InvestingInAfricans
An initiative by Humanity Solutions · The Hague

Where African tech builders, partners and investors learn together about shared ownership.

We support African AI, robotics and digital builders, and talk with patient investors about shared ownership and circular talent flows. No fees, no hype—we start with a human conversation.

Who are you? Choose a track to explore

I'm African talent Builders in AI, robotics and digital storytelling, on the continent or in the diaspora, seeking co-ownership rather than body-shopping. I'm an investor Family offices, angels and stewards who value local roots, shared governance and durable enterprises over forced exits.

Would you rather look at the evidence first? Open the data explorer · Why Africa, why now ↓

Two-way: builders, capital and know-how travel back and forth between Africa’s hubs and the world’s financial capitals, The Hague among them. This is what we work toward.

Select a country to open it in the data explorer. The routes illustrate an idea; they are not data.

Why Africa, why now

By 2050, about one in four people on Earth will be African.

Humanity began in Africa, and much of humanity’s future will be lived there. About 1.5 billion people call the continent home today. United Nations projections point to nearly 2.5 billion by 2050 and around 3.8 billion by 2100, when more than a third of all people, and almost half of the world’s young, could be African. Few facts will shape this century more.

Want to build or invest this way?

Introduce yourself Sources for every figure ↓
Check it yourself

Look before you write

Four free tools to test our ideas against open data and published research. They run in your browser and set no cookies.

Data explorerMap, rank and chart 28 World Bank indicators for 54 African countries, from internet use to remittances to researchers.Open the explorer → Money corridorsSee what it costs to send money home, country by country, and how much of it stays with the family.Compare the costs → Ownership patternsFive ways to hold a company, compared in plain language, with questions to take to your own advisers.Compare the patterns → Research library51 papers, datasets, communities and policies, filterable by what you build or back.Browse the library →

How it works

You introduce yourself, we read it with care, and where there is a genuine alignment of craft and values, we suggest a next step: an introduction for talent, a conversation and research for investors.

  1. Introduce yourself

    Tell us who you are, where you are based, and what you want to build or explore in the form below.

  2. We read with care

    Every note is read by a human at Humanity Solutions—never scored by an algorithm. We reply when we see a strong fit.

  3. Conversation first

    We hold an unhurried conversation about your craft, governance expectations, and how you view local stewardship.

  4. Warm introductions (talent and talent-side organisations)

    Only when both sides explicitly consent do we share contact details and make a warm, direct introduction.

Plain-spoken scope & boundaries

What we do

Truthfulness builds trust faster than marketing polish. Before you write to us, here is our exact institutional scope.

What Investing In Africans does

  • A human initiative for talent introductions, conversations and research operated by Humanity Solutions (KvK 71110178, The Hague).
  • Completely free of charge: we charge no finder's fees, no carry, no retainers, and no commissions to either builders or investors.
  • Focused on three high-leverage domains: human-centric AI & language tech, locally repairable robotics & hardware, and dignified digital storytelling.
  • Privacy-first: zero analytics trackers, zero cookies, and strict double opt-in before any talent introduction; investor-side contacts are an interest list with no introductions.

How we work

  • Direct and fair: we work with people directly and take no share of anyone's income.
  • Research-led: we study the Relational Visa concept and point you to qualified advisers for immigration questions.
  • Careful and selective: we read every note personally and suggest an introduction only where there is a genuine fit.

We offer free conversations and research. We hold no AFM licence and do not arrange investments; you decide with your own advisers.

Your track

Talent track

For African builders

We are looking for African technologists, engineers and communicators—on the continent or in the diaspora—who want to build durable technology that serves people and places, with shared ownership of what they create.

AI & machine learning

AI that supports human judgement, low-resource African languages, and community-owned datasets rather than extractive data labelling.

Research inspiration: Masakhane NLP (Nekoto et al., 2020) · Lelapa AI · Data-centric local AI.

Robotics & engineering

Frugal, locally repairable hardware, agro-processing automation, micro-grid energy systems, and open-science scientific instruments.

Research inspiration: TReND in Africa (Baden et al., 2015) · African Robotics Network (AFRON).

Marketing & storytelling

Communicators who put connection, narrative sovereignty, dignity and depth ahead of algorithmic outrage and attention harvesting.

