Google’s Alex Okosi on what’s holding back Africa’s AI startups

On Thursday, Google graduated 15 startups from eight African countries through its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme in Nairobi. Most of these startups are building artificial intelligence (AI) into core products in payments, transport, agriculture, healthcare and enterprise software. Google said 60% of the cohort is already profitable, generating an average of $60,000 in monthly revenue.

This year’s cohort arrives amid growing debate over whether Africa can turn AI adoption into sustainable, venture-scale businesses.  

The selected startups offer a snapshot of that transition. Founders are moving beyond experimentation and using the technology to solve operational challenges and build products for local markets. Yet the infrastructure and capital needed to scale those businesses remain in short supply.

In an interview with TechCabal, Alex Okosi, Google’s managing director for Africa, said African startups have already embraced AI, but argued that investment has not kept pace. While founders are building AI-powered products and services, the continent still faces gaps in cloud infrastructure, data centre capacity and funding. Those constraints, he said, risk limiting Africa’s ability to capture the economic value created by the technology.

AI could add as much as $1.5 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2035, equivalent to roughly 40% of the continent’s current GDP, if governments and private sector players move fast enough to deploy it at scale, according to projections from the African Development Bank. The technology, the bank estimates, could generate hundreds of thousands of jobs while significantly lifting labour productivity across key sectors.

The tension between growing AI adoption and limited investment formed the backdrop to this year’s accelerator programme, which featured startups from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Has Africa’s AI moment arrived, or are we still early?

If you look at this cohort for Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, many of the companies are AI-first or AI-native because they have built AI into their products to solve real challenges across the continent.

That’s the opportunity AI presents, and it’s what excites me about both the startup and fintech ecosystems. Take Mastery Hive, for example. The company is using machine learning to detect fraud across fragmented networks. We also have companies like Loop in South Africa using AI to optimise a complex transit network and manage worker payments.

Those are clear examples of startups already embracing AI and putting it to work.

That said, the continent still faces challenges. There is a lot of talent and engineering ingenuity in Africa, but infrastructure remains a constraint. Capital is also a major gap.

Until investors from the Global North see Africa as a place where AI is being used to solve meaningful problems and deploy more capital here, that challenge will remain. Africa offers significant opportunities to scale and create value. However, it requires investors to view the continent as an AI opportunity rather than a market still waiting to adopt the technology.

It’s a twofold story. African companies are already adopting AI and building solutions with it. But from a funding perspective, the level of investment is still not where it needs to be to fully capture the opportunity.

What’s the biggest bottleneck to building AI at scale in Africa?

Infrastructure remains one of the biggest bottlenecks. To build AI at scale, you need reliable connectivity, and that requires investment in foundational infrastructure such as subsea cables. That’s why projects like Equiano and Umoja are important. They help create the capacity needed for the digital economy to grow.

Talent is another critical area. We’ve trained about eight million people in digital skills, giving them the foundations they need to participate in and benefit from the digital economy.

We also need to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs). That’s an area we’ve focused on, helping around 35,000 small and medium-sized businesses grow and scale. Those businesses are a key part of the ecosystem.

When it comes to AI specifically, compute power is essential. You need cloud infrastructure that developers can build on. That’s one reason we’re investing in our cloud region in South Africa and working to expand cloud adoption.

The challenge is that Africa still accounts for only about 1% of global data centre capacity. As a result, many builders have to move data outside the continent for processing and then bring it back to deploy solutions.

There’s a clear opportunity to increase local capacity. That will require collaboration between governments, technology companies and other players across the ecosystem. More investment in connectivity, cloud infrastructure and compute capacity will be necessary if we want to scale AI across the continent.

Google is playing its part, but this is something that requires collective action from everyone involved in the ecosystem.

Must startups have AI at the core of their products to join the programme? 

No, being an AI company is not a requirement to join the accelerator. That said, AI is an important area for us because we believe it can help startups build solutions faster, scale faster, optimise their operations and reach markets more effectively.

We’re encouraging founders to understand how AI can be integrated into their businesses, whether through their workflows, products or business models. That’s why AI training is a key part of the programme. We want companies to understand how they can use the technology to accelerate growth.

At the same time, I think we need to demystify AI. It’s not some mystical technology. It’s a tool that helps organisations process information more quickly, analyse large amounts of data and identify opportunities more effectively.

For us, technology will play a major role in solving many of the continent’s challenges, and AI is one of the tools that can help make that happen.

That’s why we’re continuing to invest in AI skills development. In 2024, we announced a $5.8 million grant programme across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to help civil servants and nonprofit leaders build AI capabilities. Through Google.org, we’re also focused on AI skilling across Africa, and last year we pledged another $7.5 million to work with partners to expand AI training across the continent.

AI is a central focus for us, but startups do not need to be AI companies to join the accelerator. What matters is that they understand how the technology can help them build, grow and scale more effectively.

What’s the thinking behind offering accelerator support without taking a stake in participating startups? 

For us, it’s about enabling the ecosystem to succeed. We believe that when founders build successful companies and solve meaningful problems, it strengthens the broader technology ecosystem across Africa.

Google is a technology company. For our products and services to thrive, we need a healthy digital ecosystem, and that’s why programmes like Google for Startups Accelerator Africa are important. Our goal is to support founders, help them grow and create an environment where innovation can flourish.

Over the years, we’ve supported more than 190 startups across 17 African markets through the programme. Those companies have gone on to raise more than $300 million and created thousands of jobs.

That’s the impact we’re looking for. We want to help build companies that can grow, scale and compete globally. We hope many of the next generation of successful technology companies will come from Africa, and that people around the world will recognise that they were built by founders from this continent. That’s what motivates our continued investment in programmes like this.