For Funders and Investors
The problem, what is built and measured, the plan to prove the model, and the decisions ahead.
The Team
Nzinga is built by HQ Protocol and GTCX, two teams building sovereign AI and African-led infrastructure.
Venture builder and impact investor. Previously Head of Venture at Founders Factory Africa, founder of Her Quarters, a social capital market for African women founders, and founder of the Impact Investment Exchange South Africa chapter. Earlier, lead investment officer at a major South African investment holding company, after seven years in aerospace and energy finance. 2019 Obama Foundation Leader, Africa.
Economist (UC Berkeley) and Lead Architect of GTCX Protocol, building market infrastructure for African commodities. Previously Design Partner at Dfi, working on regenerative economics.
The Token Premium
AI models read, bill and limit text in tokens. For the same meaning, African languages need more tokens than English. That premium is paid on every query, in cost, capacity and speed.
A tokenizer is fixed into every model trained with it. Its premium is paid for the life of that model.
What Is Built and Measured
Audio upload, payouts through a payment partner, a database and calls. Yoruba and Akan remain above the token target.
The Proof-of-Concept Plan
The plan is twelve weeks. Collect consented, paid voice recordings in one language from about 100 invited members. Turn them into a versioned dataset with a consent record per item. Measurably improve a speech model. License it to one design-partner buyer, with members paid through one real payout rail. Read the full plan: web version or PDF.
The word error rate is reported whatever it is.
Sovereignty Milestones
Sovereignty is measured layer by layer, each with a baseline and a target. Where each layer stands today:
The voice network adds its own indicators, proposed until adopted. Consent records per speaker and withdrawal are built. African hosting, a governance body and the licence income split are not yet in place.
The full scorecard is on the Trust page.
The Business Model
Nzinga is a three-sided system. Each side needs a different promise.
Nzinga's own models use recordings under "Nzinga's models". Better models lift the value of everything else.
Where licence income goes is to be decided. The plan splits it four ways: a member pool, a community fund, operations and Nzinga. No shares or prices are set.
Decisions and Milestones Ahead
To discuss funding or investment, contact the team.