Optimus AI Labs: Building Practical AI for African Businesses

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how businesses operate globally, but many African companies still struggle to adopt it in a way that feels practical, affordable, and relevant. Optimus AI Labs, is stepping into that gap with a mission to make AI useful for everyday business problems across the continent.

Optimus AI Labs builds AI systems companies and businesses actually use. Their focus is in turning data and models into reliable tools for banks, fintechs, educators and enterprises across Africa a pragmatic response to a region where AI must fit messy data, intermittent connectivity and tight budgets.

What began as Pacer Labs in 2023 as a software outsourcing outfit in Canada, quickly shifted as client demands for automation and AI exposed a gap: founders wanted production-ready models and pipelines, not prototypes. The team rebranded, invested in LLM-native development, and set out to make AI engineering a predictable, repeatable process both in Africa and North America.

From delivery shop to AI product house

Optimus’s early months were about disciplined delivery, the kind of engineering practice that makes models work reliably in production. By 2024 the company moved into product and platform thinking: building, fine-tuning, and operating models end-to-end. That transition underpins how they work with clients today: hands-on engineering plus sector knowledge, not consultancy buzz.

The leadership reflects that mix. CEO Lanre Basamta brings two decades across payment and fintech companies, while Executive Director Gbemi Akande adds product strategy and startup scaling experience. Their backgrounds steer Optimus AI Labs toward solutions that serve regulated industries and fast-moving startups. Optimus as a name, embodies their ambition to be the leading AI development and technology house out of Africa.

Services that solve operational problems

Optimus positions its engineering around concrete pain points. Their core services include:

• DataOps – building pipelines that turn raw, fragmented data into reliable inputs for analytics and models.
• LLMOps – operationalizing large language models with guardrails, cost controls and safety checks.
• Model fine-tuning – adapting base models to local workflows and industry vocabulary.
• Data engineering – scaling storage, ETL, and reporting for enterprise workloads.
• Custom agent development – automating recurring processes with intelligent agents.

These solutions reflect a single goal: reduce the friction between experimentation and production so businesses can extract measurable value from AI without the typical operational risk.

Product set built for Africa and beyond

Alongside their AI Solutions, Optimus AI Labs is developing products aimed at common enterprise needs:

• OMNIS – an AI customer-engagement engine that personalizes user journeys and simplifies transactional experiences.
• eeV – an AI-powered customer support solution for instant, automated responses.
• Ziki – an AI tutoring platform already serving students across multiple countries.
• Learn AI – education tools designed to modernize teaching and learning.

These products reflect a pragmatic philosophy: deploy familiar, high-value applications (support, engagement, education) and make them work reliably at scale for African customers.

Why this matters for Nigeria and the continent

African businesses face barriers that western-built AI often ignores: fragmented data, limited labeled datasets, and high deployment costs. Optimus AI Labs focuses on those constraints, fine-tuning models with smaller, high-quality datasets, automating pipelines to cut errors, and optimizing model compute to lower bills. That combination matters most for banks and fintechs that need secure, compliant systems and for educators and SMEs that need affordable tools.

By building both services and repeatable products, Optimus shortens the path from curiosity to adoption. Clients get not just a demo but a working system: integrated pipelines, monitored models, and ongoing maintenance, the elements enterprises require to trust AI in production.

Practical adoption, not hype

Optimus’s approach emphasizes measurable outcomes: lower pipeline costs, fewer hallucinations, faster deployment, and higher task accuracy. That language may sound technical, but it translates into business terms: fewer false customer responses, faster loan decisions, better online learning outcomes and less time spent on manual data work.

This is the region’s pressing need. As Nigerian and pan-African firms digitize faster, they require partners who can convert data into decisions, and maintain those systems day after day. Optimus AI Labs frames its work around that reality.

What’s next

Optimus AI Labs plans to deepen sector focus, particularly in financial services and education, while expanding its product footprint across Africa. The company aims to position African technical talent and products on global markets by combining practical engineering with local context.

For businesses in Nigeria and beyond, that matters: local teams building locally relevant models reduce dependency on foreign vendors and create measurable, long-term value.

About Optimus AI Labs

Optimus AI Labs is an AI development and product engineering company that helps organizations design, build, and deploy enterprise-ready AI systems. You can get more information about Optimus AI Labs at optimusai.ai.