California-headquartered, Uganda-born startup Rwazi has raised a $12 million Series A round to supercharge its AI-powered consumer intelligence platform — and quietly take aim at the aging infrastructure of the global market research industry.
The round was led by Bonfire Ventures, with follow-on support from Santa Barbara Ventures, Newfund, and Alumni Ventures. The new injection brings Rwazi’s total funding to $16 million, following its $4 million seed in 2022 — also led by Bonfire.
The founders, Joseph Rutakangwa and Eric Sewankambo, aren’t just chasing data; they’re overhauling how companies around the world see their customers. And in the process, they’re taking on everything from outdated government statistics to stale corporate consumer reports.
A Global Operation With African Roots
Founded in 2018 (before it was trendy to be “AI-native”), Rwazi began life in Mauritius before relocating to California. But the startup’s vision remains distinctly African in spirit — grounded in emerging markets, scrappy infrastructure, and the pursuit of overlooked truths.
Rutakangwa and Sewankambo both cut their teeth at Kampala-based Owino Solutions, where they built web systems for East African clients and dabbled in digital media to amplify local culture. That grassroots exposure to how companies struggle with reliable data became the starting point for Rwazi’s mission.
“We used to spend days hunting for actionable market data — most of it was old, incomplete, or outright wrong,” says Rutakangwa. “So we decided to build the platform we wished we had.”
That platform now spans 190 countries, offering real-time access to zero-party data: consumer information that is explicitly volunteered, rather than scraped, inferred, or purchased from questionable brokers.
The Zero-Party Revolution
Zero-party data might sound like marketing jargon, but it’s fast becoming the backbone of how modern companies understand their customers — especially in a world where privacy laws like GDPR and the end of third-party cookies have forced advertisers to behave like decent humans again.
While traditional research firms like Ipsos and GfK still rely on panels, modeled data, or clunky interviews, Rwazi uses mobile apps and direct reporting to understand who’s buying what, for how much, from where, when — and critically — why.
“For decades, decisions have been driven by instinct. But gut calls are expensive — and in today’s market, they’re dangerous,” Rutakangwa says. “This raise lets us put a real-time AI copilot in the hands of every decision-maker — so teams can move faster, smarter, and with total clarity.”
Rwazi’s client list reads like a corporate hall of fame: Coca-Cola, Pampers, Visa, and Nestlé are among those using its tools to track consumption trends in markets that previously existed only as vague strategy decks.
But it’s not just about big logos — Rwazi says it’s building the “first AI copilot for consumer visibility,” blending simulation, prediction, and decision support into a single platform. In other words, it’s no longer just about what’s happening in Lagos, Lima, or Lahore — it’s about what your sales team should do next.
The new funds will go toward enhancing the company’s simulation engine and bolstering its engineering team — which, according to Rutakangwa, will give clients “the next best move” based on what’s changing in the market. Or, to translate, less praying and more planning.
Beating the Funding Odds
Rwazi’s raise is also notable in a grim context: Black founders in the U.S. received just 0.48% of total venture capital in 2023, according to Crunchbase. That number dipped to an alarming 0.13% in Q3 before modestly rebounding to 0.20% in Q4. In that climate, a $12 million Series A is more than a milestone — it’s a quiet rebuke to the system.
Even more impressive? Rwazi’s traction doesn’t hinge on a “diversity thesis.” Investors are backing it because it works — and because multinational brands are desperate for better answers in markets they still treat like blind spots.
“There’s a massive gap in consumer data across much of the Global South,” says one investor familiar with the deal. “Rwazi fills that gap with speed, accuracy, and an actual business model.”
With momentum on its side, Rwazi is carving a space at the intersection of real-time data, AI-led strategy, and global reach — a place traditional research firms can’t follow without a full-blown reinvention.
As for Rutakangwa and Sewankambo? They’re not slowing down. “Gut instinct might’ve worked when things moved slowly. But today, the teams that win are the ones with systems that see early and act fast,” says Rutakangwa.
In a world flooded with noise and not nearly enough signal, Rwazi is betting that clarity — and a little bit of audacity — might just be the future of global decision-making.