An engineer soldering a circuit board in a workshop
About us

Engineers building technology for the people around us.

Orivanta Labs is a research and development company. We study everyday problems closely, then build the technology to solve them.

Why we started.

Too many of the tools used in African schools, clinics, shops and farms were designed somewhere else. They assume steady power, fast internet and a bank card in every wallet, and they often don't fit.

We set up Orivanta Labs to work the other way round: start with the problem as people actually live it, then reach for whatever solves it, whether that is software, electronics, robotics or a mix of them. We also design for difference from the start: rules, networks and payment systems change from one country to the next, so nothing we build assumes a single market.

We are a research and development company first. Some of what we explore becomes a product, as Orivanta Pay and Orivanta Learn did. Some of it stays in research until it is ready. Over time we want to take the same approach all the way to space technology, so that more of the systems Africa depends on are designed and built here.

Four things we hold ourselves to.

Passion, ownership and useful innovation sound good on a slide. Here is what they mean in practice.

We care about the work

We chose hard problems on purpose. Payments, schooling, farming and health matter to the people around us, and that is what keeps us going when a prototype fails for the tenth time.

Africa should own its technology

A country that imports all of its technology doesn't get much say in how it works. We want African institutions to own their systems, their data and the skills to run them.

Innovation has to be useful

New technology is worth it when it makes something easier, cheaper or newly possible. We use AI, connected devices and satellite data where they do a real job, and leave them out where they don't.

We're straight about progress

Every product is labelled with the stage it is really at. A pilot is a pilot, and research stays research until it has been proven with real users.

How we work

From a real problem to a working product.

Most ideas don't survive the first two steps, and that's how it should be. The ones that do have been tested by the people they're for.

  1. Understand the problem

    We spend time with the people who have it and look closely at how they handle it today, workarounds included.

  2. Prototype

    We build the smallest thing that can answer our biggest question, in software, electronics, mechanics or all three.

  3. Test in the field

    Prototypes go out into real conditions with real users. This is where most of what we learn comes from.

  4. Build and grow

    What works becomes a product. We launch in one market, get it right there, then move into similar ones.

Meet the founders.

Breye and Djine are equal partners in Orivanta Labs and share the same conviction: the continent needs more people building its technology, not only using it.

Close-up of a printed circuit board

Have a problem worth solving?

We work with businesses, institutions and partners who want to build something that lasts. Tell us what you're working on and one of the founders will get back to you.

Contact us [email protected]