As artificial intelligence reshapes healthcare, the fight against cancer is witnessing unprecedented breakthroughs, from microscopic nanorobots to virtual treatment twins. This acceleration in drug discovery is just one example of AI&#8217;s impact on oncology, now and in the future.



According to the British Journal of Cancer, cancer research is one of the most heavily-funded areas of science. Billions are poured into research every year but the main ways in which we treat cancer – surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy – haven&#8217;t changed in the past 80 years.



But now artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming this landscape entirely, revolutionizing not just how doctors diagnose and treat cancer, but how we discover new treatments. “I think we are really in the golden age of scientific discovery, powered by the cloud and AI at scale,” says Dr Rowland Illing, Amazon Web Services’ Chief Medical Officer and Director of Global Healthcare and Nonprofits. At its core, cancer presents a fundamental challenge: cells that go rogue, growing and dividing uncontrollably without the normal genetic &#8216;braking system&#8217; that regulates cell growth.



“But finding a way to put the brakes on is where it gets interesting,” says Dr Divya Chander, a physician, neuroscientist and futurist. For Chander, there are three key areas where AI is making significant inroads: drug discovery, designing new therapeutics (like living medicines) and precision clinical trials and precision medicine.



From data to diagnosis



Traditional drug discovery is expensive and time-consuming but AI models can accelerate the process by identifying shared genomic features across diseases to predict effectiveness. “It&#8217;s incredibly helpful because with older medications, we already know they&#8217;re safe,” says Chander. “When we find drugs that are useful for another indication, it’s really an extraordinary gift.” This is particularly important for rare and undiagnosed diseases, including certain cancers, that affect over 300 million people globally (but only 5%-7% have FDA-approved treatments).



A new open-source AI model called TxGNN, developed by Harvard Medical School researchers, aims to close this gap by identifying drug candidates for over 17,000 diseases, including rare cancers, using existing medicines. Then there’s Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based biotechnology startup, who now has one of the first AI-discovered drugs to enter the clinical pipeline. The company’s own Pharma.AI platform, which includes tools like PandaOmics and Chemistry42, uses multiple AI models trained on millions of data samples to identify disease targets and design new drug compounds. What’s really exciting about this is the speed. Insilico reached the first phase of clinical trials in just two and a half years, compared to the traditional six-year timeline, and at a fraction of the usual $400 million cost. “It can cost over a billion dollars per drug and take over a decade and a lot of lives are lost in that time,” adds Chander.



This acceleration in drug discovery is just one example of AI&#8217;s impact on oncology. Working with Genomics England, Illing and his team faced an immense challenge: analysing thousands of scientific papers about genetic links to diseases. “They have a team of bio curators – experts who do searches, pull out papers, read them and work out the associations between disease types and genes,” explains Illing. But with so much key data on cancer and genetics being published, Genomics England’s manual review process couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume of research. Illing’s team worked on an AI solution – automated bio-curation – which transformed this landscape completely. “Over an eight to 10-week period, we built a generative AI platform that was able to look at all of those papers published and identify 20 new gene associations which previously were not known,” Illing says, adding that if they had manually looked at all the data, it would be out of date. “The role of AI is very much automation. It&#8217;s how do you take stuff which needs to be done at scale globally, make it faster and take off the burden of the care providers?”



The digital patient



This revolutionary approach isn&#8217;t simply fast-tracking research, it&#8217;s shifting how quickly scientific discoveries can become life-saving treatments. Among these innovations, AI is being utilized to create increasingly sophisticated simulations of disease progression in virtual environments called digital twins. In fact, Research and Markets have projected that the digital twin industry will reach $130.77 billion by 2029, driven by demand in healthcare and pharmacology. In a new research paper published in Nature Medicine on digital twins, Dr Eric Stahlberg, a Leidos scientist, explained that “if you look at the aerospace industry, they&#8217;re using digital twins extensively to simulate fluid dynamics and materials processing to improve engine and aircraft designs. There are many similarities between those models and newer models that simulate the human cardiovascular and circulatory systems,” he continues. “The complexity of the human body is so substantial that there will always be uncertainty in the models. But ultimately, digital twins will inform patients, help them rank various treatment options and increase their chances of survival.&#8221;



UK Biobank, a global biomedical database and research hub, currently has a project underway that’s using AI to create detailed digital twins that mirror how cancer develops and responds to treatment for individual patients. “Digital twins enable precision care in a way that could never be done before,” says Chander. These computer models are groundbreaking because they combine multi-modal data from genetic patterns and protein behavior to chemical changes in the body and patients&#8217; full medical histories. “Most of the models that are coming out to date, like ChatGPT or Claude, have been language models, but we&#8217;re seeing a shift into large data models,” explains Illing. “Healthcare isn&#8217;t just language – it&#8217;s also genomics, proteins and imaging. By integrating all of those different data streams you get a much better idea, upfront, about what kind of treatment a patient can have.” By analyzing this rich mixture of biological and clinical information, UK Biobank’s AI system can spot subtle warning signs that traditional methods might overlook. First tackling pancreatic cancer, where the complex mixture of different cells in tumors makes early detection difficult, the team is hoping to look at lung, breast, colon, prostate, skin and bladder cancers in the future.



