Meta today named 12 African startups from Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa as winners of its Llama Impact Accelerator 2025, granting them a combined $200,000 to fuel AI innovation.
The announcement marks the culmination of a highly competitive six-week accelerator program designed to empower startups using Meta’s open-source Llama large language model. The initiative focuses on fostering homegrown solutions to address critical regional challenges in sectors like healthcare, education, agriculture, and public services.
The program, which attracted over 1,400 applications, selected 40 startups to participate. The finale saw Demo Day events held in each of the four participating countries, where 12 winners were chosen, three from each nation.
The $200,000 was allocated in tiers. In each country, the first-place winner received $25,000, the second-place winner $15,000, and the third-place winner $10,000.
Balkissa Ide Siddo, Meta’s Director for Public Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa, lauded the innovators and the program’s collaborative success.
“The Meta Llama Impact Accelerator 2025 has been instrumental in fostering a new wave of AI innovation across Sub-Saharan Africa, in close collaboration with national ministries and local partners,” Siddo said. “We are incredibly proud of the solutions developed by these startups, which demonstrate the immense potential of AI to address critical challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture, public services, and public safety within their communities and beyond.”
The initiative underscores Meta’s strategy of democratizing AI by making its powerful Llama models openly available, enabling local developers and entrepreneurs to build, adapt, and shape technology that serves their unique community needs.
The Winners: A New Generation of African AI Solutions
The 12 winners represent a diverse range of applications, from AI-powered medical records to offline e-learning and agricultural marketplaces.
From Nigeria:
1st Place ($25,000): MARMAR – A pioneering health-tech startup building an AI-native electronic medical record and mobile platform designed to eliminate medication errors in hospitals and homes.
2nd Place ($15,000): Purple Labs – Developing “MediSync,” an advanced AI-powered diagnostic tool aimed at transforming patient care and improving outcomes.
3rd Place ($10,000): DAWN AI Study – An ed-tech solution redefining inclusive learning through an AI-powered platform for early assessment and emotional-cognitive support in classrooms.
From Kenya:
1st Place ($25,000): DPE – A public health startup transforming community health communication by deploying localized, AI-driven messaging campaigns.
2nd Place ($15,000): Esheria Ventures – Addressing legal accessibility, this startup is developing Kenya’s first multilingual “digital paralegal” to provide affordable legal information and support.
3rd Place ($10,000): Neural Labs Africa – This venture aims to bridge critical diagnostic gaps in the healthcare system with its AI-powered teleradiology tools.
From Senegal:
1st Place ($25,000): Kajou – Focused on last-mile education, Kajou delivers offline, AI-powered e-learning modules for community health workers through its kSANTÉ platform.
2nd Place ($15,000): SamaCoach – A wellness platform promoting public health by offering AI-driven fitness and personalized wellness programs to a wider audience.
3rd Place ($10,000): LOOKA Research – A market intelligence platform using AI to bridge Africa’s significant data gap, providing crucial insights for businesses and organizations.
From South Africa:
1st Place ($25,000): eFama – An agri-tech marketplace that connects small-scale farmers directly with buyers, using an AI-powered engine to ensure fair pricing and logistics.
2nd Place ($15,000): CatalyzU – A workforce development startup that uses AI to align employee skills and corporate training programs with specific business goals.
3rd Place ($10,000): Four Minute Medicine – An innovative platform for healthcare training that utilizes microlearning and AI simulations to reduce medical errors.
Beyond the Prize: What’s Next for the Innovators
The journey for these startups is far from over. The four first-place winners; MARMAR, DPE, Kajou, and eFama have earned a coveted spot at the upcoming AI Summit 2025 in Dubai. There, they will pitch their solutions on a global stage, competing for an additional regional funding pool of up to $100,000.
Furthermore, Meta has committed to providing all 40 startups that participated in the accelerator, not just the 12 winners, with six months of comprehensive post-program support. This includes ongoing business advisory, technical assistance, access to Meta’s AI tools, and crucial linkages to a network of investors and industry experts to help them refine their products and scale their impact.
This initiative, run in partnership with national innovation agencies like Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), signals a powerful endorsement of the continent’s burgeoning AI ecosystem. As these 12 startups move to the next phase of their growth, they carry not just vital seed funding, but also the validation and support of a global tech leader, positioning them to make a tangible impact on the future of Africa.
