2026-10 · Kalanko
Kalanko opens its 2026–2027 pilot programme.
Maths and physics-chemistry teachers in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso: free access in exchange for about a hundred anonymised scripts.
AI startup · Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Artificial intelligence is being built in Ouagadougou too.
Iconiq Brains is a Burkinabè AI and digital-products startup. We design our models and products for local realities: French, mobile money, unstable networks and entry-level phones.
inference traceillustrative example · fictional data
- 01inputPhoto of a handwritten answer: 3x + 5 = 20 → 3x = 25 → x = 25/3
- 02transcription3 reasoning steps transcribed
- 03diagnosisStep 2: 5 was added instead of subtracted
- 04outputClass map: the students stuck at the same step
confidence: likelythe teacher confirms or sends back
// position
A Burkinabè tech company that builds its own tools.
In Burkina Faso, everyday services run on phones, mobile money and French. Tools designed elsewhere fit poorly. We start from these conditions to build, here, the AI and the products the country needs.
01
AI built in Burkina Faso
Our models read invoices, students' work and field data produced here, in French, on entry-level phones and unstable networks. They say when they are unsure, and a person decides.
02
A shared technical foundation
Mobile-money payments, invoicing that follows the tax authority's rules, document reading, real time: each product inherits the building blocks of the previous ones. Our partners can build on the same foundation.
03
Local talent and know-how
We hire and train engineers, designers and operators in Ouagadougou who own a problem end to end. The know-how we build stays in the country.
04
A partner to institutions
Our products answer public frameworks: the tax authority's standardised and electronic invoicing, national school curricula, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes. We work with the administrations, schools and NGOs behind them.
// who we are
« The digital tools Burkina Faso needs can be designed and built in Burkina Faso. »
Iconiq Brains (ICONIQ BRAINS SASU) has been registered in Ouagadougou since 2026. The company designs, builds and runs its own products, and puts its team to work on a limited number of partner projects.
// how we build
AI that shows its work, and stops when it is unsure.
01 · explainable
Every output shows its steps
The teacher sees the step where each student went wrong. The data officer sees the rule that failed.
02 · careful
Always a confidence level
Certain, likely or to check. The AI never decides alone: when it is unsure, a person decides.
03 · frugal
Built for the field
Entry-level phones, unstable networks, power cuts: that is the normal case, not the exception.
// our products
What we have built.
Each product has its own page. Here is the gist.
The AI that shows teachers where each student's reasoning went wrong.Early access
Invoicing that follows Burkina Faso's tax rules.In the works
The engine behind live sales: code reservations, mobile-money payment, delivery by neighbourhood.In the works
The real-time community map of electricity, water and internet.Live
The virtual queue: your customers take their turn on their phone, and leave.Live
Checks your field data before it drives your decisions.Live
Football predictions where you prove what you know, without betting.Early access
// journal
What ships, what changes.
2026-10 · Kachet
Kachet's stamped-invoice mode works end to end.
Each stamp number is read from the scanned invoice and matched automatically. Next: receipts and reports.
2026-10 · Kachet
Kachet adopts its « Empreinte » identity.
Descriptor: tax-compliant invoicing. Tagline: the seal on your invoices.
Collaboration · Open, but selective
You have a problem on the ground. We know how to build for it.
Companies, institutions, founders: we put our team — AI, engineering, design, infrastructure — to work on a limited number of projects a year.
Careers
Build the products that set the standard.
We hire engineers, designers and operators who want to own hard problems end to end — across our products, not a single one.