These AI breakthroughs are reshaping how doctors approach cancer treatment, turning an uncontrollable disease into one they can analyze, track and target with unprecedented precision. It’s a new era in medicine where cutting-edge technology can customize care. “The promise of personalized medicine is that when you come in with your specific problem, you will be treated as an individual, rather than just one of a &#8216;this sex, this age, in this environment&#8217;,” ends Illing. “AI is already having a massive impact on this kind of tailored understanding of what patients have got but also how things evolve over time.”



Will next-gen oncology be driven by nanorobots?



Remember those illustrations in the 1976 children&#8217;s book The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur? Tiny warriors drawn inside syringes, ready to battle disease. What once captured children&#8217;s imaginations is now a scientific reality. Today, AI is turning this vivid imagery into a radical new approach to fighting cancer: nanorobotics – sophisticated molecular machines that are redefining how we target and treat tumors. “These are kind of like rocket ships,” explains Dr Divya Chander, “your rocket ship could be a bacterial cell, or it could be a virus&#8230; or it can be a nanorobot that we create, but essentially it can hold a payload. And so, the shell, the main structure, is something that can actually be activated, like a heat seeking missile.” These tiny machines, typically measuring between 1 to 100 nanometers, are programmed to act as precision delivery systems. One breakthrough example comes from Arizona State University, where researchers have developed DNA nanorobots loaded with thrombin. These microscopic warriors seek out cancer cells and effectively starve tumors by cutting off their blood supply – a far cry from the broad, systemic effects of traditional chemotherapy. The development of nanorobots goes hand-in-hand with what Chander calls “living medicines”. Instead of traditional drugs, living medicine uses nature’s own tools (like bacteria or viruses) to fight diseases. It&#8217;s almost like having tiny helpers that can do things our bodies can&#8217;t do on their own. “A living medicine involves programming a life form to deliver a specific treatment, unlike traditional medicines, which are molecules that spread passively through the body based on physics and chemistry,” explains Chander. “These targeted therapies are extraordinary because they don&#8217;t come with the same side effects as systemic drugs… and chemotherapy is toxic.” What makes nanobots so exciting for cancer treatment is their ability in precisely attacking tumor cells. One new study found that nanorobots reduced tumor size by 65.2% compared to chemotherapy&#8217;s 40.5% reduction. They also delivered drugs with an impressive 92.7% accuracy, detected tumors nearly twice as fast and caused significantly fewer side effects. Most strikingly, patients treated with nanorobots achieved a 78% survival rate within 12 months, compared to 54% for those on chemotherapy.

3D virus cells attacking a DNA strand

A New Era In Oncology: Tackling The Dreaded ‘C’ Word With AI

When CIOs talk about platforms, they’re usually referring to digital rather than political ones. But as Americans head to the polls, corporate tech leaders should be paying close attention to what a second Trump administration, or a first Biden one, could have in store for them.



The outcome of the contest will have profound consequences for skilled immigration, data privacy regimes, the regulation of AI and other issues such as cybersecurity that all matter to CIOs. It will also shape how America deals with China as a competitor and trading partner—a fraught relationship that’s sparked concerns over high-tech supply chains and the security of 5G communications networks<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2020/10/09/huawei-rivals-nokia-ericsson-27-billion-us-sanctions/#7249ea2bde48">&nbsp;using equipment from Huawei and other Chinese firms</a>.



The election will also help determine whether America can sustain its role as a global innovation leader. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a think tank with close links to the tech industry, points out that the U.S. would need to spend at least an additional $100 billion a year, or an increase of around 80% over current spending levels, just to match what it was investing in research as a percentage of GDP back in the 1980s.



“The reality is that America is no longer the global innovation leader, at least on a per capita basis, and it risks losing out to China over the next decade or two,” the ITIF wrote in a recent study of the likely impact of the upcoming election on tech policy. “Whether or not the two major parties understand this threat and want to prioritize it is unclear.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Tackling China</h3>



What is clear is that tensions over high-tech trade with China are likely to remain high under either a second Trump administration or a first Biden one. But the tactics a Biden presidency would adopt are likely to be quite different to those of its predecessor.



Speaking at the<a href="https://www.forbes.com/connect/event/forbes-cio-next-virtual-episode1/">&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;CIO Next virtual summit</a>&nbsp;held on October 27, Darrell West, an expert on technology policy at the Brookings Institution, said that if President Trump is re-elected, he’s likely to continue his aggressive and unpredictable, go-it-alone policy towards pressuring China for trade concessions. “A company may wake up one day thinking they are a friend of the administration and the next day become a target,” said West.



A Biden presidency is likely to keep up the pressure on China, too, but will almost certainly create a clear set of processes for handling trade negotiations on high-tech and other issues. West thinks it will also want to forge a more united front with the European Union on dealing with the Chinese. While this approach may make it easier for CIOs and other executives to assess supply chain risks in dealing with Chinese manufacturers, both presidential candidates are likely to maintain U.S. efforts to keep hardware from China and other suppliers out of 5G networks in America and other countries on national security grounds.



With Chinese companies pulling ahead in areas such as<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytrippe/2020/08/31/china-is-gunning-to-be-the-world-leader-in-ai-chips-while-restricting-exports/#392b0c186d4e">&nbsp;chips that power artificial intelligence (AI) applications</a>, the issue of how the U.S. government can better support domestic innovation will be on the table no matter who becomes president. Neither candidate looks likely to bring government spending as a percentage of GDP back to 1980s levels, but the Biden camp has pledged to invest an additional $300 billion over four years to help close some of the gap. If he is re-elected, President Trump is likely to continue his current policy of reducing overall government support on R&amp;D while boosting investment<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martingiles/2020/08/14/us-to-boost-ai-quantum-funding-in-2021/#291bef1521dd">&nbsp;in some key areas such as AI, quantum information science and advanced manufacturing</a>.



