DaveLabs is now an award-winning team: Africa's Most Outstanding Emerging Startup in EdTech Innovation
The DaveLabs Team
DaveLabs is now an award-winning team. We have been named Africa's Most Outstanding Emerging Startup in EdTech Innovation at the Global Distinguished CEOs Awards (GLODICEA) 2026, conferred by The Papyrus Global. Our founder and chief executive, Godswill Iyke Dave, accepted it on behalf of the whole team.
The award recognises the work behind Amaka AI, our visual reasoning engine for learners, and its first focus: bringing African languages into AI-assisted learning. Amaka AI draws, animates and explains in fourteen languages, including Wolof, Mandinka, Fula and Jola, and it can be interrupted mid-explanation the way a real teacher can.
The award
GLODICEA, the Global Distinguished CEOs Awards, is organised by The Papyrus Global to honour business leaders for their contribution to business, leadership, enterprise and society. DaveLabs was notified on 16 September 2026, and our founder accepted the honour on the team's behalf on 22 September. The awards were presented at the GLODICEA 2026 ceremony and gala at The Brookside, Maitama, Abuja, on 30 October 2026.
I accept it on behalf of the team at DaveLabs, whose work on Amaka AI, and on bringing African languages into AI-assisted learning, is what this recognition describes.
What it means for DaveLabs
The recognition belongs to the whole team: the engineers, researchers and creatives who built Amaka AI, and who build Optiq Studio and Optiq Studio Enterprise alongside it. It is a reason to go further, not to slow down.
- Amaka AI teaches visually, in the learner's own language, at amaka.app.
- Optiq Studio makes cinematic AI adverts and videos that convert, and short films, for any business, at optiq.studio.
- Optiq Studio Enterprise is automated marketing that turns viewers into customers, at enterprise.optiq.studio.
Our thanks to The Papyrus Global, its publisher Hon. Chief Doofan Damsa-Justin, and the GLODICEA 2026 Selection Committee, and our congratulations to every one of this year's honourees.
