Cirquu has opened its AI-powered business management platform to public sign-ups, giving African companies access to tools for sales, accounting, and staff management at subscriptions starting from ₦9,000 ($6.70) per month.

Michael Njoku, the company's founder and chief executive, announced the launch at Moonshot by TechCabal, the publication's technology conference in Lagos, on Wednesday, October 28. Until now, the platform had spent roughly a year operating through what Njoku described as private placements. The first 100 people to sign up will receive three months free.

"Today, we're opening it up to the general public, where everybody can sign up for it," Njoku said.

Cirquu is targeting businesses that currently juggle separate applications to manage customers, stock, finances, and employees. According to the company, its AI can configure a workspace around a company's specific needs, consolidating those functions into a single system.

The Starter plan includes customer relationship management, point-of-sale tools, inventory management, e-commerce, and accounting. A Growth plan, priced at ₦15,000 ($11.10) per month, adds features including human resources, payroll, analytics, and workflows.

The offering places Cirquu in competition with established business software providers such as Zoho and Sage, international vendors with long histories in accounting and business software. Njoku argued that the company's advantage lies in designing for local requirements, including tax, human resources, and data protection, as well as integrations with local tools and banks. Data protection carries particular weight in Nigeria, where the Data Protection Act of 2023 set statutory standards for how organizations collect and process personal data.

Data handling is also central to purchasing decisions for businesses evaluating AI software, given the sensitivity of financial records, employee information, and customer data. Asked about those concerns, Njoku said Cirquu runs on its own AI rather than an external platform, and that customer information remains within each user's workspace.

"It's not using any external AI platform; it owns its own AI," he said. "It's not sharing with us, not sharing with anybody."

The company says its protections include encryption and access controls. However, Njoku's comments did not provide technical details on how the AI is hosted or how customer information is isolated, leaving those claims to be assessed beyond the presentation.

Opening public sign-ups shifts Cirquu from a limited rollout to a broader commercial test. Its pitch is that businesses can replace several disconnected applications with a single workspace that uses AI to handle operational tasks and generate answers.

Whether that translates into adoption will depend on how well the platform performs routine work — from recording sales to running payroll — and how easily companies can migrate their existing processes onto it. Two near-term markers stand out: whether Cirquu publishes more technical detail on its AI hosting and data isolation, and how many of the first 100 sign-ups stay on once the free three months run out.

Source: TechCabal