On cybersecurity, both candidates would likely step up efforts to protect U.S. companies and critical infrastructure such as electrical grids from cyberattacks. West thinks a Biden administration could press for a kind of Geneva convention on cyber arms control, whereas if President Trump is re-elected his administration will keep pursuing a more unilateral approach. If the Democrats win the presidency and perhaps carry the Senate too, they may also push for a mandatory regime that requires companies to report hacks to a national database. Republicans, on the other hand, are more likely to leave breach reporting requirements to individual states.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Importing talent</h3>



Finding enough skilled workers is one of CIOs’ biggest concerns, so they will be hoping for an easing of restrictions on H1-B visas and other channels that the present Trump administration has been restricting.



Robert Atkinson, the president of the ITIF, thinks a Biden administration will expand skilled immigration whereas a second Trump one is likely to extend the current crackdown. However, he cautions that if Biden wins, companies can’t count on a swift increase in H1-Bs. “There are a lot of folks on the left [of the Democratic party] who have pushed back on H1-Bs because these are seen as undermining U.S. wages,” he says. “You could instead see an expansion of other avenues and vehicles to bring in high-skilled workers.”



Atkinson also thinks that if Biden carries the White House, CIOs could find<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksettle/2020/10/20/the-proper-path-to-achieving--automation-at-scale/#2f8df7ef2a4a">&nbsp;robotic process automation (RPA) strategies</a>, which use software to take over tasks from workers, under intense political scrutiny because of fears these will destroy jobs and crater wages. “In a Biden administration, companies will have to be much more careful and cautious about how they portray this. Trump doesn’t mind automation; he minds offshoring.”



Companies’ automation drives could be blunted in other ways. For instance, tax reforms in 2018 made it possible for businesses to immediately deduct the entire cost of equipment purchases from taxable income; previously, they had generally only been allowed to write off a portion of the cost in a single year. This encouraged CIOs and other executives to accelerate purchases of everything from robots to servers. However, the changes will come up for review in a couple of years and a Biden administration would be less likely to push for an extension.



If Biden wins the election, CIOs will almost certainly face tougher rules on data privacy. Both candidates are in favor of a national consumer privacy regime to replace the present mix of different state ones, but the Democrats are more likely to push for<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynerash/2020/06/29/ccpa-enforcement-to-begin-on-wednesday-july-1-2020--steps-to-get-ready/#5650f7475f8b">&nbsp;a California-style framework</a>&nbsp;with significant compliance costs and hefty fines for rule-breakers. They are also more likely to support a national regime to regulate the use of artificial intelligence for things such as facial recognition systems.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Tech under the microscope</h3>



No matter which of the presidential candidates ends up in the White House after the election, it’s clear that the world of technology is going to face more intense scrutiny than ever before.



CIOs will want to keep an especially close watch on who ends up leading key government agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, which are responsible for oversight on antitrust policy. The Justice Department’s recent move to sue Google<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/10/20/justice-department-suing-google-for-antitrust-violations/#7e1f4243dbb8">&nbsp;for alleged antitrust violations</a>&nbsp;is likely to be followed by actions against Facebook and possibly other tech firms. It will also be important to watch who is chosen to sit on key congressional bodies such as the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee, which issued a report earlier this month<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/10/06/long-awaited-house-report-recommends-breaking-up-big-tech/#46776205c831">&nbsp;flagging multiple potential areas of potential concern</a>, including Amazon’s significant share of the cloud computing market.



The Brookings Institution’s West neatly encapsulated where things stand in his closing remarks at the Forbes CIO Next event. “Over the last 30 years, the mantra has been ‘permissionless innovation,’” he said, referring to a relatively laissez-faire view of technology’s impact on the economy and society. “That era is coming to an end. We’re going to have more public engagement [on tech issues], more public oversight, and more public regulation.”



-By Martin Giles, Forbes Staff

Man voting online

Here’s How The U.S. Election Could Impact Automation, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy And Other Key Issues CIOs Care About

Twitter published its latest diversity report on Wednesday, revealing, for the sixth consecutive year, that the bulk of its staff is white or Asian and skews male.



Still, the social platform did make good on its two-year&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/growingtogetherattwitter.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diversity targets</a>&nbsp;for female, black and Latinx employees—meeting and, in some cases, exceeding its goals.



Globally, women represent 42.5% of all roles, just half a percentage point shy of Twitter’s 2018 target, and a bump from 38.4% two years ago. Black and Latinx employees make up 5.8% and 4.9% of all roles, compared to 3.4% for both groups at the end of 2017. Twitter’s two-year timeline was 5% for each.



While Twitter’s 2018 goals weren’t exactly ambitions, the results are a promising step in the right direction and show a slight headway on an issue that has long eluded the tech industry.



Broken down by technical and leadership roles, however, the diversity numbers aren’t so laudable. Women represent just a quarter of all technical positions and nearly 36% of leadership positions, while black and Latinx employees combined make up almost 8% of technical roles and 8.7% of leadership roles. Interestingly, a majority of the small percentage of black and Hispanic employees are in leadership positions: 86% and 76% respectively.



