Welcome, Amini!
- Founder: Kate Kallot
- Sector: Sustainability
- Location: Nairobi, Kenya
The Opportunity
Africa is the last and biggest emerging market. The continent is home to 65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land with a population that’s set to double to 2.5B by 2050. But Africa’s largely agrarian economy is under threat by a changing climate that’s expected to expose up to 118M people to droughts, food shortages, and extreme heat by 2030—and the region is under-equipped to handle this challenge.
Consider that Africa has just one-eighth the minimum density of weather stations recommended by the World Meteorological Organization. This scarcity of data leads to inaccurate forecasts and puts civilians and supply chains at risk. With climate change driving more frequent and extreme weather events, more and better data is needed to predict environmental trends, enhance operational resilience, and safeguard people and supply chains across the continent.
The Solution
Amini AI was launched against the backdrop of a rapidly growing African population uniquely exposed to climate change impacts. Founded in Nairobi in 2022, Amini is building the single source of truth for verifiable, immutable, and actionable environmental data across the African continent.
Leveraging satellites, existing data sources, and AI / ML, Amini has built a data ingestion engine and proprietary unification protocol that delivers reliable, precise, and unbiased environmental, climate, and vegetative data to public and private sector stakeholders at scale. This data can provide meaningful insights to farmers, governments, corporations, financial institutions, and supply chain operators to drive informed decision-making and sustainable growth.
Amini’s data is already being utilized in crucial functions like climate resilience planning, agricultural insurance risk assessments, and supply chain analysis. Amini AI unlocks solutions previously held back by data deficiency and can serve as a starting point for Africa’s transition to climate-smart agriculture and the development of sustainable supply chains.
Why We’re Backing Amini AI
There are many reasons to be excited about Amini, but for us it starts with the team led by CEO Kate Kallot. Before founding Amini, Kate led NVIDIA’s ecosystem expansion in emerging markets and also created the NVIDIA Emerging Chapters Program dedicated to supporting developers in Africa and beyond. Prior to NVIDIA, Kate led AI/ML teams at Arm and Intel, and has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in AI by TIME magazine.
Kate has surrounded herself with an all-star team that’s motivated to build at the convergence of people and planet. The strength of the Amini team is evident in the company’s early success: Amini has already signed a partnership with the global brand Aon and has received inbound interest from numerous organizations that want to leverage Amini’s data to tap into the African market.
Further, Amini is building in a large and growing market with strong tailwinds. The African data observation market has more demand than any other continent, and the markets for digital climate solutions, earth observation data, and supply chain software are all expanding at a rapid pace.
The problem Amini is tackling is significant and widespread, but we believe it’s the right time and the right team to get the job done. The opportunity for scale and impact is vast.
What’s ahead?
We’re thrilled to partner with Amini alongside Female Founders Fund and existing investors Pale Blue Dot and Superorganism as Kate and team build their core technology, onboard new customers, and make inroads across Africa. Amini has already started to foster a more sustainable, climate-resilient future for the African continent. In the future, Kate foresees a company that will play a meaningful role in Africa’s economic and environmental transformation.
We’re excited to be along for the journey.
Welcome to Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, Amini!
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