An initiative of Humanity Solutions · The Hague
Where African tech talent meets investors who build together
We connect African AI, robotics and digital builders with patient investors who favour shared ownership and circular talent flows over extraction. No fees, no hype. We start with a human conversation.
Would you rather look at the evidence first? Open the data explorer.
Two-way: builders go out to learn and earn, and capital, know-how and people can come back. This is what we work toward.
Select a country to open it in the data explorer. The routes are an illustration of an idea, not data.
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 explorer
Map, rank and chart 28 World Bank indicators for 54 African countries, from internet use to remittances to researchers.
-
Money corridors
See what it costs to send money home, country by country, and how much of it stays with the family.
-
Ownership patterns
Five ways to hold a company, compared in plain language, with questions to take to your own advisers.
-
Research library
51 papers, datasets, communities and policies, filterable by what you build or back.
How it works
You introduce yourself, we read it with care, and if there is a genuine alignment of craft and values, we introduce you to someone on the other side.
Introduce yourself
Tell us who you are, where you are based, and what you want to build or back in the form below.
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.
Conversation first
We hold an unhurried conversation about your craft, governance expectations, and how you view local stewardship.
Warm introductions
Only when both sides explicitly consent do we share contact details and make a warm, direct introduction.
What we are, and what we are not
Truthfulness builds trust faster than marketing polish. Before you write to us, here is our exact scope.
What Investing In Africans is
- A human introduction initiative 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 and language tech, locally repairable robotics and hardware, and dignified digital storytelling.
- Privacy-first: no analytics trackers, no cookies, and a strict double opt-in before any introduction is made.
What Investing In Africans is not
- Not a licensed financial intermediary or fund: we do not offer, arrange, or advise on financial products and are not licensed by the Dutch AFM.
- Not an outsourcing or staffing agency: we do not broker low-cost remote labour or take a cut of anyone's wages.
- Not a visa agency: while we research the Relational Visa concept, we do not offer immigration advice or sponsor visas.
- Not a volume deal-flow list: we publish no pitch decks and cannot guarantee a match for every submission.
Your track
Two ways in, one principle
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 and 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.
Robotics and 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 and storytelling
Communicators who put connection, narrative sovereignty, dignity and depth ahead of algorithmic outrage and attention harvesting. Research inspiration: Africa No Filter, constructive and restorative narratives.
For investors: start with a conversation
We look for investors who prefer shared ownership and local governance to extraction. Today we offer a conversation. We learn what you want to back, and when both sides agree, we introduce you to African builders. We charge no fees and publish no deal flow.
Investing In Africans makes introductions between people. It does not offer, arrange or advise on investments or financial products and is not licensed by the AFM. Any investment decision is yours, made with your own advisers, and investments can lose value.
Steward ownership and structured returns
We favour governance where voting control stays with active local stewards while investors earn fair, capped or revenue-based returns without forcing an offshore flip.
High-trust relational corridors
Institutional economics shows that mutual trust dramatically lowers monitoring and transaction costs across borders (Ostrom, 1990).
People and places, alongside the return
We look at how capital strengthens local roots, technical capacity and two-way brain circulation between Europe and Africa.
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.
The extractive status quo
Low-wage data labelling and 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 and 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), Findings of EMNLP"Participatory Research for Low-resourced Machine Translation: A Case Study in African Languages." A case study of community-led dataset building. Further reading
The extractive status quo
"Graveyards" of imported black-box equipment
In hospitals, universities and farms, imported vendor-locked equipment can sit idle when one proprietary part breaks and spares must come from abroad.
The co-ownership path
Modular, locally repairable mechatronics
We look for embedded-systems engineers and industrial designers building cold-chain solar robotics, post-harvest automation, and diagnostic hardware designed from day one for local fabrication and modular repair.
Research anchor
Baden et al. (2015), PLOS Biology / TReND"Open Labware: 3-D Printing Your Own Lab Equipment." Open, locally made hardware as a route to engineering capacity. Further reading
The extractive status quo
The single story and risk-premium distortion
Stereotypical framing of Africa, narrowly about crisis or poverty, shapes how risk is perceived from outside.
The co-ownership path
High-trust communication and brand equity
When African digital marketers, writers and storytellers co-own the products and media platforms they grow, marketing shifts from clickbait arbitrage to long-term brand equity, cultural nuance, and cross-continental trust.
Research anchor
Africa No FilterAn organisation working to shift stereotypical narratives about Africa. Further reading
Draft your first message
Because we read every note personally, this optional helper gives you a clear starting point. Choose your perspective and the principles you share, then carry the draft into the form. Nothing is stored or sent until you submit.
1. Which perspective describes you?
You can change this at any time.
2. Which domains interest you?
Optional. Pick any that apply.
3. Tick the principles you share
Two or three shared principles make for a worthwhile first conversation.
Your first message
0 of 4 principles selected
Free, and read by a person
Introduce yourself
A few lines are enough, and it is free. We read every introduction and reply when we see a fit.
A person reads it
Never an algorithm, never a scoring model.
Nothing is shared without your yes
We introduce you only when both sides explicitly agree.
Prefer email?
Choose your path
Our view and research foundation
Open any section to explore our circular migration thesis, our philosophical framework, and further reading.
Respectful migration and the circular pathWhy circulation, not drain
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 and 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.
From extraction to coherent pluralismPhilosophy · 5-minute read
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 (opens in a new tab), 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.
- 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.
Ideas we draw onFurther reading · 5 sources
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.
- Brain circulation and diaspora networks. AnnaLee Saxenian, The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press, 2006); Frédéric Docquier and Hillel Rapoport, "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature 50(3): 681–730 (2012).
- Respectful mobility and skill partnerships. Michael A. Clemens, "Global Skill Partnerships: A Proposal for Technical Training in a Mobile World," IZA Journal of Labor Policy 4(2) (2015). Provides the economic architecture for mutual-benefit circular training and mobility corridors.
- Participatory African AI and NLP. Wilhelmina Nekoto and the Masakhane community, "Participatory Research for Low-resourced Machine Translation: A Case Study in African Languages," Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2020.
- Open hardware. Tom Baden et al., "Open Labware: 3-D Printing Your Own Lab Equipment," PLOS Biology (2015), a TReND in Africa project.
- Institutional economics and commons governance. Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, 1990), and Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail (2012). They establish why inclusive, self-governing institutions outperform both extractive monopolies and distant bureaucratic control.