Karim Beguir started the artificial intelligence start-up InstaDeep in Tunisia in 2014 with just two computers and $2,000.
By 2023, it was an international enterprise bought by the German laboratory BioNTech for $700 million.
“For the first time, we saw that a start-up started in Africa with very limited resources could become a major international player,” the French-Tunisian CEO, who founded the company with Tunisian self-taught IT enthusiast Zohra Slim . he told AFP.
It gives young Africans the “hope to be part of tomorrow’s innovation and technology,” he said.
InstaDeep specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) decision making that helps businesses develop applications to optimize cost and efficiency.
It made a name for itself at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic by creating a system with BioNTech — which developed one of the first Covid vaccines — to detect dangerous variants “on average two months before they are reported”, according to data published in Scientific periodically.
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InstaDeep put “Tunisia and Africa on the map (in artificial intelligence). It showed that this kind of story was possible,” added Beguir, 47, who is now CEO of the London-based company.
“At the time, when I said we were going to do things at the level of the big boys like Meta, Google, DeepMind and others, everyone laughed in our faces,” Beguir said of his initial launch.
In addition to researching personalized cancer vaccines with BioNTech, InstaDeep is working on projects to fully automate routing for Germany’s national railways, improve operations management at Frankfurt Airport, and predict cricket invasions in Africa.
The company claims it is “already profitable” with sales of more than 10 million euros ($11 million), although the company did not want to disclose the exact figure.
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InstaDeep has grown from 60 employees in 2018 to 350 employees across Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.
It has offices in Tunis, Lagos, Cape Town and Kigali, along with London, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, Boston and San Francisco.
“Thanks to the movement we helped start, young Africans can hope to be part of tomorrow’s innovation and technology, and especially artificial intelligence, which is the technology of our generation,” said Beguir.
He said AI offers an opportunity for African economies to move beyond simply exporting fuel and minerals and into higher value-added activities.
“Selling raw natural resources is not enough. We really need to create things with much greater added value,” he said.
Beguir grew up in the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine before studying in France and then the United States.
He went on to work in financial engineering for major US players such as JPMorgan and Bank of America, before embarking on entrepreneurship in Africa.
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Senegalese AI teacher and researcher Seydina Ndiaye, one of 38 experts selected by the UN to form an AI think tank, said Africa needs to get more involved in AI development because otherwise “the biggest threat is colonization by artificial intelligence”.
Experts have regularly pointed out gender and race biases in models designed by big tech companies.
“If young Africans develop apps for African communities, you’re much less likely to see bias against those populations than if they were developed in Silicon Valley or Asia,” said InstaDeep’s Beguir.
When can Africa expect to see other AI champions emerge?
“If we can channel this live force into high-level innovation, I’d say we’ll have 10 InstaDeeps in 10 years,” Beguir predicted, provided we resolve obstacles like freedom of movement for researchers across the continent.
“Crazy as it may seem, in some cases it is easier for a young African with technological skills to come and work in France than to go to another African country,” he warned.
Source: AFP