Lua secures $5.8M to power next-gen AI workforces for businesses
Lua, a startup building a platform that lets businesses create and manage AI-powered agent workforces, has raised $5.8 million in seed funding led by Africa-focused tech growth fund Norrsken22.
The round also saw participation from Flourish Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures, Phosphor Capital, Y Combinator, alongside angel investors including Kaz Nejatian, CEO of Opendoor, and Henri Stern, CEO of Privy.
The company was founded by Lorcan O’Cathain and Stefan Kruger, who met while scaling a fintech business in East Africa, with O’Cathain serving as COO and Kruger as CTO. Before starting Lua, O’Cathain was Managing Director of Zephyr Management’s Africa business, a VC and private equity fund with operations across Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. Kruger was VP of Engineering at Paystack before its acquisition by Stripe.
Lua aims to make AI agent creation accessible beyond engineering teams. It’s a platform that manages the technical complexities of infrastructure, model management, data, integrations, and monitoring.
Technical users can leverage a robust developer framework and CLI tools, while non-technical users can utilize a visual interface with the same capabilities. Since both interfaces operate on the same system, businesses can deploy a functional AI agent workforce within hours, integrated into their existing systems.
“The companies that will win over the next few years are the ones that build their agent workforce with the same intentionality they bring to their human workforce,” said O’Cathain.
He also mentioned that many agent platforms worsen this issue with opaque tools and outcome-based pricing. This means the more successful your agents are, the more you pay, without any way to reduce your costs.
Lua, however, is based on a different idea: teams control their agents, own the results, and gradually increase efficiency over time.
Lua’s rapid growth since launch
Lua’s agent developer platform launched in October 2025 and has since experienced rapid revenue growth, averaging nearly 30% week-on-week. The number of agents built on the platform in February 2026 exceeded the total number built in all previous months combined, indicating a significant acceleration in platform adoption.
Since launch, the startup has operated across Africa, Asia, the United States, and Europe. Lexi Novitske, a General Partner at Norrsken22, mentioned that this global presence was a major reason why the firm decided to invest.
Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22
“They are a global company that has deployed in Africa, Asia, the U.S. and Europe with deep experience, a volume of data, and a pricing intuition that’s difficult to replicate,” she said.
Similar read: INVIA secures $1.2M to simplify AI financial platform for SMEs in Egypt
The new funding will be used to grow Lua’s developer community and expand its Lua Implementation Network. This network consists of independent partners deploying Lua agents across their respective markets.
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