One of Africa’s most successful founders is back with a new AI startup and already raised $9M
In 2023, co-founders Karim Jouini And Jihed Othmani Sold their expense management Startup Expensya to the Swedish purchasing software company Medius in what is generally considered one of the largest acquisitions of an African startup. Some sources say the sum was just over $ 120 millionAlthough deal conditions have not been announced.
The success of the success, both founders swore entrepreneurship, who never intended to do another startup and Jouini became a CTO role in the merged software company, with other acquisitions over three continents.
But the attraction of a new technological wave – generative AI – and the thought that they might be able to build something that is even bigger with them, they have put on inside.
The two are now co-founder Thunder CodeA generative AI-driven software test platform, which has already obtained $ 9 million in seed financing, they told WAN.
“It’s pretty strange because we promised not to do another company because Expensya was too difficult,” Jouini said. “But I think it is if people have two children, they forget how difficult the first was. This new company is less than six months old and super intense, but we are fired. We are convinced that this is unicorn material.”
Jouini says that his transition to the head of technology at Medius has re -ruled a spark that he missed after years as a frontman of Decentya. While he supervised the integration of six companies on three continents, he saw first -hand how generative AI could reform the software industry. Testing was a universal problem, regardless of the product, a realization that the idea has sown for Thunder Code.
Thunder code tackles slowly, manually testing with AI-driven “agents” who mimic human testers. These agents simulate QA processes, catch subtle UI and UX problems and learn from feedback.
Determined to prevent the early missteps from Reestya, Jouini gave a priority to speed. “We sent our first MVP in week six, and now the product is much more firmly in six months than Decentya was in year four,” he said. This reflects a widespread belief in the Startupland that exceeds fast feedback perfect plans.
Thunder code already wins grip, with paying customers and pilot programs in the US, Canada, France and Tunisia. The company works together with delivery managers, QA stores and developer teams that like to test and send faster. The current focus is on testing web applications, with plans to expand to mobile, desktop and API tests at the end of 2025.
In addition to speed, Jouini’s second Rodeo also applies other hard -earned lessons from Deskya, such as focusing on core functions and getting the best talent as quickly as possible. He is not apologetically about early dilution because it relates to investing in top talent. “Many African entrepreneurs are afraid to dilute the capital because they want to keep 100%. We believe that if we create a unicorn while we dilute ourselves, it is a good price,” he noticed.
However, Jouini believes that AI Thunder code will have the value generated with fewer people, which reflects the wider sentiment shift to slimmer AI-driven teams.
Nevertheless, Jouini admits that the jump from cost management to tools for software developers was a leap, despite the pain points that felt familiar. Yet he sees software tests as a larger, more complex market, It is expected that in 2027 higher than $ 100 billionStill dominated by legacy-code-based platforms such as Tricentis and Browsertack, which may be slow to adjust. He believes that the rapid execution of Thunder Code with AI gives it a lead, even against similar new agent products.
Thunder Code, with head office in Paris with an office in Tunis, joins an increasingly drank market of startups that all try to do with participants ranging from Uipath Startups such as Jetify, Nova AI.
It helps that his co-founder, Othmani, brings a deep expertise in generative AI, who has built internal AI tools on Expensya years before Chatgpt waves made. Their complementary skills and the $ 9 million that were collected in six months of thunder code to quickly move and record the market share, Jouini said.
The financing round includes familiar faces of the CAP table of Desksya, including Silicon Badia and Janngo Capital, together with Titan Seed Fund and strategic angels such as Roxanne Varza (director of Station F) and Karim Beguir, CEO of Instadep, Africa’s largest AI Startup. Former and current realmers who were cashed in during the acquisition have also invested. “Some of our investors are actually Extensya employees and I am happy that it succeeded,” said Jouini.
