About Proto
We love language and automation
Proto's global team lives and works at the frontier of AI workflows in emerging markets.
Made in Canada
Global mission, inclusive values
Join us on our mission to deploy AI workflows for safe, fair and effective interactions.
Reverse innovation
Proto proves practical AI in emerging markets prior to redeployment in developed economies.
Equitable access
Proto is committed to ensuring equal access to AI regardless of language, income or geography.
Institutional trust
Proto prioritises trust with security and AI control features that ensure sovereign deployments.
2018
Proto is founded by Curtis Matlock at the National Taiwan University while he studies the Chinese language on the country’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship.

proto
noun
[prō-tō]
the root of human language
2019
Proto joins the NextAI and Creative Destruction Lab accelerators in Canada, and launches its first chatbots for low-resource and mixed languages in Southeast Asia.

2020
Proto earns its first public sector clients, starting with the Central Bank of the Philippines, and is recognised in the Inclusive Fintech 50 by Visa, MetLife, IFC, and Accion.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
The multilingual Proto chatbot empowers financial consumers by giving them a more accessible channel for raising complaints. This is in line with the central bank's commitment to pursue innovations in financial services for the benefit of Filipinos.
2021
Proto expands into Sub-Saharan Africa, deploying at the National Bank of Rwanda with African Development Bank support.

2022
Proto raises its Series A round and expands into private sector industries with enterprise clients like The Medical City, PhilCare, and FINCA.

2023
Proto launches its latest end-to-end platform with generative and voice AI for underserved languages, such as Tagalog and Kinyarwanda.
tgl
Tagalog
rw
Kinyarwanda
2024
Proto partners with the Gates Foundation and Canada's government to deliver national AI communications systems across more low-and-middle-income markets.

2025
Proto processes 35 million AI interactions across more than 20 languages, and is recognised the by the G20 TechSprint for its work in grievance redressal.

2026
Proto focuses on its anti-scam centre, patient experience, and insight advisor usecases to deliver the highest social impact with AI.
Our leaders
Proto’s team is as diverse as its clients.
Noella Dushime
Noella is a business expansion leader specialised in the application of new technology to Africa’s public sector. Her career started in the telecom industry and led to Irembo, the e-government platform of Rwanda, where she led growth and partnerships. She studied information technology at Mount Kenya University and computer science at the University of Rwanda.
Andy Jung
Andy is a fullstack software engineer specialised in enterprise security and lean developer team management. His career is featuring the balanced integration of AI-based tools for design, development, and quality assurance processes to increase product velocity. He studied statistics at the University of Toronto, with a focus on data science and machine learning.
Weiying Kok
Weiying is a natural language processing expert leading Proto’s multinational engineering team and implementing AI deployments for enterprise and governments. Her career started at MIMOS, Malaysia’s applied research and development centre for socio-economic growth, following studies in cognitive science at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Curtis Matlock
Curtis is a founder dedicated to deploying AI in underserved markets. He served in Canada’s armed forces, graduated in political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, and studied Chinese at the National Taiwan University. He leads Proto's social impact focus on public policy feedback loops with training from the UN's international labour organisation at the University of Turin.
Margarita Serrano
Margarita is a customer experience and prompt engineering specialist at Proto, focused on AI solutions for multilingual contact centres. Her career spans contact centre operations, account management, and customer success across companies including Concentrix and Zenleads. She holds a Bachelor of Science from St. Scholastica's College Manila.
Remote team, local footprint
Proto serves its clients from key locations in Asia and Africa.
Waterloo
Global
14 Erb St. W,
Waterloo, ON N2L 1S7,
Canada
Waterloo, ON N2L 1S7,
Canada
Bonifacio Global City
Asia
One Park Drive, 707, 11th cor 9th Ave,
BGC, Taguig 1635
Philippines
BGC, Taguig 1635
Philippines
Kigali
Africa
Norrsken House,
1 KN 78 St, Kigali,
Rwanda
1 KN 78 St, Kigali,
Rwanda


