Most workplace software was built for humans. Lua is rebuilding it for both.
- Most workplace software was built for humans.
- The London-based startup is developing an operating system for collaboration between human teams and AI agents and recently closed a...
- From broken workflows to a $5.8M fix Lorcan O’Cathain previously served as COO at 4G Capital, a Kenyan-based fintech, and is...
- Non-technical teams get a visual interface with the same capabilities.
Keep reading for the full breakdown on AI — everything you need to know is covered below.
The London-based startup is developing an operating system for collaboration between human teams and AI agents and recently closed a $5.8 million seed round led by Norrsken22, with participation from Flourish Ventures, 20VC, P1 Ventures, Phosphor Capital, and Y Combinator. Angel backers include Henri Stern, CEO of Privy, Kaz Nejatian, CEO of Opendoor, and Med Benmansour, CEO of Nuitee.
The raise arrives at a moment when businesses everywhere are drowning in AI tools they cannot coordinate. Lua’s founders saw that problem up close, building fintech products across East Africa, and decided the fix was not another chatbot. It was an operating system.
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From broken workflows to a $5.8M fix
Lorcan O’Cathain previously served as COO at 4G Capital, a Kenyan-based fintech, and is a co-founder of Money254, adding deep roots to Africa’s fintech ecosystem. Stefan Kruger was VP of Engineering at Paystack, joining before its acquisition by Stripe.
Together, they watched fast-growing companies strain under the weight of tools that never talked to each other, and workforces that had no way to manage the AI agents suddenly sitting alongside them.
Their answer was Lua, a human-AI agent OS that handles the infrastructure layer most businesses never want to think about. The platform manages model orchestration, data, channel integrations, and monitoring, leaving teams to focus entirely on business logic and the integrations their agents need. Technical teams get a full developer framework. Non-technical teams get a visual interface with the same capabilities.
O’Cathain does not soften his view on what this moment demands of businesses. “The companies that will win over the next few years are the ones that build their agent workforce with the same intentionality they bring to their human workforce,” he said.
“Most businesses are either blocked by technical complexity or locked into rigid tools that don’t reflect how their teams actually work.”
30% weekly revenue growth tells its own story
The market appears to agree. Since launching its agent developer platform in October 2025, Lua has seen revenue grow by close to 30% week-on-week. In February 2026 alone, more agents were built on Lua than in the entire cumulative period since launch.
Early customers include African fintechs Turaco, Tushop, Umba, and Numida, all of which use Lua to automate internal processes and coordinate work between human teams and AI agent systems. Those deployments span radically different markets, giving Lua a data advantage that is difficult to manufacture from a single geography.
That global footprint is precisely what convinced Norrsken22 to lead the round. “We are thrilled to support Lua. The founders fundamentally understand how agent and human workforces need to collaborate to get work done,” said Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22.
“Additionally, they are a global company that has deployed in Africa, Asia, the U.S. and Europe with deep experience, a volume of data, and a pricing intuition that’s difficult to replicate.”
Lua plans to deploy the new capital to expand its developer community and grow its Lua Implementation Network, a partner ecosystem deploying human-AI agent workforces across global markets.