Africa-focused Yamify launches as “Heroku for AI in Africa,” backed by early Paystack investor

Yamify, a developer-first AI platform that lets freelancers and web agencies spin up AI stacks in under a minute, has launched with backing from an early investor in Paystack. Founded by Luc Okalobé, Yamify is the “Heroku for AI tools in Africa”, and enables freelancers and web agencies to deploy GPU-powered AI tools from local African data centers in under one minute. The company is based in San Francisco, Lagos, Johannesburg, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and was launched with a US$100,000 investment from Felix Anane, an early backer of Paystack. The startup has now opened its seed round, and aims to raise US$500,000 in seed funding. Yamify entered private beta in July 2025 and has already secured early traction with fintechs and web agencies across Lagos, Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Johannesburg, and San Francisco. It now has over 300 users on its waitlist. The funds will be used to launch its Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling users to go from idea to functional AI prototypes rapidly, inspired by platforms like Lovable. Yamify also plans to deploy forward engineers directly into customer organizations to accelerate AI adoption. “Africa should not wait to be included in the AI wave – we should build it. At Yamify, we believe in community-led AI infrastructure made for Africa and the world,” said Okalobé. The post Africa-focused Yamify launches as “Heroku for AI in Africa,” backed by early Paystack investor appeared first on Disrupt Africa .