Samasource: an Impact Investment That Doesn’t Fake the Funk
By Ben Metcalfe, Ridge Ventures Principal
Investing in unbelievable tech with huge upside is a sweet feeling. But nothing is sweeter than backing a company that’s financially viable and improving the lives of the less fortunate. It’s what VCs call an impact investment, but the “impact” too often boils down to empty promises and staged photo ops.
One entrepreneur who is doing it the right way — making change and making a change — is Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource, a leading provider of superior, high-volume training data for machine learning and AI teams. Samasource’s impact-driven mission of building centralized centers of excellence in East Africa has blossomed into a key strategic advantage over its crowdsource-driven competitors in this area.
Founded in 2008, initially as a not-for-profit, Leila has spent the last 10+ years in the trenches, ensuring Samasource is satisfying both its customers and its talented workforce in impoverished communities overseas. Her hard work has paid off big time, as Samasource recently announced its $14.8 million Series A round led by Ridge Ventures. Samasource has also opened two new offices this year — in Kampala, Uganda and Montreal, Canada.
In an age of social entrepreneur Milli Vanillis, Leila is the real deal, and a big reason why I’m thrilled to invest in Samasource — a company uniquely situated at the intersection of social impact and commercial return on investment.
Here is a closer look at why this deal is an all-around doozy (and actually impactful).
💡 The Samasource Model Makes Dollars and Sense
Both Ridge Ventures and I believe machine learning will form the next significant competitive advantage in enterprise software and beyond, capitalizing on unparalleled economic advantages across industries like autonomous vehicles, algorithmic trading, healthcare, fintech, advertising, and more.
One of the biggest drivers of AI model value is the quality of the labeling and tagging of the training data. Samasource’s focus on machine learning, coupled with a healthy supply of training data, means the company can maintain and refine its data over time.
To fine-tune this data it takes good ol’ fashioned human ingenuity. Fret not, Samasource, which has steadily built a massive workforce in developing countries over the past decade, possesses the man/woman-power to manually analyze, package, and deliver data to the company’s impressive array of AI and automotive customers.
🧠 I Bless the Brains Down in Africa
If training data requires human analysis and forming a successful model requires a massive data set, that means, in the California vernacular, “hella” humans are needed to get the job done — specifically, in a geographic territory with an ample supply of frontline workers and a low cost of labor.
Thus, Samasource has ruled out the high wages and low employment rates of the Western world in favor of African nations like Kenya and Uganda, where there are many underemployed, English-speaking citizens capable of performing data-related tasks. Leila’s 10 years of building relationships with government officials and other stakeholders in Africa is unequaled among potential competitors in the space, and ensures access to the sizable and ever-growing workforce necessary to sustain the tireless lifecycle of AI.
The coolest part about a workforce based in The Motherland? A Samasource job increases a family’s income considerably. So as Samasource’s value goes up, the more it will need to hire and the greater impact it will have on the communities it serves.
🛡 Keep it on the Down Low
In this age of leaky faucets, companies are more squeamish than ever about sensitive data and trade secrets falling into the wrong hands. This is especially prevalent in companies that enlist freelancers and contractors working unsupervised in their own homes. Samasource puts confidentiality concerns to rest with data labeling work occurring solely on-site, plus appropriate supervision protocols in place for both privacy and quality assurance.
These security measures mitigate the risk of employees downloading and sharing sensitive info. This means proprietary data, personally identifiable information, and trade secrets are all kept on the hush.
As mentioned above, Samasourcers are well taken care of as well, and unlikely to risk losing a job that’s drastically improved their way of life. Loosely regulated crowdsourced workers at competing companies, on the other hand, are harder to track and won’t feel beholden to employers who view them as disposable.
💛 Truly Sama-thing Special
While many in the industry have moved towards using casual, untrained gig economy labor with lackluster results, I was excited to see the quality, secure and high throughput Samasource was achieving for its clients. It wasn’t surprising to see that so many leaders in the AI and machine learning space were quietly relying on the company for its best-in-class data labeling services to help build their world-changing models. As Samasource continues to combine software intelligence with their inspiring local workforce, I’m honored to partner with the ever-inspiring Leila Janah and the rest of her team to help tag the world’s data and bring forth the next AI-powered industrial revolution.
Having the opportunity to land a true impact investment in Samasource, led by a founder who’s just as empathetic as she is business-savvy, is a rare instance when an investor can make a difference in more than just the balance sheet. It’s the type of symmetry a VC craves, and apropos considering sama means “equal” in Sanskrit.
🙌 Leila and team, here’s to more sama.
