Safi Analytics was founded to provide factories with smart and sustainable options for scaling. Its real-time, cloud-based platform empowers factory teams to make production more efficient at every level. Teams can more easily communicate, solve problems and make decisions using real-time metrics. They can also use the platform to more confidently plan ahead and adjust projections as problems arise or new insights become available. 

The idea for the company came about in August 2016, when cofounders Lauren and Jason Dunford were working on a project for business school at Stanford University. Jason, who is Kenyan, saw the struggle that family and friends operating businesses in Nairobi had in tracking key metrics such as energy use. In response, he and Lauren designed an energy-management system that was intuitive and easy to use from a smartphone. After seeing how early customers used the system, they realized that the real-time data supplied by factory machines could be translated into visuals to help optimize production as well as energy efficiency. The Safi team prototyped and brought to market a new version of the platform, which is now helping teams in more than forty factories across both East Africa and North America become more efficient.

Safi Analytics received funding from angel investors in 2018, followed by a 2019 seed round that included investment from Chandaria Capital and DEG Upscaling.