Twitter says that its vision is to become the world’s “most diverse and inclusive tech company,” but the company’s relatively homogeneous workforce still mirrors the broader industry’s, and doesn’t fully reflect the community that it serves.Take, for instance, the popularity and influence of Black Twitter. About&nbsp;<a href="https://www.walterkaitz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/nielsen-from-consumers-to-creators.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">28% of Twitter’s 67 million users</a>&nbsp;are African-American, though they represent just 14% of the total U.S. population, and 40% of African-Americans are on Twitter.&nbsp;



“The stakes are incredibly high and we don’t have the luxury of time or incrementalism. We have a unique responsibility to be bold, move fast–and get this right,” Dalana Brand, Twitter’s head of inclusion and diversity, writes in a blog post.



For Twitter, that means committing to new diversity goals. By 2025, the company pledges to have women comprise half of its global workforce, 42% of technical roles and 41% of leadership positions. The company also set a 25% target for the representation of minority ethnic and racial groups–specifically black, Latinx, Native American, Alaskan or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or multiracial–and is launching an Inclusive Hiring Program, although no details were given on when that initiative will begin.



Later this year, Twitter plans to publish its progress on workforce representation of military veterans, employees with disabilities and LGBT+ workers for the first time.



Since introducing diversity targets in 2018, the company’s global representation of women has increased by 4% and the figures for black and Latinx employees in the U.S. has climbed by 2.4% and 1.5%. In 2019, nearly half of all new hires were women, 47.1%, and 15.7% of U.S. hires were black or Latinx.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/">Ruth Umoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/diversity-inclusion">Diversity &amp; Inclusion</a>

gettyimages-1206514294-594×594

Twitter’s 2020 Diversity Report Shows Modest Gains As Company Sets New Goals For Representation

A pick of some of the weirdest, coolest tech that could come hurtling our way this year. 



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>A bot that delivers
toilet paper</li></ol>



Forgot to instal toilet paper in the loo? The Charmin RollBot is designed to carry a roll of toilet paper on two wheels. With the press of a button on your phone, the RollBot will help with your sanitary requirement.



Using Bluetooth, the bot will commence its mission; an infra-red sensor able to navigate its way to you. According to Business Insider, there&#8217;s no price or release date for RollBot, nor is it clear if it will ever be released as a consumer product. Charmin calls RollBot a &#8220;conceptual prototype”. The brand unveiled the bot last month at the CES 2020 expo in Las Vegas.



2. The Cyrcle phone



If for any reason you got bored of your rectangular handset, the circular phone is always an alternative offering a different view and take. According to the makers, the phone was designed with the Generation Z, female audience in mind. It’s round and features two headphone jacks. The device was designed by a US-based startup delivering a shape that it says is more “sensual”. The company reckons it will be ready to launch in a year’s time.



3. A smart bed



There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep. But it’s not always possible to have the best sleep every day. Or is it? There is a bed that’s guaranteed to give you your beauty sleep the way you want it.



Sleep Number Climate 360 has a mattress with features that warm your feet to help you sleep faster. It will also help you stay asleep by cooling your body, and balance your temperature with your natural wake and sleep cycles.



But what’s most intriguing is the fact that the bed also gives you a Sleep IQ score for personalized sleep insights. It measures your heart rate, breathing and movement, tracks your circadian rhythms and can show how your heart rate varies. The smart bed received the CES 2020 Best of Innovation award and is only expected to be available in 2021.



4. Self-changing trash can



For those who dread taking out the trash, this device is possible a no-brainer. Apart from its motion sensors to detect when you need to throw trash, when it’s full, it will automatically seal the trash bag and line the bin with a new one, all with a press of a button.



Even if the bin is overflowing, the top compartment will lift up so it can still seal the bag shut without any mess. The bin, called the Townew bin, was designed by a Canadian company, Knectek Labs.



5. Vertical TV



Just when we were getting used to wider TVs, it seems taller screens may soon be coming to your living room. Samsung’s Sero TV vertical-oriented will soon be hitting markets.



The TV can not only work in the traditional horizontal format, but is also able to turn on its side for playing vertical videos in portrait style.This might come in handy when watching videos from social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram that deal primarily with vertical videos.



It sits on a stand that prevents it hitting the floor when turning, and can be paired with a phone so that it automatically orientates it correctly based on what’s beamed from the handset. According to TechRadar.com the pricing and availability are yet to be revealed, but the Sero will be leaving Korea and is headed to the US and “several global markets” later this year.

GettyImages-1198129444

The Top 5 Emerging Crazy Tech

African capital markets are increasingly adopting disruption to make investing more transparent and accessible to a younger, tech-savvy generation, and see an increase in trading volumes.

