ABOUT

My name is Arolle. I am an entrepreneur, CEO of IDEM and a senior software engineer. I have been coding since the age of 10, and it is a field that has been with me ever since.

Over the years I have learned a great deal about technology, but also about the place Africa can take in this ecosystem. I do not want Africa to be merely a market for technologies built elsewhere. I want to take part in creating technologies that come from here, that answer our realities and that we can genuinely master.

That is also why open source holds an important place in my journey. I love being able to look at how a technology works, contribute to it, improve it and, in turn, share what I have learned.

I have had the chance to contribute to projects used by developers all over the world, notably Google's AngularFire as well as several libraries from the Flutter ecosystem.

And this urge to build did not stop at contributing to existing projects. It also pushed me to create IDEM.

With IDEM, we want to use artificial intelligence to let anyone start from a simple idea and progressively build a profitable business. The project is designed in Africa, to answer African needs, with an open source approach and a real ambition around our technological sovereignty.

In 2026, IDEM received the 3rd Orange POESAM prize. To me that is an important milestone, but certainly not an end point.

I want to keep building, keep contributing and keep creating technologies that can be used here as well as anywhere else.

Deep down, that is what guides everything I do. I want to see an Africa that no longer merely uses technology, but takes full part in creating it, evolving it and owning it.

African tech, open, and owned by Africans.