Samasource rebrands to Sama

Issued by: P&L Consulting

Samasource, the provider of accurate data for ambitious artificial intelligence is today announcing its rebranding to Sama across East Africa. The renaming is part of the ongoing global evolution of the firm’s brand repositioning, as announced earlier in the year.

This change aligns with the firms’ new strategy focused on evolving its’ service offerings, and redefining its technology which has quickly become the preferred option for some of the most sophisticated companies in the world.

“Our rebranding to Sama reflects several business developments that we have made over the past few years and symbolises our vision moving forward,” said Wendy Gonzalez, CEO at Sama.

“Sama further underlines our capabilities, growth, and innovation and commitment to delivering our customers the most effective and well-rounded AI solutions available.”

Since its inception in 2018, Sama has focused on scaling its business to provide high-quality training data for AI to some of the world’s leading brands such as Google, NVIDIA, Walmart, and Getty. Not only does this training data ensure the algorithms are safe and non-biased, Sama ultimately strengthens its customers’ positions in their markets.

After transitioning its business model, Sama has launched several new solutions, such as its PII [Personally Identifiable Information] Data Anonymiser and Machine Learning Assisted Annotation, both of which leverage automation in addition to human oversight, enabling efficient data annotation and validation.

“We are excited to share this milestone in our company’s history as we embark on our journey to becoming the world’s leading training data provider. Moving forward, our team’s focus will be on further developing our tech as we expand our presence in industries such as retail, biotechnology, and media and communications,” Ms Gonzalez added.

In East Africa, Sama has equipped youth from primarily underserved backgrounds with relevant digital skills through its data training programs, helping to prepare them for work in the digital economy.

Commenting on the rebranding, Faith Mbutu, the senior director, people operations in East Africa said: “The Sama team is extremely proud to be part of the new identity as it presents new opportunities for reaching our full potential. It also reflects on our capacity to deliver exceptional service to our clients, something that we look forward to.”

In March 2021, the company won the diversity and inclusion opportunities for youth employment category at the Third edition of Kenya’s National Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR). DIAR celebrates companies, government agencies, civil society organisations, and individuals who champion diversity and promote inclusion in the workplace and in the society at large.

Sama currently has over 3000 employees in both Kenya and Uganda, a number it hopes to increase over the next few years as it continues to create employment for the regions’ tech talent.

About Sama

Sama is the trusted, high-quality training data and validation provider for 25% of the Fortune 50 companies. From self-driving cars to smart hardware, Sama fuels artificial intelligence. Founded over a decade ago, the company’s expertise cuts across image, video, sensor data annotation, and validation for machine learning algorithms.

Sama supports AI development in: the consumer internet industry, e-commerce, smart hardware, augmented reality and virtual reality, biomedical applications, and the automotive industry.

The company is driven by the mission to expand opportunity to low-income persons through the digital economy, and has reached over 50,000 people through its social business model.