Oscar Onyema was appointed the new CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2011, having previously been senior vice president of the American Stock Exchange. The exchange needed to change to increase transparency and make investing easier, and for this, Onyema turned to technology.
The NSE’s X-GEN trading platform was launched in 2013, offering better access to real-time data, thereby improving governance and transparency. Onyema described it as the fastest-trading platform in Africa.
Its impact was immediate. The average daily value of trade increased by around a third, to over $14 million in 2017. Other capital markets across the continent are following suit and adopting tech to make investing more transparent and accessible. The Nairobi Securities Exchange, for example, rolled out its Automated Trading System in 2014.
<blockquote>&#8220;Technology has enabled stock exchanges to enhance their surveillance capabilities contributing to transparency in the market,&#8221;</blockquote>
The Nairobi exchange followed this up with the launch of its own mobile app, which its head of brand and corporate affairs Waithera Mwai-Ireri says would “democratize” access to capital market-related information in Kenya. The app provides quick and easy information for potential investors and allows investments to be made in real-time.
Mwai-Ireri said the move was designed to make investing on capital markets accessible to a younger, tech-savvy generation.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/04/26/banking-on-technology-new-mobile-bank-set-to-launch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Banking On Technology: New Mobile Bank Set To Launch</a>
“The NSE app will enable investors to track market activity on a continuous basis enabling them to make real-time investment decisions. The app will spur interest in the capital market amongst the youth in the country, who make up over 75 percent of our total population,” she says.
The Nairobi exchange is a leader in Africa in terms of tech not only for its app, but its mobile-traded government M-Akiba bond. Mwai-Ireri said stock exchanges across the continent were seeing huge increases in trading volumes as a result of the use of technology.
“The use of technology has fast-tracked the development of Africa’s exchanges. Technology has enabled stock exchanges to enhance their surveillance capabilities contributing to transparency in the market,”
she says, adding she expected more exchanges across Africa to launch mobile-based applications in the coming years.
The younger, tech-savvy audience being targeted by exchanges such as those in Nigeria and Kenya may, however, have already found alternative ways of investing their money, away from traditional institutions such as exchanges and banks.
A platform tapping into a desire for alternative investments is South African company The Sun Exchange, which is also utilizing the increased uptake of cryptocurrencies. Using the platform, people use cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to buy solar panels, which The Sun Exchange then leases to businesses in Africa. Users earn income from these panels over a period of the next few years.
Founder and CEO Abraham Cambridge said improvements in efficient peer-to-peer payment systems and crowdsourcing has meant that entirely new investment models and platforms have become possible, solving problems that could previously not be solved. He said this trend will likely continue.
“Consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of opaque and slow traditional banking. Modern day millennials will soon be the dominant investor group as they begin to inherit baby boomer wealth, and this group is used to instant gratification, transparency and a desire to change the way the world works,” Cambridge says.
“In addition, traditional financial institutions are becoming increasingly risk averse, which means that investments into startup businesses and innovative concepts, such as projects built around cryptocurrencies, find it extremely hard if not impossible to raise capital through these traditional means.”
He says the appeal of using cryptocurrencies for investments was that they are open and universal.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2018/05/16/are-icos-relevant-in-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Are ICOs Relevant In Africa?</a>
“This means that previously unbanked customers, of which there are hundreds of millions across the African continent, can now engage financially with the rest of the world. In the case of The Sun Exchange, this means we can transact with the whole world using a single currency,” he says.
Smaller, micro-investments are also possible.
“As cryptocurrency can be broken down into over eight decimal places, nano-transactions at lightning speeds can now happen. This means that an investor can choose to place very small sums into projects and earn nano-payments out, with ultimate security and transparency,” says Cambridge.
It is this kind of flexibility and transparency major capital exchanges across Africa are trying to match with their own use of tech. Time will tell if this will work or if the opportunity has passed them by.
&#8211; By Tom Jackson

