africa, has emerged, winner of DataHack4Fi Innovation Competition finale held in Kigali, Rwanda.
Botlhale AI won with their solution ‘Naledi’, is a multilingual personal banking and financial management assistant powered by Artificial Intelligence built to help banks unleash the power of conversational commerce.
The AI startup which was co-founded by Thapelo Nthite and Xolisani Nkwentsha went home with $25,000 seed funding.
Botlhale AI competed with startups from Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria (Esusu Africa & Credit Bank), Uganda, and Zambia for the chance to win $25,000 in seed capital.
Meanwhile, for the DataHackathon 2019 in partnership with Sendy, Derwin Ngomane from South Africa was named the winner and receive a $1,500 cash price.
The DataHack4FI Innovation Competition promotes the use of data and data analytics to solve challenges experienced by individuals or communities.
The competition encourages Pan-African collaboration by creating opportunities for data enthusiasts and emerging tech companies to partner in developing solutions that address local financial and economic inclusion-related challenges.
