iLima Digital Foundary (iLima), founded in April 2020, was created out of a great realisation of the need for affordable homes and better living conditions for many people living in South Africa and Africa.
As an independent company based in Johannesburg and San Francisco, iLima is disrupting the current construction process by harnessing big data, robotics, and industrialized construction technologies to accelerate the construction of affordable housing and self-sustainable communities for Africa.
This will be achieved through our unique AI-driven Construction Innovation Platform (ACIP) matching producers and users across the complete building lifecycle enabling the building of Affordable housing “cheaper, faster with more quality and sustainability”.
Everything Africa Ready.”
“i-lima“ is an African word which describes a common community practice all over Africa, a definition can be
- hoe, plough, dig up the soil
- Cultivate, grow crops, carry on agriculture
- Communal cultivation, working-bee for cultivating (when neighbours help to cultivate a large field
- Field ploughed by communal cultivation

Karsten Popp
iLima CEO USA
Karsten has multiple years of experience leading a variety of global organizations from start-ups to multinational technology companies in Europe, USA and Asia. Before iLima, Karsten was Chief Revenue Officer at Bright Machines, Senior Vice President of Autodesk, Vice President of Mentor Graphics, and Chief Executive Officer of Adelante Technology. Karsten holds a B.SC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Johannesburg. He served as a board member for 15 years at the #1 ranked Business School in Europe, HEC Paris, and is currently a member of the California State University Big Data Advisory Council.

Friedl Swanepoel
iLima CTO Africa
Friedl J Swanepoel heads Industri4, a company specialising in navigation, guidance and control of robots.
He has gained vast experience within the aerospace industry and now applies this knowledge in the development of autonomous mobile platforms that focus on the development of robots for the construction industry.

Anthony Modena
iLima CEO Africa

Abhijit Oak
CEO Quilios and iLima partner
