Ghana-based artificial intelligence (AI) consultancy startup Aya Data has raised US$900,000 in seed funding to scale its operations and expand its product offerings.
Founded in 2021 by Freddie Monk and Ama Larbi-Siaw, Aya Data specialises in data annotation and collection services – key components in the development of AI models, such as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini.
The startup employs workers to label data, including images, videos, and text, which are crucial for training AI systems, and aims to transform this workforce by upskilling them for higher technical roles in data engineering and data science.
Aya Data’s US$900,000 seed round was a mix of debt and equity funding that brings the startup’s total funding to US$1.15 million following an earlier $300,000 pre-seed investment from Microtraction, Savannah Fund, and UK-based investors. The latest round was led by 54Collective, with participation from a group of angel investors.
The funding will allow Aya Data to focus on scaling two of its flagship products, AyaGrow and AyaSpeech. AyaGrow is a precision agriculture tool designed to help both commercial and smallholder farmers monitor crops and fields using AI, while AyaSpeech is an end-to-end speech-to-speech solution that enables communication in local African languages. The company also plans to use the capital to hire new talent and enhance its capacity to serve clients globally and locally.
“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.
