From representing the University of Cape Town as an athlete to co-founding one of Africa’s most effective artificial intelligence ventures, Chido Dzinotyiwe, 28, has stayed ahead of the curve. A finance postgraduate and Mandela Rhodes Fellow, she is now chief executive of Vambo AI, a multilingual artificial intelligence company supporting more than 44 African languages — a transformative step toward inclusive technology. At Vambo AI, Chido leads strategy, innovation and localisation, working with local and global partners to ensure African voices help shape the future of artificial intelligence. Under her leadership, the company has won the Aanit Prize for Social Impact, been selected for the NBA Africa Accelerator, and ranked on Slator’s Top 50 Language AI Start-ups. She also represents South Africa on the G20 Start-up20 Task Force, helping shape global policy for emerging markets. Her work bridges AI and education — supporting South African universities in implementing multilingualism and making learn- ing content accessible to thousands of students in their own languages. Mentored by global tech leaders and rooted in faith, Chido is passionate about building solutions from the continent, for the continent.
I have had different mentors who have fed into my journey in different ways such as believing in me and improving my public speaking and confidence. My parents have been my biggest inspirations. They are bold, courageous and work as a team to go further. I honour the sacrifices they have made to give me the opportunities I have today. Recently, most of my mentors have been based in the field of technology such as Mira Murati (former chief technology officer of OpenAI) and Aravind Srinivas (chief executive of Perplexity). These individuals have pioneered new solutions and technology mostly without a blueprint and I relate to their stories and feats.