Research inspiration: Africa No Filter (Moky Makura) · Constructive & restorative narratives.

Introduce yourself as talent See where we focus ↓
Investor track

For investors: start with a conversation

We welcome investors who prefer shared ownership and local governance to extraction. We keep your interest on file, offer conversations about steward-ownership and shared governance, and share our research. We do not make investor introductions. All of this is free.

We offer free conversations and research. We hold no AFM licence and do not arrange investments; you decide with your own advisers.

Introduce yourself as investor See where we focus ↓

  • Steward ownership & shared governance

    We favour governance where voting control stays with active local stewards and no one is pushed towards a forced offshore sale.

  • High-trust relational corridors

    Institutional economics shows that mutual trust dramatically lowers monitoring and transaction costs across borders (Ostrom, 1990).

  • People and places first

    We look at how capital strengthens local roots, technical capacity and two-way brain circulation between Europe and Africa.

Where we focus

Three domains, one principle: builders keep a real stake

How a venture is owned shapes who keeps the know-how and whether talent has to leave home to build something of their own. Pick a domain to see what we look for.

Domain focus: what non-extractive building looks like in practice

Select a domain to see the research problems we care about and how builders & investors collaborate.

The extractive status quo

Low-wage data labelling & linguistic erasure

Thousands of African languages are barely represented in mainstream AI training data, while African workers are often hired only as low-paid content moderators or data annotators.

The co-ownership path

Participatory NLP & sovereign vertical models

Inspired by grassroots research networks like Masakhane, we connect builders creating speech, health, legal and agricultural AI with people who want dataset know-how to stay in African hands.

Research anchor

Nekoto et al. (2020), EMNLP Findings

"Participatory Research for Low-resourced Machine Translation: A Case Study in African Languages." A case study of community-led dataset building.

Further reading ↓ Researchers per million people, by country →
Optional 60-second check · Zero data stored until you submit

Check your alignment before introducing yourself

Because we read every note personally and make introductions selectively, use this quick interactive check to see if our philosophy matches what you are looking for. If it does, you can carry your selected principles straight into your introduction form.

Step 1: Which perspective describes you?
Step 2: Tick the principles you share
Why this matters

Voting control and IP should remain rooted with active builders and local communities.

Why this matters

We prefer durable enterprises built over time to a quick sale.

Why this matters

International mobility should keep the road home open so capital and know-how move both ways.

Why this matters

AI, hardware and storytelling should strengthen human judgement rather than harvest attention.

0 of 4 alignment principles selected

Select the principles above that match how you work. Even 2 or 3 shared principles make for a worthwhile introductory conversation.

Introduce yourself

A few lines are enough, and it is free. A person reads every introduction; when we see a fit, we email you to set a time for a conversation.

Choose your path

African talent

City or country only, no home address.

Please don't share sensitive data or details about other people.

We use your details only to reply to your request (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)). Controller: Humanity Solutions (KvK 71110178). See privacy.

For organisations · free Find a fit for your organisation

Good collaborations often start with one thoughtful introduction. If your organisation works with African talent, or wants to support it, tell us a little about it.

  1. Tell us about your organisation: what you do, where, and what you seek and offer.
  2. Wilfried suggests a fit: a person, not an algorithm, looks for a genuine overlap and explains why.
  3. Both sides say yes: nothing is shared until both organisations agree.
  4. Then you talk: a direct, unhurried conversation between the two of you.

Find a fit is for practitioners, organisations and nonprofits.

Find a fit is open to talent-side organisations. Investor-side organisations join our interest list for now. Suggestions are made privately and are never published. We offer free conversations and research. We hold no AFM licence and do not arrange investments; you decide with your own advisers.

About your organisation

Domains

Please describe the organisation only: no personal profiles, CVs or details about individuals.

Please use a role or work address (e.g. team@), not a personal one.

We use these details only to reply and, for talent-side organisations, to look for a fit (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)). Controller: Humanity Solutions (KvK 71110178). See privacy.

Our view & research foundation

Open any section below to explore our circular migration thesis, philosophical framework, and further reading.

Why circulation, not drain Respectful migration & the circular path

A border is not only a line on a map. Development economists have long shown that when high-skilled mobility is structured as a two-way corridor rather than a one-way exit, both origin and destination communities thrive (Saxenian, 2006; Clemens, 2015).

