Bothlale

Botlhale AI was born out of a shared vision to revolutionise the way businesses interact with their customers.

Founded in 2020 by Thapelo Nthite, Sange Maxaku, and Xolisani Nkwentsha, with a mission to address a critical gap in digital customer services—language inclusion. As businesses increasingly adopted digital platforms to engage with customers, English remained the dominant language of communication, leaving a significant number of people excluded from the benefits of digital services.

The spark that ignited the founding of Botlhale came from a personal experience that Thapelo had with his grandmother. During a simple interaction, Thapelo’s Setswana-speaking grandmother asked for help loading airtime onto her phone. Although she clearly understood what she wanted to do, she was unable to complete the task on her own because the airtime voucher, her phone, and all the instructions were all in English—a language she isn’t confident or comfortable with. This personal experience served as a catalyst, inspiring Thapelo to envision a future where technology would be accessible and inclusive to all, regardless of their linguistic abilities.