Grapevine started with an African seed and grew for two decades elsewhere: America, then Asia. In 2025 we planted our first African office in Kigali. Not an expansion. A return.
Not a business case for Africa. A personal one.
My family left East Africa when I was young, the way millions of families have left, for the same reasons. Conflict. Instability. The quiet arithmetic that convinces a family the future is somewhere else.
The continent didn’t fail us. It was destabilized, and every generation that scatters carries its talent out with it. That is the machine we came back to break.
A full scholarship in Computer Science. Then the world turned, weeks before I graduated into it, and the degree couldn’t buy me a job.
Grapevine started there, not as a business plan but as a refusal. Computer repair became websites. Websites became marketing. Marketing became automation and software.
The equation has never changed: when opportunity isn’t offered, you build it.
Straight out of university, I spent a year back on the continent teaching computer skills to young people and journalists, on machines the diaspora shipped home, as the internet was first arriving.
Access, knowledge and initiative. Nothing I’ve built in the two decades since has improved on that formula.
Today Grapevine is a team across America, Asia and Africa (payments, booking, marketing, automation and software) serving clients and partners anywhere in the world.
We’re not arriving with a thesis. We’re arriving with infrastructure that already runs.
Kigali is not an expansion market. It is a return.
We are not speculators and we are not here for arbitrage. We are African, building for Africa, alongside partners who intend to still be here in thirty years.
The goal is a generation strong enough, stable enough and enough in ownership of what they build that no one can offer them an exit, or a tribe, or a border, in exchange for their future.
“I had to leave to find opportunity. The next generation won’t have to.”
Mike A. · FounderPayments, booking, AI, marketing and automation: five products, ours, running for clients on three continents. Nothing here is a reseller badge on someone else’s software.
The all-in-one platform running CRM, AI, marketing and communication.
ExploreBillingPayments, invoicing and subscriptions, managed under our own roof.
ExploreIsaacOur AI engine, the intelligence behind chat, voice and automation.
ExploreBookingOur reservation engine, built to turn visitors into booked customers.
ExploreMarketingThe 20-year agency where it all began: strategy, SEO, ads and brand.
ExploreWe didn’t come home to fund Africa’s future. We came home to build inside it.
01Working technology in African hands: the same stack our global clients run on, not a stripped-down version of it.
02Skills, accounts and equity that belong to the people who build them. Ownership is the point, not the perk.
03We measure this in decades. The Kigali office is a commitment, not a pilot, and we intend to still be here in thirty years.
From recurring billing to the next generation of agency owners, here’s what we’re building from Kigali today.
Rwanda’s first fully automated recurring billing platform, created in collaboration with DPO Pay. What happens when like-minded partners come together to solve a real problem.
In partnership with DPO Paybilling.grapevine.softwarePractical digital marketing at partner schools, built to turn graduates into agency owners who earn here, at home.
grapevine.academyEast Africa’s youth basketball league, and a real client for Academy students building its websites, videos and app content.
byl.africaThe logo is on the wall, the team is at work and the door is open. Stop by, say hello and let’s talk about what we can build together.
“If you want to go fast, go alone.If you want to go far, go together.”
“We must dareto invent the future.”
“Read, study lessons and build your inner power.The next level doesn’t tolerate cowards.”
The strongest partnerships are built around a shared vision, not only of where we are today, but of the future we want to create. We’re looking for people, businesses and organizations who share that mindset: building with purpose, embracing technology, creating opportunity and investing in Africa’s next generation.
That vision is already taking shape. In collaboration with DPO Pay, we created Grapevine Billing, Rwanda’s first fully automated recurring billing platform.
Businesses, organizations and talent who intend to still be here in thirty years: that’s who we’re looking for. Let’s talk.