A Nigerian founder has caught the attention of Elon Musk’s xAI after his AI product started gaining traction online.
Sulaiman Adewale built Xara, a WhatsApp-based AI assistant that doesn’t just answer questions, it actually executes financial transactions.
The product can scan account numbers, send money, track spending patterns, and even automate payments, all through a simple chat interface. You can get the full report here.
It didn’t start that way.
Xara began as a personal tool. Adewale, who is short-sighted, originally built it to help interpret the world through his phone. That early idea later evolved into a full financial assistant.
The choice of WhatsApp wasn’t random. It removes friction. People don’t need to download anything new or learn a new system. They just open a chat and use it.
That simplicity is part of what made it spread.
In less than a year, Xara has grown to around 45,000 users and processed billions in transactions, showing there’s real demand for this kind of interface.
The bigger shift is what the product represents.
AI tools are moving from assistants to operators. Instead of guiding users, they are starting to take actions on their behalf.
That’s where the interest from xAI comes in.
For years, most AI breakthroughs have been tied to Silicon Valley. But moments like this suggest something is changing. Builders in places like Nigeria are not just adopting AI, they are shaping how it is used.
And sometimes, it only takes one product getting attention for the rest of the world to notice.
