A Kenyan AI company named Phindor has officially launched JuaFlow, a platform it claims will let businesses build, deploy, and – most importantly – govern their own custom AI agents. This marks a significant pivot for the company, moving it from the crowded chatbot market to the more complex world of enterprise-wide AI automation.
Phindor was founded by Pheneas Munene and John Maina while they were engineering students at the Technical University of Kenya. According to the founders, the company’s name (a play on “finder”) came from its original concept: a simple AI to help people find products online.
“We started by solving the problem of endless window-shopping,” said co-founder Pheneas Munene. That initial idea evolved into Phindor’s first major product, Lisa, an AI assistant designed to help businesses manage customer communications. Lisa automated interactions across WhatsApp, email, and social media, and also handled tasks like scheduling.
However, the company says its Lisa customers began asking for more than just customer support automation. According to Munene, they “discovered they needed something far more powerful than product matching – they needed AI that could adapt to their unique business processes.”
This feedback is the catalyst for JuaFlow.
Phindor is explicitly stating that JuaFlow is “not just another chatbot platform.” Instead, it’s being pitched as a “full-suite platform” where a company’s internal teams can design and deploy specific AI agents for various operational needs, well beyond customer service. The company lists examples like inventory management, sales forecasting, marketing, finance, HR, and logistics.
The key feature Phindor is highlighting is “governance.” This is meant to address a major enterprise concern: deploying AI without losing control. The JuaFlow platform supposedly has built-in governance frameworks to ensure the AI agents comply with company rules and provide oversight.
“It’s a complete ecosystem for businesses to harness AI across their entire organization while maintaining control, security, and alignment with their unique processes,” explained co-founder John Maina. The platform is also designed to integrate with a company’s existing tools and workflows.
The founders are framing the launch as a product of the local tech scene. “We’re proving that world-class AI innovation can come from anywhere,” Maina added. “JuaFlow was built with the agility and problem-solving mindset that defines the African tech ecosystem.”
JuaFlow is available now, and Phindor claims early adopters are already deploying custom agents for functions ranging from customer service to supply chain optimization.
