AI-BO is building a better way to do market research in Africa.
AI-BO is an African market research tool that turns surveys into an engaging, real-time conversation. All through WhatsApp.
We are raising a seed round to build a scalable product (client ordering system, survey → WhatsApp bot automation, automate insights) and expand into the rest of Africa.
🗝 Intro
Africa is a 1.2 billion–person market on the cusp of transformative growth. Businesses and investors recognise this and recognise that Africa is the continent that is going to yield the highest growth in the next 2 decades. However, no one understands Africa. Investing in Africa is perceived as a gamble because of the unstable political systems and lack of reliable information or data about how consumers in Africa operate.
🔬 The case for research:
95% of product launches fail. 90% of small businesses and start-ups fail. 42% of shutdown start-ups that launched a product didn't solve a valid customer problem. (
Because of this, traditional online research techniques used to access consumers don’t work. Don’t take my word for it though....
👇
😭 Market research in Africa is broken...
Research panel %
Market research revenue in Africa accounts for only 2% of the world. It produces less than 1% of global research output. Despite making up 16% of the global population.
Digital research methods are used 3.1x globally than in Africa (40% to 13%). Due to lack of digital forces here, campaign timelines can take as long as 2-4 weeks.
The same research campaign in Africa costs 1x-6x its American counterpart. Using the Big Mac Index to adjust for relative pricing; this works out to 2.3x - 13.5x more for a South African business
Enabling you to successfully launch in new African markets
Yazi is a market research platform that enables growing businesses to make data-driven decisions. Yazi lets you target and retarget a consumer segment that is typically slow and expensive to reach in Africa. Survey (ask questions) and get insights in a day. All through WhatsApp.
Affordable → 50% - 70% cheaper than existing market research players. Yazi will be able to further drop rates as all operations are automated and respondent pool scales
Scalable → Can move into any conversation channel to reach consumers wherever they are.
Accurate → Over 5 types of quality checks to ensure answers are authentic
Access → WhatsApp is the app with the highest penetration in Africa (~96% of internet users in Kenya, SA, Nigeria). (
A 20 question survey typically uses $0.01 of cell data to complete. Often free → subscribe to monthly WhatsApp bundle.
Many Africans possess a distrusting perception of software and online-earning activities. WA means; no need to go somewhere foreign on the internet or download a new app.
WA is sticky, allows frictionless onboarding and refer-ability → don’t need to learn new software and fits into an existing behaviour (comfortable) → fast response speed.
History of previous conversation → build trust with respondent and enrich consumer profiles overtime.
📊 Product
💬 Personalised
Specify audience & use question routing
🔍 Insights
Interactive results dashboard
🛠 Quality data
4 layers of quality checks
🔥 Outcomes
De-risk new product Africa expansion by understanding your target market.
👉 Research more frequently: Cheaper & Faster turnaround time
👉 Reach your target audience: Bigger reach on WhatsApp
👉 Better decisions: Representative audience & accurate data
📈 Why now ??
60% of the population in Africa will be under 24 by 2025, and will be home to 1 in 3 youths (aged 15 to 35) globally by 2050
→Growth in work population and digital adoption. (
32% increased use of data in organisation’s decision-making, from 38%-50% (2018-2020). 5%-23% of revenue on Research & Development is the average spend by the tech sector
→Increasing budget allocated to research and validation. (