Monrovia — A Liberian-built synthetic intelligence enterprise is drawing world consideration for serving to governments and public establishments deploy superior AI methods whereas retaining sovereign management over their information.
Surna Applied sciences, a sovereign AI and cloud infrastructure firm, has been named a semifinalist in Harvard College’s prestigious President’s Innovation Problem, which acknowledges a number of the world’s most promising student-led ventures.
Chosen from hundreds of ventures supported throughout Harvard’s 13 faculties, Surna’s emergence as a semifinalist locations Liberia on a uncommon world stage within the fast-growing subject of sovereign AI improvement.
Based on a daring premise—that Africa should management its personal full-stack digital structure—Surna is targeted on safe information possession and the in-house improvement and deployment of superior AI methods, fairly than outsourcing important digital infrastructure to international suppliers.
Surna’s founder, Hellen S. Momoh, a graduate pupil in information science at Harvard College, says the innovation goes past a single startup.
“If information is the brand new oil, Africa will need to have its personal refinery,” Momoh mentioned. “Surna is constructing the infrastructure layer that enables African establishments to profit from their very own intelligence.”
The corporate’s development within the Harvard Innovation Problem marks a big milestone for Liberia, putting the nation amongst a small however rising group of African nations advancing sovereign AI options.
Trade observers observe that Surna displays a broader continental push—from fintech to local weather intelligence—aimed toward guaranteeing that nationwide digital methods are inbuilt Africa, by Africans, and for African establishments.
With Liberia serving as its proving floor, Surna is focusing on growth throughout West Africa and the ECOWAS area, providing cloud infrastructure, nationwide observability methods, and cross-sector AI capabilities.
Harvard’s Innovation Labs described the semifinalists because the college’s “most promising and high-impact rising ventures,” with finalists to be introduced in March 2026.
If chosen as certainly one of 5 finalists within the Open Monitor, Surna will compete reside for a share of greater than US$500,000 in funding.
For Momoh, the second carries a broader message.
“This milestone isn’t nearly Surna,” she mentioned. “It reveals that Liberia can innovate on the stage of the world’s prime establishments and compete with main know-how ecosystems. That is the start of a brand new chapter for Africa’s digital future.”