Tech scene in Cape Town, South Africa

Trading On Technology

Perhaps most famously, Route 128 and Silicon Valley in the United States developed around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford universities, while key European knowledge regions developed at the Sophia Antipolis high-tech park in Côte d’Azur, France, and the Leuven region in Belgium.
In Africa, however, it is a relatively new phenomenon. But some universities on the continent are working towards setting themselves up as catalysts of innovation and entrepreneurship. Notable mentions must go to the University of Nairobi and the American University in Cairo, but South Africa is leading the charge.
The likes of Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) are focusing more than ever on equipping their students to be entrepreneurs, primarily in response to unemployment issues in the country. Almost 50% of those aged between 15 and 24 in South Africa are without a job, and some tertiary institutions are adapting by equipping them to become job creators.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Africa Under 30 Technology Entrepreneurs</a>
Bakang Moetse is Impact Investing Project Manager at the Bertha Centre, a dedicated entrepreneurial unit within the Graduate School of Business at UCT. She says high youth unemployment had made the promotion of entrepreneurship an imperative for many African governments.
“Whilst government may be responsible for creating an enabling environment for the development of businesses, universities play a key role in delivering skills and expertise, as well as creating enabling environments for incubation of entrepreneurs,” says Moetse.
Universities also stand to gain. At a time when the relevance of university degrees has come into question due to the number of unemployed graduates and lack of employment readiness of those graduates who do enter the workforce, promoting entrepreneurship provides a way of ensuring universities continue to be recognized as key to the development of societies and economies.
“For universities interested in taking on a more active role in this regard, there is a competitive advantage to be gained in becoming leaders within this field of research, which can further bolster their credentials,” says Moetse.
Stellenbosch University runs its own incubator – LaunchLab – and also invests in some student-run tech startups. Head of Incubation Brandon Paschal says universities that do so will produce more employable and resilient graduates, and their reputations will grow as such.
“Also, with the current student fee climate, if universities are not backing and pursuing commercializing university technology, their financial sustainability and broader access to tertiary education is in jeopardy,” he says.
So how have startups incubated by universities benefitted? G-J van Rooyen was an associate professor at Stellenbosch, and launched his bitcoin-based anti-piracy startup Custos Media Technologies out of LaunchLab. He says it had been a great space from which to grow an early-stage company.
“At a startup, you&#8217;re constantly juggling concerns and issues. Being in a supportive environment where space and facilities are one less thing to worry about makes a huge difference,” Van Rooyen says. “Since LaunchLab is a hub for startups and investors, it directly impacted our fundraising efforts, and introduced us to our angel investor.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-36756 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="679" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-600x398.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Michael-John Dippenaar’s on-demand storage space startup Sxuirrel first encountered LaunchLab after winning a competition run by the incubator, earning funding and support.
“Amongst other intangibles thereafter, and in the period leading up to then and now, we gained help in the form of advice, community and networks,” Dippenaar says.
“We had support in finding lawyers, connecting to additional entrepreneurs to learn from, and access to soft-skill building resources.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/06/05/investment-marketplace-coming-to-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Investment Marketplace Coming To Africa</a>
Training students – and professors – in entrepreneurial skills and providing them a safe space from which to launch their ideas in one thing, but universities also need to ensure they have solid links with corporates and funders to help incubated startups scale. This can be a challenge.
However, Tine Fisker Henriksen, Senior Project Manager, Innovative Finance, at Bertha Centre, says the credibility associated with university brands lends itself to bringing in new partnerships and streams of funding entrepreneurs on their own would not be able to tap into.
“We are seeing increased interest from the corporate sector to get involved in supporting entrepreneurship, and we have managed to establish partnerships that have been valuable in this regard,” she says.
“From our point of view, there is great potential to expand this beyond mere sponsorship of events and once-off fundraising, as is commonly the case, and move in the direction of more sustainable partnerships approaches for rising entrepreneurs.”
The initiatives at places like Stellenbosch and UCT are well developed, with a track record of helping startups launch and raise funding for their next stage of development, but are enough universities following their lead?
Paschal says there is some evidence of this, but it takes time to transform very traditional and conservative institutions. Part of the challenge is that “startup skills” are intangible, EQ-related things that you cannot learn in a classroom.
“The push for universities spinning out companies, and supporting startups and SMEs, is disrupting the traditional role of universities. The trend is going in this direction, but generally universities are battling to get beyond the academic side,” he says.
Henriksen agrees more needs to be done.
“We have seen the top universities develop more entrepreneurial courses, hubs and initiatives. But there is definitely room for greater involvement, and coordination of efforts in this space to create a synergized impact,” she says.
&#8211; Tom Jackson

BANNER-LaunchLab-12-of-67

Africa’s New Silicon Valleys

Benji Coetzee is changing the face of the freight transport industry, one truckload at a time.
She is the Chief Executive Officer of EmptyTrips, a technology that connects and matches spare capacity on vehicles to those who need goods transported.
This innovation, launched last year, has helped optimize the movement of goods on the roads and on rail, in a cost-effective way.
“The essence of the business was to try and reduce this problem called empty trips,”says Coetzee when we meet her.
Two years ago, Coetzee, a seasoned management consultant largely focusing on the industrial sector, founded SeedPitch, a niche consultancy, of which she is still the Head Strategist.
With her R2 million ($148,000) in savings, she then embarked on EmptyTrips.
According to Coetzee, transporting goods across the continent is complex and expensive. Regional integration between countries and trade facilitation are also challenges. But that’s not all.
“One of the biggest issues that they have is not that countries don’t talk to each other or allow the goods to move across the continent, but the actual transporters that move the cargo charge exorbitant rates. So that means other people won’t send their goods to other countries within Africa because it is just not feasible,” says Coetzee.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/07/10/rapid-railway-yet-slow-ports/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: Rapid Railway Yet Slow Ports</a>
She took advantage of the big gap in the industry through EmptyTrips by matching a person/company with an empty cargo vehicle – with a fee that they think is reasonable – to a company which has goods that need to be moved.
“We have that better digital platform. We can negotiate better transport fees for those users. So that is the power of that platform. We bring those communities together and reduce the burden in that regard,” she says.
Like Uber and Airbnb before it, EmptyTrips is also a part of the sharing economy.
Coetzee employs six people and has had over 200 corporates test the concept and come on board.
“It has been very aggressive [since],” she says.
There has been one concern for her though; South African rail company Transnet that has not yet come on board for her venture.
“It was easier to lobby people from the trucking industry. But going into rail has not been that easy [because] you are getting into political aspects. You are working with state-owned entities,” says Coetzee.
“Give us your freight and let us try and get more freight off the road on to the rail. A lot of people underestimate how efficient rail can be, if only we could give it another chance.”
This movement of goods applies to all kinds of cargo.
“[What] the government could do in general for technology, not just my platform, is to enable the movement of mining cargo and agricultural cargo&#8230;What the government could do for us is to say ‘this platform becomes the norm for all cargo on behalf of the government’,” she says.
EmptyTrips’ integrated systems paired with smart algorithms matches demand and supply for transport across Africa, without having to get involved in customs regulations.
“Fortunately for us, we just deal with freight orders and clearing agencies so we don’t get involved in the customs issues. But once the cargo has a commercial invoice, it is matched to a transporter. It is very easy to get it across the border. That at least eases quiet a lot. It is when the transporter does not have the required documents that it begins to be quite problematic at the border,” she says.
Coetzee hopes other startup companies such as theirs would realize the importance of the resilience needed.
<blockquote>“I think it doesn’t matter how big or small your business idea or the industry is. I am trying to disrupt a huge industry. It is $8.1 trillion globally. That is huge!”</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2018/02/26/luggage-can-check/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: Luggage That Can Check Itself In?</a>
Not just resilience and persistence, proving your idea works is also crucial.
“I always say that the economy of ideas is rife. There are many people with ideas, but the idea does not matter, your proof matters. And your proof is, have you executed on it [business idea]?”
EmptyTrips is not just about ensuring that big corporations cut down on costs but it also allows small and medium enterprises to move their cargo efficiently. The impetus is smooth logistics and smart economics.
EmptyTrips could well become the Airbnb of the logistics industry, so it’s best to get on this train before it leaves.

