Vibe coding, a method where software is generated from simple natural language prompts instead of hand-written code, is no longer just a Silicon Valley trend—it’s a global phenomenon. By late 2025, it became one of the fastest ways to launch software, cutting development time and costs drastically. Across Africa, where access to engineering talent and venture capital has long limited tech innovation, vibe coding opened doors for solo founders and startups to turn ideas into products almost overnight.
But the speed of vibe coding comes with serious risks. Large language models (LLMs) can inadvertently expose sensitive data like locations, emails, or phone numbers. Nigerian AI startup Cencori spotted these vulnerabilities early. Co-founder and CEO Bola Roy Banjo, who previously worked at FohnAI in AI cybersecurity, saw that as AI products proliferate, they would need a secure infrastructure layer, much like Cloudflare does for websites. “We can’t just trust AI decisions blindly,” Banjo says. “AI applications need ethics, security, and reliability built in from the start.”
Cencori takes a practical, hands-on approach to AI security. Instead of debating ethics in abstract, the platform focuses on real failure points. Developers can specify sensitive data—emails, internal records, or phone numbers—and Cencori enforces protections at the infrastructure level. Co-founder Oreofe Daniel likens it to a “Cloudflare for AI production,” providing automatic failover across AI providers. If one AI service goes down, requests are rerouted seamlessly to others, guaranteeing what Cencori claims is 99.9% uptime for AI apps.
Despite operating largely in stealth, Cencori is already embedded in the workflows of three Y Combinator–backed startups, handling tens of thousands of requests weekly. The stakes are high: without proper infrastructure, AI apps risk leaking personal data or causing irreversible harm. “With vibe coding, these incidents will only increase,” Daniel warns. Cencori’s mission is to plug those gaps before small mistakes escalate into major disasters, ensuring that speed doesn’t come at the cost of security.
Built with African developers in mind, Cencori emphasizes cost-efficiency, simplicity, and fast integration, claiming deployment takes under 20 minutes. The bootstrapped startup is now seeking investors to expand its AI infrastructure roadmap. As AI continues to reshape software development, Cencori bets that success won’t just belong to those who move fastest, but to those who make speed safe—turning vibe coding from a risky experiment into a sustainable, secure foundation for innovation.
source: techcabal