Author: Akin Naphtal

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has chosen Peter O’Halloran, the long-time CIO of ACT Health, as its next chief digital officer. O’Halloran announced his appointment to ADHA in a LinkedIn post. “Between now and February 27, I am madly trying to close out a few key deliverables at ACT Health”, O’Halloran wrote. READ ALSO: US- Indian launches Alliance to boost number of women in STEM and workforce IBM Partner MBZUAI to Launch an Advanced AI for Climate and Culture Amazon Web Services Launches New Local Zones Location in Nigeria “After 17 years working in the public health system (13-plus…

Terra Drone, a Japan-based company that builds drone software, hardware and uncrewed aircraft traffic management software, has raised $14 million in Series C funding from Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco. This marks the VC firm’s first investment in Asia, and brings Terra Drone’s total raised to $97 million since its inception in 2016. It declined to comment on its post-money valuation. According to sources familiar with the situation, the startup was valued at more than $200 million in March last year when Terra Drone closed a $70 million Series B. READ ALSO:Dell Technologies Acquires Cloudify for…

South African mobile gaming startup Carry1st has raised a US$27 million funding round to develop, license, and publish new games, as well as further expand Pay1st, its monetisation-as-a-service solution. Founded in 2018 and based in Cape Town, Carry1st is a mobile games publisher serving the first generation of African smartphone users, which has so far reached millions of users across the region with games such as Mine Rescue and SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off. The startup has also launched proprietary payments and an online marketplace to better monetise content. READ ALSO: Amazon Web Services Launches New Local Zones Location in Nigeria US-…

Dell Technologies has announced that it has completed the 100% acquisition of Israeli startup, Cloudify an “environment-as-a-service” platform, known for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation for a whooping $100 million, according to TechCrunch sources. Cloudify is an open-source, multi-cloud orchestration platform featuring unique technology that packages infrastructure, networking, and existing automation tools into certified blueprints that enable heterogeneous environments to be managed at scale, with automated provisioning and updates. READ ALSO:US- Indian launches Alliance to boost number of women in STEM and workforce IBM Partner MBZUAI to Launch an Advanced AI for Climate and Culture Connectbase Partners with LB Networks…

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new AWS Local Zones location in Lagos, Nigeria. AWS describes Local Zones as a new type of infrastructure designed to run workloads that require single-digit millisecond latency, like video rendering and graphics intensive, virtual desktop applications. The Lagos State Government, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, and The Terragon Group are among customers. These workloads require availability zone resources to run effectively, but, as AWS explains, not every customer wants to operate their own on-premise availability zone, while others may be interested in getting rid of their local availability zone entirely. READ ALSO: US- Indian…

A top India-centric American business advocacy group, in collaboration with various US government agencies and a prestigious university, has announced an alliance to increase the number of women in STEM education and the workforce in India. The launch of the US-India Alliance for Women’s Economic Empowerment STEM Collaborative was announced by Mukesh Aghi, president and CEO of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum during the US-India Alliance Shatter Summit. India and the US tech synergy is well evinced in India being an IT powerhouse and the US having the most robust tech economy. However, there is still a lacuna in…

Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in collaboration with IBM formally launched an AI Center of Excellence recently as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s World Future Energy Summit. According to the company, the Center aims to advance collaboration to improve the adoption of AI technology and help drive sustainability. The Center will develop carbon neutral solutions to existing energy supplies, combat climate change, and further natural language processing (NLP) for Arabic dialects. Experts from IBM and MBZUAI plan to focus on decarbonization, with advanced research into climate change mitigation and adaptation. Joint research teams will work on…

Connectbase, the Industry Cloud for Connectivity, announces its partnership with LB Networks for buying and selling connectivity with assurance. Through this partnership, Connectbase and LB Networks are able to provide an Assured Ethernet transparency option to connectivity buyers leveraging the Connectbase platform. “Through this partnership between Connectbase and LB Networks we provide an enhanced, end-to-end customer experience with intelligence and assurance. The network assurance builds on the trust and confidence in the data and serviceability that users of The Connected World experience,” said Ben Edmond, CEO and Founder at Connectbase. “LB Networks has partnered with service providers across our ecosystem…

The UK’s former chancellor Philip Hammond has been appointed as the chair of the London-based digital asset unicorn Copper. The new chair, Hammond said that the UK should be leading the crypto sector as a “post-Brexit” opportunity, pointing to the progress already made by European nations. Copper said he has provided “strategic advice as the firm has grown significantly and expanded its operations and services globally”. Since taking on his role, Copper has grown to 300 staff from 50 and doubled its revenue, the firm said in a statement. The firm has also clinched top deals with leading financial institutions…

Focus Group has announced it has made a “strategic investment” in Zest4; a Cheshire-based unified communications provider. Mandy Fazelynia, managing director of Zest4, will continue to lead the business together with the current Zest4 directors and existing management team. She plans on doubling revenue in the next two years, with a focus on becoming the wholesale partner of choice to the channel. The investment will see Freddie Fazelynia (founder of Zest4) and Kevan Wakerley (CFO) remain on board as advisors. Fazelynia explained, “We have invested heavily in Zest4 over the years, becoming one of the best-known service providers to the…