SA’s Refiant AI Raises USD 5 M Seed To Build Energy-Efficient AI Models

South African startup Refiant AI has raised USD 5 M in seed funding to advance its AI model compression technology and expand enterprise adoption.

Founded in 2025 by Viroshan Naicker, Siddharth Gutta, and Mathew Haswell, the company develops algorithms that restructure and compress AI models, reducing computational weight while maintaining performance.

This enables models to run efficiently on smaller, local machines, lowering reliance on energy-intensive data centres.

The round was led by VoLo Earth Ventures, a California-based climate tech fund. Refiant AI is positioning itself at the intersection of AI and climate, addressing the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence by making models more efficient, scalable, and sustainable.