Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025
Rahel Boon-Dejene is the founder of R&D Group, a leading Ethiopian enterprise committed to advancing the global business services sector through innovative, technology-driven solutions. With over 15 years of experience, the company has established itself as a trusted partner in entrepreneurship support, outsourcing, and digital solutions.
“It’s not by design; it’s by neglect. Because technology companies fail to train their data to be as inclusive as possible—especially data for countries in Africa, which are fully neglected.” — Rahel Boon-Dejene
Contact
Rahel Boon-Dejene, founder, R & D Group (Netherlands)
Website: randd-group.com
Pitch Summary
Rahel Boon-Dejene, founder of R&D Group, highlights biases in AI and device access, noting that lighter-skinned users can unlock devices more easily because of non-inclusive training data. They argue that African data is underrepresented online, leading to systems optimised for white-skinned users. Their mission is to bring African talent into the digital space by enabling accessible data annotation to create inclusive AI datasets. They partner with organisations and governments to build open, continent-specific datasets and connect smaller AI companies with Ethiopian and broader African annotators. Their platform, informed by 14 years of experience, including work acquired by Sportradar, spans sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate. They have secured $6M from the Mastercard Foundation to train 25,000 Ethiopians, prioritising women and people with disabilities. They seek partners and $4M in additional funding to build an accessible AI platform that makes Africa a producer, not just a consumer, of AI solutions.
Pitch Video