Build software
Software development, automation and data analysis. Built quickly with AI, directed and finished by people.
Build what wasn't possible last year.
centaur.africa is an AI development boutique. We build software and companies, and help run them, with AI tools directed by experienced people. Work that once needed a big team and a long timeline, delivered by a small one, quickly, at a price that makes sense.
Artwork: Odilon Redon, Centaurs
The frontier has moved
Every economics student learns the production possibility frontier: the edge of what you can produce with the people, money and time you have. Along that edge, every gain costs you something. Faster means more expensive. Cheaper means worse. More of one thing means less of another.
Technology is what moves the frontier outward, and that's how we see AI. It doesn't just make old work a little quicker. It shifts the whole curve, so the old trade-offs loosen. Software that needed ten people and six months can now be built by a small, experienced team in weeks. Admin that needed a full-time hire can run quietly in the background.
That's what we offer: a bigger set of possibilities for the people we work with.
A diagram showing the frontier of possible speed and quality moving outward, so both can increase at the same cost.
We build, and we help you run
Build companies
Helping founders and companies build, from registration to a company ready to trade and raise. Yams, our platform for founders, is part of how.
Run companies
We take on the running of a company, and run business development campaigns, so you can get on with building.
The old rule was pick two
Fast and cheap usually wasn't good. Good and fast wasn't cheap. AI tools change the maths, but only in the right hands. The people who get the most from AI are experienced ones who decide how to use it, not people told to keep up with it.
That's how we work. Experienced people set the direction, design the system, check the work and own the quality. AI does the heavy lifting in between: drafting code, tests, documents and research at a pace no traditional team could match. You get the speed and the price of automation with the judgement of people who have done this before.
Technology should make people more powerful
A centaur is a person who chooses technology to become more capable. A reverse centaur is a person conscripted to serve a machine, working at its pace and taking the blame for its mistakes.
Most AI is sold to make people cheaper. We build it to make people more powerful: founders who can do what used to need a team, and teams who can do what used to need a company.
How we work
- You decide. We build and draft; you approve. Nothing important happens without your say-so.
- You own what we build. Your code, your data, your documents. If you leave, everything leaves with you.
- People own the quality. Every piece of work is directed and checked by an experienced person.
- Measured in possibility. We count what you can now do, not pages generated or tasks automated.
- Flexibility. We want to build things. If you want something built but you don't have the cash, or if you are doing something for social good, just reach out. We want to help.
Who does the work
centaur.africa is a flexible team of seasoned designers, tinkerers, software developers, founders and operators. Our team has senior experience in AI, blockchain, payments, fintech, intelligence, data analysis, e-commerce, app development, analytics, infrastructure and more. Our team functions more like a cooperative than a company, where everyone takes ownership of the deliverable. We bring in the people each project needs, and an experienced person directs and checks every piece of work.
What would you build if it were easier?
Tell us the software you've been putting off, the company you want to start, or the admin you'd happily never touch again. A 30-minute call is enough to tell you honestly what's now possible, and what it would cost.
Artwork: Rembrandt van Rijn