Ethiopia’s Hasab AI Selected for Pan-African Technology Programme

November 3, 2026 | By Semahegn Nigatu

An Ethiopian artificial intelligence startup has been selected for a pan-African growth programme alongside 10 other companies, as investors and entrepreneurs seek to expand the continent’s emerging AI industry.

Hasab AI, founded by Kidus Yared, is among 11 startups selected for the inaugural Askya AI Growth Platform, following an application process that attracted more than 1,250 companies from 38 African countries.

The Ethiopian company develops voice artificial intelligence infrastructure for local languages, focusing on speech recognition and synthesis in Amharic and Afaan Oromoo. It also builds automated voice agents designed to handle enterprise calls for banks, telecommunications operators and government institutions.

Its technology is intended to enable organisations to automate customer interactions and provide services in local languages, including Amharic, Afaan Oromoo and Tigrinya.

Hasab AI is one of three companies in the selected cohort developing voice and language technologies for African languages. The other two are Lelapa AI from South Africa and Intron from Nigeria.

The 11 selected companies represent seven African countries, including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Kenya and South Africa. Their applications cover sectors ranging from agriculture and energy to financial services, cybersecurity and customer engagement.

The selection comes as the application data reveals significant financing requirements among African AI startups. Applicants reported immediate funding needs exceeding 400 million US dollars, while 61 percent identified distribution, or the ability to reach customers at scale, as their biggest obstacle to growth.

The applicant pool also reflects the relatively young nature of the sector. According to Askya, 67 percent of founders were aged 35 or younger, while 59 percent of participating companies were established in 2025 or 2026. Their median company age was 14 months.

Collectively, the applicants reported more than 4,200 full-time employees, including founders. Meanwhile, 62 percent of companies responding to the employment question said they were actively hiring, particularly for software engineering, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data-related positions.

However, women accounted for only 12 percent of founders, highlighting the gender imbalance in the emerging industry.

Askya Investment Partners said it had increased its initial investment commitment to the programme from 200,000 US dollars to 500,000 US dollars following the application process. The eight-week initiative, which began this week in Lagos during the Moonshot by TechCabal conference, will run until December 18, 2026.

The selected startups will receive business coaching, access to AI talent and cloud computing infrastructure, as well as introductions to enterprise customers. Participation is equity-free.

Askya estimates that the 11 companies could present more than 50 million US dollars in investment opportunities over the next two to three years.

The programme is chaired by Tosin Eniolorunda, founder and group chief executive of Nigerian fintech company Moniepoint. Askya said its founding partners have previously backed 25 African technology companies, including Moniepoint and Jumia.

Source: FSX Business News