Cassava Technologies and AXON Networks have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop, deploy, and manage Africa’s first end-to-end Operator-as-a-Service (OaaS) platform, a move aimed at accelerating the continent’s digital and artificial intelligence transformation.
The partnership, unveiled at the Counder Conference 2026 in Cape Town, will combine AXON’s AI-ready, real-time, multi-tenant, digital twin-enabled platform with Cassava’s extensive pan-African high-speed fibre backbone to connect millions of people and businesses across Africa and unlock new avenues for economic growth and innovation.
Speaking at the announcement, President and Group CEO of Cassava Technologies, Hardy Pemhiwa, said the collaboration marks a shift away from traditional, hardware-centric infrastructure toward programmable, AI-managed networks.
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“As businesses of all sizes continue to digitise their operations, the need is for cost-effective, flexible, high-performance network solutions that reduce time-consuming manual design and configurations. By partnering with AXON Networks, we are moving beyond traditional hardware-centric infrastructure to create a truly programmable, AI-managed network, which will significantly reduce operational costs and increase access to customers and service providers,” Pemhiwa said.
“This transformation allows us to treat our pan-continental fibre network as a dynamic digital platform, enabling us to provision and modify customer networks in near real-time, rather than days or weeks. We are going beyond connectivity to becoming a partner in the digital transformation journeys of our customers,” he added.
The AI-first OaaS platform is designed to provide secure, private, high-speed data infrastructure for African businesses and service providers, including mobile network operators, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers, and internet service providers. The platform is expected to deliver greater agility, intelligence, and reach, while supporting AI adoption and innovation across the continent.
AXON Networks’ CEO and Founder, Martin Manniche, described the partnership as a transformational opportunity for Africa’s digital future.
“Partnering with Cassava, with its unmatched fibre footprint across the continent and investment in AI-enabled data centres, to integrate our Operator-as-a-Service platform with real-time digital twin technology at this scale, is incredibly exciting,” Manniche said.
“We’re not just mirroring networks — we’re virtualising an entire infrastructure into a live AI-driven ecosystem that will leverage this extensive backbone, including Cassava’s planned AI-powered factory, to bring growth, prosperity, and the promise of AI sovereignty to Africa and its people.”
He added that the initiative would “provide the foundational platform for the AI economy across the African continent and redefine the future for generations to come.”
The announcement was welcomed by the organisers of the Counder Conference, which brought together more than 500 global investors, family office principals, and corporate leaders.
“We are honoured that Cassava Technologies and AXON Networks have chosen Counder Conference 2026 as the platform for this groundbreaking announcement,” said Michel Weiss, Founding Partner and CEO of Counder, alongside Leonard Stiegeler, Founding Partner and Chairman.
“This partnership exemplifies exactly what Counder is designed to foster: trusted connections between visionary leaders that spark meaningful collaboration and drive tangible impact.”
AXON’s OaaS solution uses Digital Twin technology to create a living, self-learning model of Cassava’s network, which spans over 110,000 kilometres of terrestrial and submarine fibre, satellite capacity, and wireless connectivity. By enabling autonomous, self-optimising networks, the platform is expected to reduce operational complexity, speed up service delivery, cut costs, and ensure resilient connectivity at scale across Africa.
