centaur.africa

AI development boutique · Cape Town

Build what wasn’t possible last year.

centaur.africa is an AI development boutique. We build software and companies, and help run them, with AI tools directed by experienced people. Work that once needed a big team and a long timeline, delivered by a small one, quickly, at a price that makes sense.

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Collage after Young Centaur, Aristeas & Papias of Aphrodisias, 2nd c. AD, Capitoline Museums · with Thomas Baines, Leonardo da Vinci, anon. Table Bay 1762

The idea behind the name

Technology should make people more powerful.

Lewis W. Hine, Power House Mechanic, 1920 · public domain

Odilon Redon, Centaur Aiming at the Clouds, 1895 · National Gallery of Art, Washington (CC0)

A reverse centaur is a person conscripted to serve a machine, working at its pace and taking the blame for its mistakes.

A centaur is a person who chooses technology to become more capable.

Most AI is sold to make people cheaper. We build it to make people more powerful: founders who can do what used to need a team, and teams who can do what used to need a company.

“Reverse centaur” is Cory Doctorow’s term. We built the company around its opposite.

Why now

The frontier has moved

Every economics student learns the production possibility frontier: the edge of what you can produce with the people, money and time you have. Along that edge, every gain costs you something. Faster means more expensive. Cheaper means worse. More of one thing means less of another.

Technology is what moves the frontier outward, and that’s how we see AI. It doesn’t just make old work a little quicker. It shifts the whole curve, so the old trade-offs loosen. Software that needed ten people and six months can now be built by a small, experienced team in weeks. Admin that needed a full-time hire can run quietly in the background.

That’s what we offer: a bigger set of possibilities for the people we work with.

A diagram showing the frontier of possible speed and quality moving outward, so both can increase at the same cost. Quality Speed Old frontier Where it is now
Speed and quality, with cost held constant. The dashed line is the old frontier. The solid line is where it is now.

What we do

We build, and we help you run

  1. 01

    Build software

    Software development, automation and data analysis. Built quickly with AI, directed and finished by people. Vuna, the companion app we built for NAVU Mobility, is one example.

  2. 02

    Build companies

    Helping founders and companies build, from registration to a company ready to trade and raise. Yams, our platform for founders, is part of how.

  3. 03

    Run companies

    We take on the running of a company, and run business development campaigns, so you can get on with building. Our batch processor, which turns a folder of documents into answers, is part of how.

How we build

The Centaur process

Human judgement.
AI capability.
Real-world impact.

Book a call

After Sandro Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur, c. 1482, Uffizi · with Thomas Baines, The Rapids of the Victoria Falls

  1. 01

    Understand

    We start with what you’re trying to do, and tell you honestly what’s now possible, and what it would cost.

  2. 02

    Build

    Experienced people set the direction and design the system. AI does the heavy lifting in between: code, tests, documents and research.

  3. 03

    Operate

    We run what we build, and can take on the running of your company, so you can get on with building.

  4. 04

    Evolve

    We measure in possibility: what you can now do that you couldn’t before. Then we push the frontier again.

Fast · good · cheap

The old rule was pick two

Choose any two.

Good and fast wasn’t cheap.

Fast and cheap usually wasn’t good. Good and fast wasn’t cheap. AI tools change the maths, but only in the right hands. The people who get the most from AI are experienced ones who decide how to use it, not people told to keep up with it.

That’s how we work. Experienced people set the direction, design the system, check the work and own the quality. AI does the heavy lifting in between: drafting code, tests, documents and research at a pace no traditional team could match. You get the speed and the price of automation with the judgement of people who have done this before.

Principles

How we work

  1. 01

    You decide.

    We build and draft; you approve. Nothing important happens without your say-so.

  2. 02

    You own what we build.

    Your code, your data, your documents. If you leave, everything leaves with you.

  3. 03

    People own the quality.

    Every piece of work is directed and checked by an experienced person.

  4. 04

    Measured in possibility.

    We count what you can now do, not pages generated or tasks automated.

  5. 05

    Flexibility.

    We want to build things. If you want something built but you don’t have the cash, or if you are doing something for social good, just reach out. We want to help.

Products

Some of what we’ve built

Rembrandt’s The Syndics: five cloth-guild officials in black hats and white collars look up from a ledger on a red carpeted table, as if interrupted mid-inspection.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild, 1662 · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Cloth inspectors checking every piece of work.

Who does the work

centaur.africa is a flexible team of seasoned designers, tinkerers, software developers, founders and operators. Our team has senior experience in AI, blockchain, payments, fintech, intelligence, data analysis, e-commerce, app development, analytics, infrastructure and more.

Our team functions more like a cooperative than a company, where everyone takes ownership of the deliverable. We bring in the people each project needs, and an experienced person directs and checks every piece of work.

About the team

After Old Centaur, Aristeas & Papias of Aphrodisias, Capitoline Museums · Thomas Baines, Zambezi

What would you build if it were easier?

Tell us the software you’ve been putting off, the company you want to start, or the admin you’d happily never touch again. A 30-minute call is enough to tell you honestly what’s now possible, and what it would cost.

Book a call