Zindi is convening Africa’s data scientists to create AI solutions for complex problems.
Founded in 2018, the Cape Town-based startup allows companies, NGOs or government institutions to host online competitions around data-oriented challenges.
Zindi’s platform also coordinates a group of more than 4,000 data scientists based in Africa who can enroll to join a competition, submit their solution sets, move up a leader board and win the challenge — for a cash prize payout.
The highest purse so far has been $12,000, split across the top three data scientists in a competition, according to Zindi co-founder Celina Lee.
Competition hosts receive the results, which they can use to create new products or integrate into their existing systems and platforms.
Digital infrastructure company Liquid Telecom has hosted competitions.