Caantin, the Zambian artificial intelligence startup replacing call centres with voice agents, is raising $4 million to scale its AI infrastructure and expand outside Africa. The startup, which claims it is already close to $1 million in monthly revenue, is projecting $10 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2025.
The round comes just six months after Caantin pivoted from its past life as an artificial intelligence startup businesses use to analyse and visualise data and relaunched with a new core focus: automating high-volume call centre operations for banks and fintechs. It is the startup’s fourth attempt at finding product-market fit after pivoting from the hospitality sector to artificial intelligence.
This is Caantin’s first raise, but its CEO’s second, as he raised $2.16 million for TopUp Mama, a Kenyan-based restaurant procurement management startup.
Founded in 2023, Caantin’s AI infrastructure can now handle over one million calls a day and already counts fintechs like Fairmoney and Carbon as customers. Carbon’s CEO, Chijioke Dozie, is an investor in Caantin.
In African markets, these financial institutions maintain large teams of customer support agents. Each requires office space, power infrastructure, internet, laptops, and constant management overhead. Caantin bets that AI can reduce this cost significantly while increasing scale and consistency.
“If these banks stop calling borrowers, they lose money,” Njawa Mutambo, Caantin’s CEO, told . “But managing that operation is expensive and fragile. AI is not a nice-to-have. It’s essential for scale.” In South Africa, it charges 4 rands (2 cents) per second, while in Nigeria, the rate is ₦185 (12 cents) per minute, nine times higher than what local telecom operators charge.
Caantin is targeting banks and financial services firms with its voice AI product because of their massive customer bases and revenue scale. Banks make up at least 26% of the top 250 listed African companies and hold five of the top six positions. The startup’s usage-based monetisation model, charging based on the volume of calls processed, mirrors what infrastructure players like Paystack and Flutterwave are doing for Africa’s payment sector, except that Caantin is building on top of voice.
“By serving banks and fintechs, we are effectively hedged within a high-yield vertical,” Mutambo said. “We are a telecoms business tailored to financial services. Their growth becomes our growth.”
Caantin plans to use the funds to deepen its enterprise integrations, scale its infrastructure, and expand into new markets. The company is bullish on Latin America, where labour costs are higher than in Africa, and enterprises face the same customer engagement pain points seen in Africa. The minimum wage in Brazil is $262, compared to Nigeria’s $46.
“In Brazil, the cost of call centre labour is around $2 per hour. In Nigeria, it’s closer to 25 cents,” Mutambo said. “So the ROI for AI is even stronger in LATAM.”
Caantin also serves internet service providers and insurers, with South Africa’s Africa Hosts and Kenya’s Turaco among recent clients.
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