Strategic Partnership between iLima Digital Foundry and Goldratt Research Labs
iLima Digital Foundry and Goldratt Research Labs are excited to announce a strategic partnership aimed at revolutionizing the delivery of affordable housing in Africa. This collaboration combines iLima’s innovative AI and digital solutions with Goldratt's cutting-edge research methodologies to create holistic, scalable, efficient, and sustainable housing and smart village solutions across the continent.
13 August 2025: iLima Digital Foundry and Goldratt Research Labs are excited to announce a strategic partnership aimed at revolutionizing the delivery of affordable housing in Africa. This collaboration combines iLima’s innovative AI and digital solutions with Goldratt’s cutting-edge research methodologies to create holistic, scalable, efficient, and sustainable housing and smart village solutions across the continent.
Transforming Affordable Housing
Africa faces a critical housing shortage, with millions lacking access to safe and affordable living conditions. iLima Digital Foundry leverages advanced technologies, including data analytics, AI, and digital modeling, to streamline building processes across the complete building and village lifecycle. Meanwhile, Goldratt Research Labs applies the Theory of Constraints and innovative management strategies to enhance operational efficiency and project delivery.
Key Objectives of the Partnership
- Enhance Efficiency: Streamlining the building and village construction processes using advanced AI technology linked to constraint-focused and research-based strategies.
- Beyond just housing, the partnership's efforts may also encompass improvements in local infrastructure, such as access to alternative energy, clean water, sanitation, and transportation.
- Increase Accessibility: Delivering affordable housing and smart village solutions to underserved populations across Africa.
- Sustainability Commitment: Focusing on environmentally friendly practices in construction and development.
- Capacity Building: Training local workforce and stakeholders in innovative construction techniques and project management.
Quotes from Leadership
“We believe that our partnership will be a game-changer in addressing the housing crisis in Africa,” said Karsten Popp, CEO of iLima Digital Foundry. “By combining our technological expertise with Goldratt’s proven systemic and holistic methodologies, we can move from the traditional ‘silo-based approach’ to a more integrated, holistic, and lifecycle approach—delivering homes faster, at lower cost, with greater quality and sustainability—thereby creating a significant impact on the lives of many.”
“Working together with iLima Digital Foundry allows us to leverage our Theory of Constraints expertise and Digital Twin platforms to help solve real-world challenges in the affordable housing sector, one constraint at a time,” added Dr. Alan Barnard, CEO of Goldratt Research Labs.
Next Steps and Future Plans
The partnership will initially focus on pilot projects in key regions identified in South Africa as high-need areas. Stakeholders and community leaders will be engaged throughout the process, ensuring that the solutions developed are tailored to local contexts. Successful pilot projects can serve as models for larger-scale initiatives across other regions in Africa, expanding to other countries facing similar challenges.
iLima is on a mission to eliminate Africa’s (and the world’s) affordable housing backlog by transforming how homes are planned, financed, approved, built, and operated. We use AI to support digital twins, social twins, and financial twins to unlock latent capacity by fixing what delays—not what builds—the homes and the villages. We start in South Africa where we have a footprint and understand the problem. Then Africa, then global.
GRL works with customers from both the private and public sectors, typically through joint-research partnerships, to design, validate, plan, execute, and operationalize solutions that help their customers overcome constraints to achieve more with less, in less time. GRL’s customers include Fortune 500 companies, as well as government agencies and NGOs.