Yamify Raises $100K to Launch AI Cloud Service for African Developers

STARTUP VENTURE CAPITALAugust 13, 2025 at 9:25 AM UTC

TLDR

DR Congo-based AI infrastructure startup Yamify has raised $100,000 in pre-seed funding from Felix Anane, an early Paystack investor
Yamify provides GPU-powered cloud clusters hosted in African data centres and billed in local currencies
The startup is in private beta with over 1,500 developers and startups on its waitlist, including Vaultpay.io (YC 2023)

DR Congo-based AI infrastructure startup Yamify has raised $100,000 in pre-seed funding from Felix Anane, an early Paystack investor, to launch its flagship Managed Cloud Prototypes (MCP) feature. MCP lets users describe the AI tool they want in a chat window and have it provisioned instantly. The company is seeking an additional $100,000 to close the round.

Founded in 2024 by ex-TikTok and Salesforce engineer Luc Okalobé, Yamify provides GPU-powered cloud clusters hosted in African data centres and billed in local currencies, enabling freelancers, startups, and agencies to deploy open-source AI tools without in-house cloud teams. Its platform operates like an AI app store, offering chatbots, automation agents, video generators, and language models.

The startup is in private beta with over 1,500 developers and startups on its waitlist, including Vaultpay.io (YC 2023). Paid plans start at $15/month for individuals and $500/year for agencies. Yamify’s goal is to onboard 100,000 users within six months and establish itself as Africa’s default AI infrastructure layer.

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Key Takeaways

Yamify is betting on localised AI infrastructure to serve Africa’s fast-growing but cost-sensitive developer ecosystem. By combining African-hosted GPU clusters, local currency billing, and open-source AI tools, it aims to cut deployment times from days to minutes and avoid the overhead of traditional cloud services. Unlike enterprise-focused players such as YC-backed Cerebrium, Yamify’s grassroots go-to-market strategy focuses on hackathons, developer groups, and universities. Its competitive edge lies in cost optimisation—automatically shutting down idle workloads—and regulatory localisation through partnerships with mobile money providers. If Yamify hits its adoption targets, it could position itself as the go-to AI infrastructure for the next generation of African startups, while offering a credible regional alternative to hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure in AI deployment.

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