A Nigerian drone startup closed Africa’s largest seed round. Egypt digitised its pharaohs. Zambia set ground rules for AI help from China. Here’s the week.
Defense tech pulled in the big money
Nigerian startup Terra Industries raised another $18 million, closing its seed round at $52 million, reportedly the largest seed round any African startup has closed. The company builds drones, sentry towers and counter-drone systems, and is opening offices in London, Washington and San Francisco while keeping manufacturing in Abuja and a new factory in Accra.
That’s notable because Terra isn’t selling software. It’s selling autonomous hardware to governments protecting mines, pipelines and power plants. This is a category investors mostly ignored until this year.
Nigeria also opened its skills pipeline wider
Meta, working with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communications and the 3MTT talent programme, launched AI Academy Nigeria. It offers training, a developer bootcamp, and a startup pitch competition at GITEX Nigeria in September, with $5,000 cash prizes and a trip to Meta’s AI Summit in Istanbul for the winners. Applications close August 21.
Egypt turned AI toward its past
Cairo and the UK launched a joint AI and virtual-heritage centre on August 17. The project applies 3D modelling and AI to archaeology and Egyptology, aiming to document and preserve heritage sites digitally rather than only physically.
Zambia negotiated, rather than just accepted, an AI partnership
Officials met Chinese counterparts to discuss AI infrastructure, computing capacity and skills training, with China pledging 5,000 training slots. But Zambian officials were explicit about conditions: they want open-source tools, locally relevant applications, and no dependence on models built for…
Source link
Read Full Article by Smart Megwai at innovation-village.com
Source link
