TIME100 AI 2026 · Leaders
Moustapha Cissé
Founder and CEO, Kera Health Platforms
His AI health insurer in Senegal runs entirely through WhatsApp and approves claims within 30 seconds; providers there usually wait 120 days to be paid.
- Born
- Senegal
- Now
- Founder and CEO, Kera Health Platforms
- Studied
- Pierre and Marie Curie University, Gaston Berger University
Interesting facts
- Turning point
At 19 he became very sick after being misdiagnosed, which made him curious about how healthcare fails and led him to math, physics and AI.
ifc.org - First
In 2018 he set up and led Google's first engineering site and AI research team in Africa, in Accra, Ghana.
ifc.org - First
Founded the African Masters of Machine Intelligence, the continent's first graduate program in AI, backed by both Facebook and Google.
medium.com - Side project
Sura has no app and barely a website: every customer interaction runs through WhatsApp.
time.com - In their words
Wants to take Sura to the US and beyond, "because the need is the same everywhere."
time.com
Career
- Kera Health PlatformsFounder and CEO2023 to now
- AIMSProfessor of AI; Founder and Director, AMMI, African Masters of Machine Intelligence2018 to now
- GoogleHead of Google AI Center, Accra, Google AI Center Accra2018–2023
- MetaResearch Scientist, FAIR2016–2018
Education
- PhD, Machine learning, Pierre and Marie Curie University, 2014
- Master's, Artificial intelligence, Pierre and Marie Curie University, 2010
- Mathematics and physics, Gaston Berger University
