One of Africa’s leading tech founders is returning to the forefront with a new artificial intelligence (AI) initiative.

Karim Jouini, alongside Jihed Othmani, his co-founder from the Tunisian fintech startup Expensya, has unveiled Thunder Code, a generative AI-driven software testing platform. According to TechCrunch, the France- and Tunisia-based startup has successfully secured $9 million in seed funding.

The return to startup life comes almost two years after the pair sold Expensya to Swedish software company Medius in 2023, as reported by the outlet. Although the details of the deal were not disclosed, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the value was estimated to exceed $120 million, making it one of the largest tech exits from Africa to date.

 After the acquisition, Jouini took on the role of chief product and technology officer at Medius. Neither he nor Othmani planned to return to entrepreneurship. However, Jouini’s exposure to the potential of generative AI during this period reignited his passion for building something new.

Driven by this inspiration, Jouini teamed up with Othmani, who had previously developed internal AI tools at Expensya, to co-found Thunder Code. The new company aims to automate manual software testing through AI “agents” that simulate the tasks of human quality assurance testers, according to the company’s website. These agents identify interface issues, learn from user input, and accelerate development workflows.

Thunder Code released its first minimum viable product (MVP) just six weeks into development, TechCrunch reports. Six months later, the platform is being used by paying customers and in pilot programs across the U.S., Canada, France, and Tunisia. While the company is currently focused on web application testing, the team plans to expand into mobile, desktop, and API testing by the end of 2025.

Thunder Code is entering a software testing market projected to exceed $100 billion by 2027. This market, according to TechCrunch, is currently dominated by established platforms like Tricentis and BrowserStack, which the founders believe are slow to adopt new technologies.

Several prominent backers were attracted to the company’s $9 million seed round, including Silicon Badia, Janngo Capital, Titan Seed Fund, and strategic angels such as Roxanne Varza, director of Station F, and Karim Beguir, co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep, one of Africa’s leading AI companies.

Several former and current Expensya employees who had benefited from the Medius acquisition also chose to invest in the new venture.

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