Kigali-based startup Entelon is addressing a critical need in African markets by building AI products and custom systems that work with how organizations actually operate – often paper-based, multilingual environments. Founded in August 2025 by Alain Barsime Shema and Don Durkheim, the company has developed a suite of solutions spanning healthcare, research, education, customer experience, and travel.

“Entelon makes AI work for African businesses and institutions,” explains Durkheim, president and co-founder. “We build products that automate manual tasks like paper processing, grading, data entry, so people can focus on higher-value decisions.”

The startup’s offerings include:

  • Mamora AI: A community wellbeing platform used by HDI Rwanda for early disease detection.
  • Visko: Converts any questionnaire (even scanned images) into live digital surveys with automated transcription and data entry.
  • Klok AI: Reads handwritten exam answers and suggests grades while allowing teachers to maintain control.
  • Phibram: Analyzes call center conversations in real-time to provide insights into service quality.

Beyond these products, Entelon creates custom voice agents, workflow automation, and data analysis systems tailored to specific organizational needs. They’ve even developed their own Kinyarwanda text-to-speech model and are co-developing a local language LLM to ensure broader usability.

Entelon targets organizations that haven’t yet fully digitized – a common challenge across Africa where many institutions still rely on paper processes. “Global AI products often assume a digital foundation these organizations lack, creating adoption barriers,” Durkheim notes. “We start from where they are, accepting existing forms and working with current workflows.”

The company is already seeing traction with over 1,000 daily AI interactions across its products, including 500+ users of Mamora AI filing over 1,200 community health reports.

With a revenue model based on custom development work and product usage (per questionnaire for Visko, per credit for Phibram), Entelon is proving that localized AI solutions can address real-world needs in underserved markets. Their focus remains on Rwanda initially, with plans to expand across East Africa as their products gain wider adoption.