Ghanaian AI Startup Understands Pidgin, Twi, and French

Asking your computer a business question in Pidgin or Twi might sound futuristic, but for thousands of African merchants, it's becoming reality.

Simeone Nortey noticed a problem while working as a software developer in Ghana. His marketing colleagues constantly needed data insights, but getting answers meant navigating complex databases or waiting for engineers to run queries.

That frustration led him and co-founder Isaac Sarfo to launch Papermap.ai in July 2025. The platform lets business owners ask questions about their data in natural language, including Pidgin, Twi, and French, without writing a single line of code.

"I can ask it a question in Twi, and it will act as a data analyst and pull the data I'm looking for," Sarfo explains. The AI generates the code behind the scenes, retrieves the information, and returns charts or reports in real time.

The startup initially focused on inventory management but pivoted when the founders realized most African businesses struggle with multiple disconnected data streams. Payment systems, user databases, advertising metrics, and operational data rarely connect cleanly.

Traditional analytics tools require expensive engineering teams and technical expertise many African startups can't afford. In some African countries, broadband alone consumes 44% of monthly income, and fewer than 5% of young people have advanced data training.

Papermap takes a different approach for different markets. In the US, it targets growth-stage companies earning between $10 million and $100 million in revenue, businesses too large for spreadsheets but unable to justify six-figure data teams.

In Africa, the company partners with platforms that already serve thousands of merchants. In Ghana, Papermap works with VDL Fulfillment, which serves over 5,000 merchants who can now ask questions like "How many orders failed today?" directly within the platform.

In Nigeria, the startup partners with fintech company Wallets to help merchants forecast revenue and access credit. A healthtech partnership with DoktorConnect aims to let patients query their own health data before doctor visits.

The Ripple Effect

Sarfo believes this approach mirrors how mobile money transformed African finance by bypassing traditional banking infrastructure. Similarly, AI-powered analytics could help businesses skip the expensive technical stacks that dominate Western markets.

The startup is building a WhatsApp connector that lets business owners text simple questions like "How much money did we make this week?" The AI handles the complex work behind the scenes and returns actionable answers without dashboards or spreadsheets.

Unlike black-box AI systems, Papermap shows users exactly which tables it accessed and what code it wrote. Sarfo calls it a "glass box" approach that builds trust while democratizing data access.

The timing matters. Over 80% of global data has been generated in just the past few years, but the tools to analyze it remain out of reach for most African businesses.

By meeting users in their own languages and through familiar platforms like WhatsApp, Papermap is making advanced analytics available to merchants who were previously locked out, one natural language question at a time.