Africa Tech Pitch LDN is a video pitch competition providing an opportunity for African tech startups to showcase their solutions to the London Tech ecosystem. The organizers are looking for high-impact, high-growth startups that are using technology to unlock untapped opportunities and address a real need in the African market.

The top 5 selected startups will be showcased during London Tech Week at an exclusive reception on 13th June, organised in partnership with Tech London Advocates, an influential community of over 4000 tech leaders, experts and investors.

The final winner will be selected and announced at the Africa Technology Business Forum London on 21st June, a gathering of Africa-focused global tech innovators, business leaders and investors.

If you are an ambitious tech startup in Africa looking to showcase your innovation on the global stage and connect with the London tech ecosystem then apply today!

Application criteria
• You are an Africa-focused technology startup with a unique proposition serving the African market
• You have already launched in the market and are able to demonstrate some traction
• You have a high-growth business model which has potential to scale across borders
• Your solution has capacity to improve and impact the lives of those it serves

Application deadline is Midnight on 31st May 2017

To apply, click here.

In 2006, Netflix created an open competition that would pay the winning data scientist a $1m prize. The task was to build a model that could outperform Netflix’s recommendation engine by 10%.

The winning team used an advanced machine learning technique known as “random forest,” which is now commonly used to optimize for predictive power.  This incredible boost in predictive power, however, came at the cost of interpretability. While the winning algorithm best predicts how the next thousand users will rate various films, it cannot directly explain why Henry from Kansas enjoys Space Jam.

When it comes to fintech, “black box” A.I. is often impractical. Traditional players such as banks or insurance carriers may feel uneasy, and imagine telling a regulator you denied someone a loan because “the model said so.” 

As a result, the most successful machine learning applications in fintech may be those that leverage unique alternative datasets, rather than the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.

Financial technology, also known as fintech, is an industry composed of companies that use new technology and innovation with available resources in order to compete in the marketplace of traditional financial institutions and intermediaries in the delivery of financial services. Financial technology companies consist of both startups and established financial and technology companies trying to replace or enhance the usage of financial services of incumbent companies.

That is why fintech will lag in pioneering AI because explaining to regulators that all decision making has been moved to models will be challenging in the foreseeable future. Regulators expect financial institutions to be making decisions by humans with machines supporting.

So even if you use machines, you need to have a clear understanding of the result so that humans can explain same to regulators. The implication is that if the models deliver great results and you cannot explain same. you cannot deploy them. That means your AI cannot be pioneering to the extent that humans cannot understand what is going on.

Fintech AI will lag voice, search, and other related areas which are not as heavily regulated as finance.

Apple is hiring satellite experts and the indication is that Apple will launch a satellite iPhone soon. A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites.It means that anyone anywhere on earth can use the phone because satellites cover most parts of the earth.

Two Google executives—spacecraft designer John Fenwick and satellite engineer Michael Trela—both left for a new Apple hardware project, reports Bloomberg. The story suggests they’re spearheading a project focused on satellite broadband communications and image collection, an initiative that may also involve Boeing.

The iPhone maker has recruited a pair of top Google satellite executives for a new hardware team, according to people familiar with the matter. John Fenwick, who led Google’s spacecraft operations, and Michael Trela, head of satellite engineering, left Alphabet Inc.’s Google for Apple in recent weeks, the people said. They report to Greg Duffy, co-founder of camera maker Dropcam, who joined Apple earlier this year, the people said. They asked not to be identified talking about Apple’s private plans. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, as did Google. Fenwick, Trela and Duffy didn’t respond to requests for comment.

With the recruits, Apple is bringing into its ranks two experts in the demanding, expensive field of satellite design and operation. At the moment, these endeavors typically fall into two fields: satellites for collecting images and those for communications.

This is huge people. If Apple launches satellite iPhone, there will be a new order on this earth. We think they are working on same to bring the era of de-localized communication.

A friend asked me to create the type of juice I want – hopefully the juice making industry can make one for me. Here is my imagination on the juice I am craving right now.

Dear Kim,

I am visiting Nairobi and I met an old friend who invited me to a local party. We had studied together in the University of Kentucky many years ago. My office had sent me to help open a new branch in Nairobi and while we were in the opening ceremony, some government representatives came. She was one of them. After the program, she asked me to come over to her house at the outskirts of the town. It was a very great evening with great local food and drinks.

After the trip, something is brewing in my mind. There is certainly a better drink for this world. I met a lot of natural tasting organic drinks in Kenya but I do think there is one that does not exist which I am planning to see how to make and I am hoping that you will be one of my paid customers to sample it.

My drink is called Nuta. It will be made with organically grown pineapple mixed with lemon. The look will be like a typical Tropicana juice when served on glass but the taste will be like tasting raw pineapple mashed with lemon. It will have a spicy taste with some gingers which will be added. That will make it also a little pepperish. There will be no preservative or chemical in any form because the fermentation process will be organically done. I like the taste of the juice from Nairobi.

Nuta will be all natural and will be made and consumed within 12 hours of brew. Customers will be served live and no packaging is necessary. However, to ensure scale, we will make a power version which can be used with added water and left for 10 minutes to get through production phase at home. So, we will have it in powder and pure liquid forms.

The vitamin will be natural and minerals totally intact with none lost during production. It will be labeled 100% organic because everything will be sourced from pure organic farmlands from rural farmers with no chemicals used in the farming process. It will deliver wholesomeness goodness and will drive unprecedented value on nutritional content.

It will be mama’s juice for the whole family.

Nuta will be available at home, offices and restaurants and will be distributed nationwide. We will sell it in Chipotle and Whole Foods because these brands symbolize the modernity we desire from natural foods.

Our uniqueness is the quality of the ingredients, production process and nutritional value.

Nuta Snack will also come on the way and will be made with pure organic ingredients processed the way some natives are processing their food systems with firewood in rural Africa with no chemical process.  I am hoping that Nuta products will be the first 100% all-natural, no nutrient-loss brand in the world and will be promoted by UNICEF, FAO and WHO.

When we see next week, I will give you more details. But please plan to place an order as I need some money to move into production of Nuta.

Best

Christie

NB: This is just an imagination but this thought-process is something I just want to share.