Benji-482

The Tech Disruptor On The Move

The smartphone industry has been stagnant and lacking innovation for a good few years. With each new iteration, we witness handsets becoming thinner, faster, and lighter yet somehow bigger than before. The latter is due to screen bezels shrinking in size with very minimal to no borders around the edges.
Stand-out moments in recent years have been Samsung’s curved “infinity display” introduced on the S8, and Apple’s face-mapping feature on the iPhone X that projects 30,000 invisible dots on to your face.
For the most part, there has not been anything revolutionary, but we’re still holding out for a breakthrough in battery technology.
<div id="attachment_35822" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35822" class="wp-image-35822 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-300x300.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-100x100.png 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-600x600.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-150x150.png 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-768x768.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1-1024x1024.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Noka-8110-4G-copy-1.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Nokia&#8217;s revived 8110 slider phone. Photo supplied.</div>
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, the largest mobile event of the year held in Barcelona in February, we saw announcements from several big mobile players, while some opted not to unveil anything, others simply refreshed existing devices.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/06/29/understanding-real-innovation-behind-iphone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ: Understanding the real innovation behind the iPhone</a>
Additionally, Formula 1 made its first-ever appearance at MWC to launch a live stream ad-free grand prix subscription service, and Spanish football league La Liga showed off new broadcast technologies like its cutting-edge 4K HDR broadcasts, a skycam for drone-like footage, professional analysis of the game during the game, and physical and tactical reports.
Meanwhile, Ford made Google’s popular live traffic, community-based app Waze available on its SYNC 3 infotainment platform globally from April. Another motor manufacturer, Land Rover, unveiled its first-ever smartphone, the Explore. The Android device is developed by the Bullitt Group and has durable features like handling extreme temperatures, surviving 1.8m drops and being underwater – including salt water, with a massive battery.
Google introduced a light version of its mobile operating system Android Oreo Go Edition at the end of last year, and at MWC 2018, we got to see these entry-level devices running it for the first time. It is created for phones with 1GB of RAM or less with minimal storage, processing power so performance won’t take a hit, and for limited connectivity, as in the African market. The six devices powered by Android Oreo Go Edition initially will be the Nokia 1, Alcatel 1X, ZTE Tempo Go, Lava Z50, Micromax Bharat Go, and GM 8 Go.
On the premium smartphone side, Samsung’s new S9 and S9+ flagships put focus on both the consumer and business user. The new camera has variable aperture, a mobile smartphone first. Regular smartphones have fixed aperture, but the S9 and S9+ have dual aperture that switches mechanically between F1.5 for low-light photography and F2.4 for bright, outdoor shots. It also shoots 960 frames-per-second slow motion video; and introduces AR Emoji, augmented reality based emoji similar to Snapchat’s Bitmojis. Business users get the Enterprise Edition software straight out of the box, a paid for service tailored to businesses. Powerful features include disabling of the camera, SD card or screenshots while at workplace, preventing sensitive information from leaking.
Sony’s XZ2 and XZ2 Compact devices come six months after its previous-generation flagships with a major physical change – new round edges (gone are the signature blocks). Both handsets do 4K HDR recording, a smartphone first, and following suit from Apple, the headphone jack has been removed. The front-camera takes 3D selfies, and rear does 960fps slow-motion videos, introduced last year. Wireless charging is available on the larger device, and the Compact is anything but, at 5-inches.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2015/02/01/is-there-a-future-in-cellphones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Is There A Future In Cellphones?</a>
Nokia once again played the nostalgia card and revived the 8110 slider phone in an eye-catching bright yellow color, dubbed the ‘banana phone’. It has 4G support, runs on a new platform called KaiOS so apps will be made especially for it, with WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook announced. Nokia brought out four other handsets in addition to the 8110 4G: a flagship Nokia 8 Sirocco; a mid-range Nokia 7+, an updated Nokia 6, and entry-level Nokia 1.
Once again, MWC felt like an incremental update with some great new features thrown in here and there. In the age of instant gratification, it’s getting increasingly difficult for long-term excitement.
&#8211; By Nafisa Akabor

Noka-8110-4G-copy

The Banana Phone?

