Kenyan-based startup KOSA AI, an automated responsible AI systems platform, has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round that will help it grow.
The startup has raised the pre-seed funding round led by EchoVC Partners and also including APX, Dale Matthias, Fineday Ventures, TheContinent Venture Partners, and Arch Capital.
“We view KOSA as a multi-vertical, layered approach to participating in the AI sector. Our investment thesis is centered on backing two exceptional founders, tackling a difficult – yet inevitable – problem; in a massive opportunity set,” EchoVC said in a statement.
KOSA AI, founded by Layla Li and Sonali Sanghrajka in Nairobi, aims to enable healthcare, HR, credit and risk, and insurance organizations to build and use new and more inclusive technologies.
With more and more companies across the world increasingly adopting AI solutions, one of the challenges to enterprise AI adoption is the limited in-house expertise to build and develop AI models and manage data complexities thus AI bias.
AI bias, also known as machine learning bias, is a phenomenon that occurs when an algorithm produces results that are systemically prejudiced due to erroneous assumptions in the machine learning process.
KOSA AI helps solve this challenge by first, helping enterprises to detect, audit, and explain bias in their AI models and second, implementing corrective steps to address or mitigate the bias. The startup can also support the organization in monitoring their AI models post-deployment in case of any drift towards bias.
