AI strategy and readiness
Readiness assessments, national and sector AI strategies, and briefings that take ministries and agencies from AI ambition to a funded plan.
Readiness benchmarking · Policy design
Economics · Machine learning · Africa
Economic intelligence for Africa's AI decade.
We track where AI money, talent and jobs are moving across African economies, and turn that evidence into strategy for governments, investors and institutions.
Latest data · Africa AI funding
Updated March 2026
$803Mraised by African AI startups to date
159AI startups funded across the continent
90%of that funding went to just four countries
<1%Africa's share of global private AI investment
Sources: StartupList Africa (to mid-2025), Partech Africa, AfDB. Analysis: The $803M Reality Check
Data explorer
Africa's AI markets, by the numbers
Where AI money is going, who is raising it, and how the largest tech markets compare. Every figure is sourced.
Kenya
East Africa
AI startup funding raised to date · $803.2M across 159 startups · US$ millions
Sources: StartupList Africa (AI startups and funding, to mid-2025); Partech Africa 2024 Tech VC Report (equity funding); Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Economic Survey 2025 (ICT jobs). More country profiles will be added as figures are verified. Full dashboard at aiafricaimpact.com/data.
Research
Latest analysis
Short, sourced pieces on what the numbers mean for policy and investment.
Investment
Analysis
Data
The $803M reality check: Africa's AI funding gap
AI startups are growing fast, yet they draw less than 1% of global AI investment. Where the money goes, and where it doesn't.
Why Africa's AI path won't follow Silicon Valley's playbook
Different constraints, different advantages, and a different route to scale.
The data gap: why we built this dashboard
Decisions about AI in Africa are being made without shared numbers. This is our start on fixing that.
Services
From evidence to decisions
Each engagement starts with a policy or investment question and ends with evidence you can act on. We lead with what African economies are building, and treat constraints as context.
Modeling and research
Custom studies and models that link AI adoption to output, jobs and trade, built for the data you have and explained in plain language.
Input-output analysis · Trade networks · Forecasting · Causal inference
Speaking and briefings
Keynotes, panels and closed-door sessions on AI and African economies for conferences, boards and leadership teams.
Keynotes · Panels · Executive sessions
Parent brand
Novelnomix
Advisory, modeling and research for public and private clients.
Research & data
AI Africa Impact
The weekly brief and the data dashboard behind the numbers above.
aiafricaimpact.com ↗Media
Afronomix
Short videos that explain African economics, business and technology.
@theafronomix ↗Our founder
Economist first, engineer second
Novelnomix was founded by a development economist with more than two decades of applied work across economics, technology and African development.
Our founder's research on China-Africa economic relations, carried out with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has appeared in Foreign Policy and African Business. That work shaped the way we approach every engagement: follow the trade, the capital and the jobs, and let the data lead.
Our founder is now completing a Doctor of Engineering in AI and machine learning at the George Washington University, bringing causal inference and modern ML to questions of productivity and industrial policy. Novelnomix exists to put those tools in the hands of the people making decisions.
- Experience
- 20+ years in applied economics
- Training
- M.Sc. Economics · D.Eng. AI/ML candidate, GWU
- Research
- Carnegie Endowment, China-Africa economic relations
- Published in
- Foreign Policy · African Business
Speaking & thought leadership
On stage and in print
Keynotes, panels and policy dialogues on how AI is reshaping economies, with Africa at the center of the conversation.
Topics
AI and African productivity
Where AI is lifting output, and what it takes to spread the gains.
China-Africa economic relations
Trade, finance and technology flows between the two regions.
Digital trade and data sovereignty
Who owns the data, the platforms and the value they create.
AI readiness for governments
Moving from national AI strategy to funded, measurable programs.
Economic impact of emerging technologies
How AI and other new technologies change productivity, jobs and growth.
African e-commerce
Digital markets, payments and logistics, and who captures the value online.
Where
- Africa · Asia · North America
Contact
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