Samasource Re-brands To Sama

Samasource, the provider of accurate data for ambitious AI, has announced its rebrand 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 firm’s new strategy that is focused on evolving its service offerings and redefining its technology which has quickly become the preferred option by some of the most sophisticated companies in the world. The firm believes that through this move, it will continue helping its clients remain resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as easily navigate similar challenges in the future.

“Our rebrand to Sama reflects several business developments that we have made over the past few years and symbolizes 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 remained focused on scaling its business to continue to provide high-quality training data for ambitious 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 Data Anonymizer and Machine Learning Assisted Annotation 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 communications,” Wendy Gonzalez added.

Locally, Sama has consistently equipped youth from primarily underserved backgrounds with relevant digital skills through its high-quality data training programs. As a result, these young people are prepared for a future of work in the digital economy.

Commenting on the rebrand, Senior Director, People Operations East Africa, Faith Mbutu noted, “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 emerged as the winner for the Diversity and Inclusion Opportunities for Youth Employment Award category in the third edition of the National Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR). DIAR celebrates companies, government agencies, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals who champion diversity and promote inclusion at the workplace and the society at large in Kenya.
Currently, Sama has over 3,000 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 vibrant tech-savvy talent in the region.

Sama is the trusted, high-quality training data and validation provider for 25 per cent of the Fortune 50. From self-driving cars to smart hardware, Sama fuels AI. Founded over a decade ago, the institution boasts of being experts in image, video and sensor data annotation and validation for machine learning algorithms. They support AI development in consumer internet, e-commerce, smart hardware, AR/VR, biomedical, and automotive. Driven by a mission to expand opportunity for low-income people through the digital economy, the company’s social business model has helped over 50,000 people lift themselves out of poverty.