Author: Akin Naphtal

London-based startup Carter has raised £1.7m in pre-seed capital to bring conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to background video game characters. Carter is targeting developers, who can use the startup’s API to build non-playable characters (NPCs) for their games. The company claims its AI can generate more realistic interactions between the human player and virtual characters. In a statement, Carter’s founder, Danial Ali, said: “We’ve all seen these incredibly meaningful human-to-machine relationships on screens growing up – ‘JARVIS and Tony Stark’, ‘C3PO and Luke Skywalker’ and ‘Samantha and Theodore’ to name a few.” Ali added: “Everybody on earth should have access…

From 1 January 2023, Microsoft will begin to roll out a European Union (EU) Data Boundary solution to public sector and commercial customers in the EU. The Data Boundary was created to bolster existing residency approaches and to provide more authority over data and enhanced visibility, while at the same time adhering to EU standards and industry-related regulations. READ ALSO: Smart TV Music Video App ROXi Adds Simon Cowell As An Investor Bp invests $20m AUD in solar technology Legal tech Sprintlaw to service startups next door with New Zealand launch End users will have the capacity to keep and…

ROXi, a UK-based music-video app for smart televisions, has added Simon Cowell as an investor and inked a partnership deal with Samsung. London-headquartered ROXi, which says that its library encompasses approximately 90 million music videos and some 400,000 karaoke tracks, formally announced both developments today. On the former front, Simon Cowell, besides taking an interest in ROXi, is now set to curate exclusive music-video playlists for the service. And in doing so, the 63-year-old (who previously coordinated with TikTok, Universal Music, and Samsung to create a collaboration tool called StemDrop) will join current ROXi curators including Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue,…

More than a year after its UK debut, Sydney-based legal technology company Sprintlaw has ramped up its international ambitions by expanding its services to startups and small businesses in New Zealand. Founded in 2017 by Alex Solo and Tomoyuki Hachigo, who won the legal category at the 2021 Sydney Young Entrepreneur Awards, Sprintlaw has developed custom-made bots to streamline legal services and offer a cost-effective alternative for budding entrepreneurs. The online-only company offers fixed-fee packages that cover services like business set up, business structuring, contract drafting, contract reviews, intellectual property protection, privacy, lease reviews, financing and more. READ ALSO: UK…

Bp ventures has made a $20 million AUD (£11m) investment in 5B Holdings Pty, an Australian renewable company. 5B’s leading solar technology, the 5B Maverick, will enable rapid deployment of solar power at scale. It consists of up to 90 solar panels mounted on specially designed frames that can be unfolded and installed at speed. READ ALSO: UK Tech Industry Raises the Highest in Europe in 2022, says Report Telecoming Partners MTN to Boost Sportech in Africa Airtel Niger Partners Ericsson to 5G Enable Network Johnathan Stone, Principal at bp ventures said: “5B’s innovative solar technology can deliver low-cost power…

Global mobile tech firm Telecoming, which specialises in sport and entertainment monetisation technologies, has penned an agreement with the MTN Group to reach a potential 280-million user base in Africa. The agreement, the second global deal signed by Telecoming with a telco group, is intended to monetise mobile sportech across 21 countries in Africa. Telecoming said it also strengthens the company’s structure on a continent where it has been operating since 2015. “The alliance with MTN Group enriches the possibilities and penetration of Telecoming’s digital services business in the region, opening up new opportunities to access countries where it was…

UK tech businesses raised £24bn in 2022, the most of any country in Europe, but down on the £29.4bn raised last year as economic headwinds caused a significant drop in the second half of the year. According to Research from Dealroom, on behalf of the UK’s Digital Economy Council, part of DCMS, showed that Britain was followed by France (£11.8bn) and Germany (£9.1bn). In 2022 the UK was home to 85,000 startups and scaleups and to date has made 144 unicorns. There were 28 companies that reached a $1bn private valuation in 2022, including AI talent platform Beamery which became…

Ericsson and Airtel Niger have deployed Ericsson’s dual-band three-sector Radio 6626 to provide a 5G-ready network, designed to reduce energy consumption and deliver what the companies say will be state-of-the-art performance. Combining three sectors and two frequencies in a single radio unit, Ericsson’s Radio 6626 will enable Airtel Niger to radiate all three sectors in their towers through just one radio unit “thereby achieving significant energy reductions and operating expenditure savings.” Field results have demonstrated a reduction in power consumption greater than 60%, a reduction approximately 0.4 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per site per year and a 60% reduced…

The Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI), the training arm of the Central Bank of Egypt, has launched the first round of “EBI Executive Program” for the African banking sector. According to information released to the media, the program aims at developing the executive leadership talents and competencies as well as enriching technical knowledge for the senior executives from the African banking and financial sectors by raising the efficiency of human cadres working in these sectors. The program was conducted during the period from 23-27 October in Cairo with the participation of a number of senior executives from four banks in Tanzania…

Kellogg Company says that it has become the first food company in the US to introduce NaviLens on packaging, helping people who are visually impaired to perform everyday tasks. The NaviLens technology will be used on the packaging of Corn Flakes, Special K, Rice Krispies and Crispix. The front and side of the cereal boxes will now feature an optical smart code that can be detected and read by the NaviLens and NaviLens Go apps. The apps enable consumers to locate the boxes from several feet away, hear their names, package sizes and nutritional information, in up to 36 languages.…