Mzxit AI develops data-labelling platform to support AI adoption in emerging markets

The Johannesburg-based startup converts unstructured business data into AI-ready datasets for fintech, retail and agriculture. Pilot projects are underway as the company prepares regional expansion in 2026.

South African startup Mzxit AI, founded in 2022, is building data-labelling and structuring technology aimed at accelerating AI deployment in emerging markets. Headquartered in Johannesburg and led by founder Samuel Ngobeni, the company develops tools that transform unstructured operational information, such as transaction histories, stock records and agricultural datasets, into formats suitable for machine learning, automation and analytics.

Ngobeni says many African businesses are digitising rapidly but still lack organised and annotated data, which remains a barrier to adopting AI systems. While major cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud and Databricks provide sophisticated processing environments, they generally require clean, labelled data inputs. Mzxit AI instead focuses on contextual data preparation adapted to African markets, incorporating regional languages, payment behaviours, agricultural inputs and retail characteristics.

The startup has been bootstrapped to date and has built an internal automation pipeline to support large-scale labelling. It has begun pilot projects with organisations in fintech and retail, with early users applying the technology to fraud monitoring, pricing analysis and customer information management. According to Ngobeni, demand has been steady among data-intensive businesses.

Mzxit AI currently operates in South Africa, serving clients primarily in fintech, agriculture and retail. Expansion into Kenya and Nigeria is targeted for 2026, with an emphasis on financial services and logistics. The company offers a usage-based SaaS model, charging per labelled dataset or API call, and provides enterprise agreements for large-scale deployments.