Cassava and Vambo AI Launch African-Led AI Models

Johannesburg, South Africa, 12 June 2025 – Cassava Technologies, a global technology leader of African heritage, and Vambo AI, a frontier African AI startup, have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to drive the development and deployment of cutting-edge African artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that cater to the continent's diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic landscapes.

The strategic collaboration will see Vambo AI leveraging Cassava’s secure, high-performance AI Factory, equipped with NVIDIA GPU-based supercomputers, to accelerate the creation and distribution of African-trained language models and related AI systems. 

“This is more than a partnership, it’s a continental milestone,” said Chido Dzinotyiwei, Co-founder and CEO of Vambo AI. “Together with Cassava Technologies, we are setting the standard for what it means to build AI that truly reflects and serves Africa. We’re not just building tools, we’re building the future.”

At the heart of this collaboration is a family of open-source large language models purpose-built for African languages and contexts. The series is designed to enable scalable innovation across various industries, including education, health, government, fintech, and the creative sector. It is also intended to empower developers, researchers, and enterprises to build inclusive, culturally intelligent AI applications.

“Cassava is pleased to partner with Vambo AI, an African startup making an incredible contribution to the continent’s AI ecosystem. Our advanced compute power and AI capabilities, combined with Vambo AI’s goal of enabling the first Africa-native large language model series, reflect both organisations’ commitment to Africa’s digital advancement, and to positioning the continent as a key contributor to global AI innovation,” said Ahmed El Beheiry, CEO of Cassava Intelligence.

The collaboration also promises to be a breakthrough for the open-source AI community, setting a precedent for responsible, transparent, and collaborative development. With the Jua Series being released under a permissive license, African developers and researchers will be able to access foundational tools that reflect their realities and power contextually relevant innovation.

This agreement is one of the most significant announcements to follow the April 2025 Global AI Summit on Africa, underscoring the momentum behind locally driven, globally competitive AI ecosystems. Cassava and Vambo AI’s mutual commitment to building the infrastructure and intelligence to power Africa's digital and economic transformation, reflects a growing consensus that African technologies are playing an essential role in Africa’s future, and collaboration is the fastest path forward. 

 About Vambo AI

Vambo AI is a multilingual generative AI company pioneering language technology for Africa. Its platform supports translation, transcription, content generation, and intelligent search across over 44 African and 20 global languages. Vambo AI’s mission is to foster inclusion and innovation by enabling access to AI tools that reflect Africa’s linguistic and cultural diversity. Through developer APIs, enterprise solutions and community-led initiatives, Vambo AI is empowering businesses, institutions and individuals to build contextually relevant AI applications for the continent and beyond.

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About Cassava Technologies

Cassava Technologies is a?global?technology leader of African heritage providing a vertically integrated ecosystem of digital services and infrastructure enabling digital transformation. Headquartered in the UK, Cassava has a presence across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the United States of America. Through its business units, namely, Cassava AI, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Liquid C2, Africa Data Centres, and Sasai Fintech, the company provides its customers' products and services in 94 countries. These solutions drive the company's ambition of establishing itself as a leading global technology company of African heritage.  https://www.cassavatechnologies.com/??