NAIROBI, Kenya — iHub, Nairobi's pioneering technology innovation centre, has announced the 18 startups selected for its inaugural AI-focused accelerator programme, in a move that signals the growing maturity of Kenya's artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Each of the selected startups will receive seed funding of KSh 5 million, six months of intensive mentorship, and access to iHub's network of investors, corporates, and international technology partners. The cohort was selected from over 400 applications received from across East Africa.
The Cohort
The selected startups span a diverse range of sectors, including healthcare diagnostics, agricultural yield prediction, legal document automation, and Swahili-language AI models. Several of the founders are alumni of Kenyan and East African universities, reflecting the growing depth of technical talent in the region.
Among the standouts is FarmSense AI, a startup using machine learning to help smallholder farmers predict optimal planting and harvesting windows based on hyperlocal weather data, and MedScan Kenya, which is developing an AI-powered screening tool for tuberculosis using chest X-ray analysis.
"What excites me most about this cohort is that they are building for African problems, in African languages, using African data. That is genuinely new."
— Dr. Nanjira Sambuli, iHub Advisory Board
The demo day for the cohort is scheduled for August 2026, where the startups will pitch to a panel of investors and corporate partners.
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