Brain circulation, not brain drain

Go out to learn, to earn and to grow, and keep the road home open. Empirical research on "New Argonauts" (Saxenian, 2006) shows that diaspora technologists who retain equity and relationships at home become the primary bridge for venture formation, technology transfer and institutional trust.

Relational Visa & Global Skill Partnerships

Traditional visas ask: "Do you have money?" Building on research into Global Skill Partnerships (Clemens, 2015), we explore a Relational Visa model that asks: "Do you have a relationship?" Communities, guilds or companies could one day sponsor professionals they know for circular stays. It isn't available today, and we don't offer visa or immigration services.

Visit RespectfulMigration.org (opens in a new tab)
Philosophy · 5-minute read From extraction to coherent pluralism

Much of the modern economy was built on extraction: of labour, resources and talent (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). We reject both the "Global Mall" that treats people as interchangeable units of labour, and the "Fortress State" that fears exchange.

Inspired by Summanitism, African relational ethics (Ubuntu), and Elinor Ostrom's commons governance, we believe in relational sovereignty: trust corridors where capital circulates like blood rather than serving as a tool of dominion.

Explore the Summanitism framework (opens in a new tab)

Reciprocity

Power and capital exercised with regard for mutual wellbeing and dignity.

Natism (roots)

Honouring local lineage, linguistic heritage, community and place.

Nitism (reach)

Continual renewal, scientific curiosity, growth and openness to the world.

Coherence

Pluralism without fragmentation; differences welcomed, shared purpose sought.

Further reading · 9 sources Ideas we draw on

These published works shaped how we think about ownership, mobility and talent. They inform our approach; they are not evidence of outcomes for anyone we introduce.

1. Brain Circulation & Diaspora Networks

Saxenian, A. (2006) & Docquier & Rapoport (2012)

AnnaLee Saxenian, The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press); Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature 50(3): 681–730.

2. Respectful Mobility & Skill Partnerships

Clemens, M. A. (2015) · Center for Global Development

Michael A. Clemens, "Global Skill Partnerships: A Proposal for Technical Training in a Mobile World," IZA Journal of Labor Policy 4(2). Provides the economic architecture for mutual-benefit circular training and mobility corridors.

3. Participatory African AI & NLP

Nekoto, W. et al. / Masakhane Collective (2020)

"Participatory Research for Low-resourced Machine Translation: A Case Study in African Languages," Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2020.

4. Open hardware

Baden, T. et al. (2015)

T. Baden et al., "Open Labware: 3-D Printing Your Own Lab Equipment," PLOS Biology (TReND in Africa).

5. Institutional Economics & Commons Governance

Ostrom, E. (1990) & Acemoglu, D. & Robinson, J. A. (2012)

Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge University Press) and Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail. Establish why inclusive, self-governing institutions outperform both extractive monopolies and distant bureaucratic control.

6. Africa’s demographic future

United Nations (2024) · Pew Research Center (2026)

UN DESA, World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant); Pew Research Center, “5 facts about Africa’s population growth” (19 May 2026). Source of the population, age and fertility figures above. Projections, not certainties.

7. Slavery, colonisation and their legacies

SlaveVoyages · Nunn (2008) · Acemoglu, Johnson & Robinson (2001)

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database estimates (slavevoyages.org); Nathan Nunn, “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trades,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(1): 139–176; Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development,” American Economic Review 91(5): 1369–1401; speech by King Willem-Alexander, Amsterdam, 1 July 2023.

8. Trade, value and capital flight

UNCTAD (2020, 2025) · IEA (2022) · USGS (2026)

UNCTAD, Economic Development in Africa Report 2020: Tackling Illicit Financial Flows and The State of Commodity Dependence 2025; IEA, Africa Energy Outlook 2022; USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Cobalt; VOICE Network, Cocoa Barometer.

9. Human diversity, fair mobility and digital work

Tishkoff et al. (2009) · Ethnologue · WHO (2023) · TIME (2023)

Sarah A. Tishkoff et al., “The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans,” Science 324(5930): 1035–1044; Ethnologue: Languages of the World (SIL International); WHO, Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2023; Billy Perrigo, “OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour,” TIME, 18 January 2023.