February 2026
Adapting the Mimi Neural Codec for Kikuyu Speech
How we fine-tuned Kyutai's Mimi codec on 750+ hours of Kikuyu audio with a custom pitch-preservation loss — the foundation for real-time voice AI.
researchvoice-ai
Real-time voice and text AI for African languages. We build translation, voice chatbots, and text-to-speech models so businesses can serve customers in Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo, and more.
Our translation engine is live with a 758% improvement over zero-shot baselines. Our voice chatbot lets you converse with AI in spoken Kikuyu.
About Us
C-elo Labs builds production AI for underserved African languages. We fine-tune open-source models on curated African Languages datasets and deploy them as real products.
Our work spans translation (TranslateGemma), voice chat (MMS ASR + TTS), and Speech-to-Speech AI (Mimi codec), with expansion to Kamba, Luo, Kalenjin and other Low Resource languages on the roadmap.
Learn more about usSee It In Action
Watch our AI models translate, speak, and converse in Kikuyu — live demos from our platform.
What We Build
Production AI tools for African languages — from translation to real-time voice interaction.
Translation
LiveEnglish → Kikuyu neural machine translation powered by our fine-tuned TranslateGemma-12B model. Achieves 19.61 BLEU — a 758% improvement over zero-shot.
Voice Chatbot
BetaSpeak in Kikuyu and hear AI respond in Kikuyu. Cascaded pipeline: MMS ASR → LLM → MMS TTS, running on serverless GPUs.
Text-to-Speech
LiveConvert Kikuyu text to natural spoken audio using Meta's MMS-TTS model, adapted for Kikuyu phonetics.
Navigation (C-elo Maps)
LiveTurn-by-turn driving directions with voice guidance in Kikuyu — the first navigation app in an African indigenous language.
Speech-to-Speech AI
In DevelopmentEnd-to-end voice model using the Mimi neural codec — aiming for real-time, full-duplex Kikuyu conversations. Stage 1 codec adaptation complete.
Development Progress
Translation88%
DatasetData
Fine-tuneTrain
DeployDeploy
Human EvalEval
Voice AI63%
ASR + TTSASR
Mimi CodecCodec
StreamingStream
End-to-EndE2E
Text Chatbot13%
Data PipelineData
LLM Fine-tuneTrain
DeployDeploy
Multi-langMulti
Complete
In Progress
Upcoming
C-elo Maps
LiveThe first navigation app with voice guidance in an African indigenous language. Search, navigate, and hear directions — all in Kikuyu.
Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Full driving directions with step-by-step maneuvers, route alternatives, and automatic rerouting.
Kikuyu Voice Guidance
Hear every navigation instruction spoken in natural Gĩkũyũ — powered by C-elo's voice AI.
Built for Africa
Optimized for Kenyan roads and locations. More African languages launching soon.
Available soon on Android
Starting with Kikuyu; Luo, Kalenjin, and Kamba coming next.
iOS in development.
Download APPv1.0.0
Research
Our research focuses on fine-tuning LLMs for African Low Resource languages using advanced techniques like LoRA, QLoRA and synthetic data generation, plus building Speech-to-Speech models with the Mimi neural codec.
We collaborate with initiatives like African Next Voices and Google's WAXAL to create robust datasets and push the boundaries of low-resource language AI.
Explore our researchLatest Updates
January 2026
Building Kikuyu TranslateGemma: From 2.29 to 19.61 BLEU
How we fine-tuned Google's TranslateGemma-12B for English→Kikuyu translation — achieving a 758% improvement through systematic LoRA tuning and production deployment.
researchtranslation
December 2025
Announcing C-elo Labs: AI for African Languages
We're launching C-elo Labs to build production AI for African languages — starting with Kikuyu translation, voice chat, and text-to-speech.
announcement