Novastar, Google launch AI lab to support African startups

Nairobi-based Novastar Ventures has teamed up with Google to launch an Applied AI Lab for African startups and researchers. The lab targets AI solutions in healthcare, agriculture, and education, giving founders access to tools and support typically reserved for Big Tech.

Applications opened July 1 for the lab, which is backed by Google’s AI Futures Fund and supported by Google DeepMind and Google Research. Between five and ten startups and researchers will be selected for the first cohort, with winners announced in September.

Three other Africa-focused venture investors, Ventures Platform, 4DX Ventures, and Norrsken22, will join Novastar in providing mentorship and operational guidance.

Selected startups will receive early access to Google’s most advanced AI models, technical mentorship, Cloud credits, and go-to-market support. Google has also offered potential equity investments and non-dilutive funding for participants, making the lab one of the more comprehensive support structures offered to African AI founders to date.

Steve Beck, co-founder and managing partner at Novastar, said Africa had become one of the world’s most important markets for applied AI, pointing to a different kind of use case emerging from the continent. “Entrepreneurs there are using AI not merely for productivity gains or entertainment, they are solving fundamental problems for everyday people,” he said.

Novastar, founded in 2011, has already backed companies demonstrating exactly that. Penda Health, a Kenyan primary care chain in its portfolio, uses AI-powered clinical support tools to improve diagnosis and treatment decisions at the point of care.

NewGlobe, which partners with governments to deliver standardised education at scale, deploys AI to support teaching and track learning outcomes for millions of children. Agrails, an agri-tech venture, applies AI to help smallholder farmers access climate risk insurance for the first time.

A broader Google bet on Africa’s AI moment

The lab is part of a wider effort by global tech companies to deepen their presence in African AI markets. Through its AI Futures Fund, Google is betting on AI use cases shaped by Africa’s infrastructure gaps, young population, and leapfrogging patterns that have driven unexpected adoption in the past.

Africa’s tech ecosystem has seen global cloud and AI providers accelerate their engagement even as overall venture funding contracted last year alongside the global downturn.

AI-native startups tackling health, agriculture, and education are a particular focus for investors because the problems in those sectors remain acute and large, and because digital solutions in those areas can scale across populations that legacy systems never reached.

For African founders, the lab represents access to something genuinely scarce: frontier AI models, direct technical support from Google DeepMind and Google Research, and the kind of go-to-market guidance that helps bridge the gap between a working product and a scalable business. Applications are open now at labs.google/aifuturesfund/africaailab.

Similar read: Google and Idris Elba to give 100,000 African creators free access to AI tools in $1 million initiative