Democratic Republic of Congo–based startup Yamify has secured $100,000 in pre-seed funding from Felix Anane, an early investor in Paystack, to accelerate the rollout of its flagship AI infrastructure platform. The company specializes in helping freelancers, startups, and agencies deploy AI tools on both local and global cloud servers with minimal technical overhead. Yamify is now seeking an additional $100,000 to close its pre-seed round.
Launching the Model Context Protocol
The fresh funding will support the launch of Yamify’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) feature, which allows users to describe the AI tool they want in a chat interface and have it provisioned instantly. The solution is aimed at bypassing the complexity and delays often associated with traditional cloud deployments. With MCP, users can spin up open-source AI tools — from chatbots to automation agents — in minutes rather than days.
Addressing Africa’s Cloud Infrastructure Gap
Most cloud AI infrastructure globally is designed for enterprise teams in the United States or Europe, often priced in U.S. dollars and requiring in-house cloud engineering expertise. For Africa’s growing yet cost-sensitive developer market, this model can be prohibitive. Yamify is betting that with one-click access to open-source AI tools, billed in local currencies and hosted on GPU clusters in African data centres, it can dramatically lower barriers to AI adoption.
An “App Store” for AI with the Server Room Included
Founded in 2024 by Luc Okalobé, a former cloud engineer at TikTok and Salesforce, Yamify offers an AI infrastructure platform that operates like an app store for AI applications but bundles the necessary GPU computing resources. Its GPU-powered clusters, known as “YAMs,” are hosted in Nigeria, Congo, and South Africa, with global cloud providers serving as backup. Instead of paying $20-a-month for software-as-a-service licences, users can run unrestricted open-source editions and pay through local payment systems such as naira, M-Pesa, or MTN MoMo.
Community-Led AI Infrastructure
“Africa should not wait to be included in the AI wave – we should build it,” said Okalobé. He emphasized Yamify’s belief in community-led AI infrastructure designed for African needs but capable of serving global markets. The startup’s grassroots go-to-market strategy focuses on embedding within hackathons, developer communities, and universities rather than pursuing large enterprise contracts.
Positioning in a Competitive Landscape
Yamify is part of a rising wave of African AI infrastructure startups, joining the likes of YC-backed Cerebrium, which has raised $8.5 million to serve enterprise AI model training needs. While Cerebrium targets scalable enterprise platforms, Yamify’s developer-first model prioritizes accessibility and community engagement. Globally, the company faces competition from Lambda, CoreWeave, and hyperscalers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Early Traction and Beta Rollout
The company entered private beta in July 2025 and has already drawn interest from developers, fintech firms, and digital agencies in Lagos, Kinshasa, Brazzaville, and Johannesburg. More than 1,500 developers and startups — including Y Combinator–backed Vaultpay.io — are on its waitlist. Yamify’s paid plans start at $15 per month for individuals and $500 per year for agencies, with free tiers available for testing and experimentation.
Cost Efficiency as a Differentiator
Okalobé attributes Yamify’s cost advantage to the team’s expertise in cloud cost optimization, leveraging open-source infrastructure like Kubernetes and employing automatic shutdown of idle workloads. “Hyperscalers don’t turn things off for you. We do,” he said. This approach helps keep operational expenses low for customers while maximizing server efficiency.
Over the next six months, Yamify aims to onboard 100,000 users, with a longer-term goal of reaching $1 million in annual revenue and becoming the go-to AI infrastructure layer for Africa’s emerging startups. For Okalobé, however, success is measured less by revenue and more by impact. “If developers are telling others, ‘Yamify helped me launch this,’ then we’ve already won,” he said.