Zimbabwean Entrepreneurs Raise $2 Million for AI Data Startup Ocular AI

Zimbabwean entrepreneurs Michael Moyo and Louis Murerwa have raised $2 million in pre-seed funding for their artificial intelligence startup, Ocular AI. The round was led by Drive Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures, 1745 Ventures, Orange Collective, MyAsia VC and a group of angel investors.

Building better data for voice AI

Ocular AI develops specialised datasets and evaluation tools that help AI companies train and test advanced models.

The startup began with voice AI, focusing on parts of human conversation that can disappear when speech is converted into a text transcript. These include accents, pauses, interruptions, overlapping speech, tone and timing.

Its datasets capture conversations using separate audio channels for individual speakers. This provides AI developers with more detailed information when training models to understand and respond to natural conversations.

Ocular AI says its customers include leading AI laboratories and Fortune 100 companies. The company has also developed a network of thousands of vetted specialists who contribute expertise to its datasets.

From voice to audiovisual AI

The startup is also expanding beyond voice technology. In September, Ocular AI introduced an audiovisual dataset designed for AI systems that can listen, watch and respond during conversations.

The system records two people during a conversation, with each participant's audio and video captured separately and synchronised. This allows AI developers to analyse what people say as well as how they react while listening.

Ocular AI sees potential for this type of specialised data infrastructure in fields including medicine, law, finance and software engineering, where training AI systems can require expert knowledge.

New research lab planned

Ocular AI plans to use the new funding to expand its research and data operations.

The company is establishing an Applied AI Data Research Lab and developing its Converse benchmark series for evaluating conversational AI systems.

Its first benchmark, Converse-STT, tests how accurately speech-to-text models handle real conversations. This includes interruptions, overlapping speech, accents and natural hesitations.

Moyo serves as Ocular AI's CEO and co-founder, while Murerwa is the company's CTO and co-founder. Murerwa previously worked as a software engineer at Google.

The $2 million investment will support the expansion of Ocular AI's expert network, development of new datasets and research into tools for companies building voice and multimodal AI systems.