V75 Inc, a tech company of just under 30 engineers specialising in conversational AI, leading the way

Guyana is seeking to reverse its brain drain through the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) start-up companies.

While the most talk around the South American country these days revolved around its oil and gas boom, there is a growing focus around its small but growing business process outsourcing (BPO) market, which it is anticipated would stem the brain drain. Local entrepreneurs are eager to kick off Guyana’s tech eco-system. 

By developing a laser-focused tech services industry, Eldon Marks, CEO at V75 Inc, believes that Guyana can reduce the far-reaching impact of its brain drain, where half of the population with tertiary education leaves the country and 39 per cent of citizens live abroad. This, while positioning the country as a valuable Nearshore tech option. 

V75 Inc is a tech company of just under 30 engineers specialising in conversational AI and Marks observes that “the amount of people leaving has a tremendous impact and what we’re trying to do here, at least in the realm of tech, is to dampen that statistic. In a nutshell, our intention is to pair upskilling initiatives and talent with the alignment of employment opportunities here, to retain our talent and engage them and grow the local tech ecosystem”.

Formation of V75 Inc

Marks formed V75 Inc four years ago after a 13-year academic career at the University of Guyana. Guyana offers strong cost saving potential against onshore talent in the US and Canada. V75 charges US$55 per hour for its top tier AI engineers, who have several years of experience.

This mix of quality expertise and low cost has helped the firm capture business from several major global corporations including Barclays and Wells Fargo.

V75 Inc’s relationship with Clinc, a Michigan-based conversational AI vendor, has been vital to the expansion of the company and that of its NGO arm, NEXUS Hub, which helps bridge the gap between formal education and professional expectations. 

Marks is among the lead architects in the construction of Guyana’s fledgling tech ecosystem.

Guyana is a country where 60 per cent of gross domestic product is based on the export of six commodities from agriculture that are highly susceptible to adverse weather conditions and fluctuations in commodity prices. As such, new sources of job creation like the BPO sector and AI systems are vital to Guyana’s development. 

Moving into the Extended Reality and game development

V75 is now moving into the extended reality (XR) and game development markets, promoting these areas as growth verticals with long-term potential. The global game development industry is set to surpass US$256 billion in value by 2025, while investment into development of wearable technologies for consumers and industry by global tech companies is soaring.

“Our decision to focus on AI was very deliberate and the expansion into game development and XR that we’re in the midst of now is also deliberate. Game development and XR are new, innovative tech industries that have low automation potential when it comes to occupations; there will be job security for the foreseeable future for specialists up skilled in these and other similar industries,” Marks advised Nearshore Americas in an interview.

However, there are hurdles to be overcome before Guyana becomes a rival to niche regions like Eastern Europe. Guyana’s main tertiary education institution, University of Guyana had only 449 students enrolled in its Computer Science Department for the 2021-2022 academic year. 

Part of the reason for low student figures could be the lack of engagement at the government level. 

Aside from hackathons and a handful of small promotional events, there have been “no substantial strides to support local tech ecosystems” explains Marks.

Peter Ramsaroop, chief investment officer at GoInvest, the Guyanese government’s investment promotion agency, told Nearshore Americas recently that the organisation is  interested in helping and promoting the country’s budding tech eco-system.

The focus on a niche specialisation – conversational AI has allowed the company to carve out its own space in the Nearshore market, and to offer valuable expertise that are not found easily elsewhere. This approach was in part a remedy to the country’s limited opportunities for scaling, and part a way to provide a career path for engineers at home.