Aya Data, a Ghana-based startup providing artificial intelligence (AI) consulting services, has raised US $900,000 in seed money to grow its business and diversify its product line.
Aya Data, which was founded in 2021 by Freddie Monk and Ama Larbi-Siaw, specializes in data annotation and collection services, which are essential for creating AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini, which are large language models (LLMs).
Workers are employed by the startup to label data, such as text, images, and videos, which are essential for training AI systems. The company wants to upskill these workers for more technical positions in data science and data engineering.
After receiving a $300,000 pre-seed investment from Microtraction, Savannah Fund, and UK-based investors, Aya Data raised an additional US$900,000 in a seed round that combined debt and equity funding, bringing the startup’s total funding to US$1.15 million. Angel investors participated in the most recent round, which was led by 54Collective.
Aya Data will be able to concentrate on growing AyaGrow and AyaSpeech, two of its flagship products, thanks to the funding. AyaSpeech is an end-to-end speech-to-speech solution that facilitates communication in regional African languages, while AyaGrow is a precision agriculture tool made to assist both commercial and smallholder farmers in using AI to monitor crops and fields. Additionally, the business intends to use the funds to expand its ability to serve customers both locally and internationally and to hire new employees.
“Ultimately, we aim to enable as many businesses and people as possible to benefit from AI, while ensuring that the ability to develop world-class technology exists in Ghana and similar markets,” Larbi-Siaw said.