Arriving at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on his first visit to South Africa, Azim Premji, the silver-haired Indian tech tycoon, steps out of a white Mercedes-Benz and greets us warmly. For a billionaire, he’s dressed in an understated black suit, white shirt, and black and white tie. It only takes a few minutes to realize this is a man of few words, and many values. His currency: integrity.
“What is unique about Premji is that there is only black and white, and nothing grey, when it comes to his focus on integrity. And he will pay any price for it,” says Shailendra Singh, the Johannesburg-based general manager and head of Wipro’s Africa business.
<div id="attachment_3257" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3257" class="size-medium wp-image-3257" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/465692559-1024x683-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />INDIA WIPRO</div>
Integrity has been at the heart of the New York-listed Wipro empire the 69-year-old Premji has set up and built in India since 1966. His philosophy: if you have values, success in business will follow.
“His unflinching commitment to values, unflagging philanthropic spirit, deep social conscience and proven success make him one of the tallest business leaders India has produced. Working with him is in many ways a lesson in living one’s life,” says TK Kurien, CEO and Member of the Board at Wipro.
Famous for taking India’s information technology services to the world post the country’s liberalization in the 1990s, the Wipro chairman has consistently been on global wealth lists. According to FORBES’ 2014 rich list released in October, Premji is the 45th wealthiest person on the planet with an estimated fortune of $16.5 billion. He is India’s third richest.
Often hailed by Indian media as ‘India’s Bill Gates’, not only for his software riches, but also his headline-grabbing charity donations, Premji has contributed a large chunk of his wealth to social causes, notably education, and is now also ranked as one of the world’s biggest donors.
Premji has donated 21% of his shareholding of Wipro, about $5.5 billion, to the Azim Premji Foundation, set up in 2001 to remedy India’s public education system. Last year, he became the first Indian to sign The Giving Pledge (a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy), with the likes of Warren Buffett and Elon Musk.
Premji has also influenced other business leaders in India. His close friend and India’s biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the CMD of Biocon, calls him a torchbearer for philanthropy.
“I have known Azim for several decades and have tremendous respect for his entrepreneurial acumen which is driven by a strong set of ethical values and a quest for global leadership&#8230; I have been deeply influenced by him and see him as a mentor in my own philanthropic endeavors. I think he is one of the most inspirational business leaders of our times.”
In 2013, Premji had surprised India’s business world when he said he supported a government proposal to tax the super-rich. Premji has often been written about in the Indian press as a man with a modest lifestyle despite his billions, very much like India’s other tech billionaire, Infosys’ NR Narayana Murthy.
On The Giving Pledge website, Premji quotes his mother, a medical doctor and philanthropist, as the most significant influence in his life. He says he was also influenced by Gandhi’s notion of holding one’s wealth in trusteeship, to be used for the betterment of society and not as if one owned it.
Premji was only 21 when he had to return from the United States (US) to his hometown Bangalore in South India following his father’s untimely death. This was a year before graduating from Stanford, where he was studying engineering. He had to take over the family’s $2-million cooking oil business, Western India Vegetable Products Limited (later renamed Wipro).
Premji focused on building Wipro into a successful and professionally-run organization. He leveraged India’s engineering talent to manufacture computers, turning his family’s hydrogenated vegetable fat business into a leading software services company and outsourcing giant.
Today, the Bangalore-based company is India’s third-largest software exporter and a $7-billion revenue IT, BPO and R&amp;D services conglomerate with a presence in 60 countries. Wipro has been in South Africa for the last three years. The company is currently in the process of identifying universities and colleges it wants to engage with for internship programs across South Africa. Wipro’s 1,600-strong Africa workforce is 40% localized.
Premji’s September visit to South Africa was to explore those opportunities in skills development, using South Africa as a springboard for the rest of Africa. And there will be significant investments in the country.
“South Africa is a high-growth market for us,” says the soft-spoken Premji.
“We will continue to expand and localize here. We have trained about 400 interns here, out of which we have employed 70 percent. We are now planning to engage with the universities in South Africa, upgrade their curriculum, and re-train their teachers. Once trained, we find our interns [in South Africa] to be first-rate… We then give them a three-month rotation on the job and many of them perform as well as people [in India] in terms of output, productivity and commitment to the job.”
Education is top priority for this philanthropist. In India, the Azim Premji University established in 2011 is focused on teaching and research programs.
“I do what I think is the right thing to do vis-a-vis philanthropy. I consider my wealth a fiduciary responsibility and my family supports me on that, importantly,” says Premji, who has been very vocal about the issue of the wealthy giving back.
He has hosted philanthropy meets with Bill Gates in India.
“I have been chairing a movement in India for the last two years, similar to what Bill Gates is doing in the US, trying to encourage people to be more philanthropic. It’s a slow process, but there is a lot of generosity among the new rich professionals who have made it big in terms of start-ups. There is probably more generosity there than amongst the very wealthy.”
Premji believes there is a distinction between the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of a company and personal philanthropy.
“People often get the two [mixed] up. I think there is a trend towards companies trying to build an image with society that they care, trying to be sensitive to the environment in terms of the resources they use to increase their CSR as a percentage of their revenue and as a percentage of their profit. This is a good trend. Some people confuse the company’s CSR with individual philanthropy and say we are doing a lot in the company, we don’t need to do anything ourselves, which is unfortunate.”
In October 2005, Financial Times included Premji in a global list of 25 people dramatically reshaping the way people live, work or think. TIME listed him among the world’s 100 most influential people in April 2004 and again in April 2011, for improving India’s public education. In 2011, he was conferred the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award.
Premji’s two sons are also taking his legacy forward. His eldest, Rishad, has been with Wipro for the last eight years; his youngest, Tariq, is with the Azim Premji Foundation.
Premji has great faith in India’s new Narendra Modi government, and is equally optimistic about Africa.
“India is a key market for us. Indian customers are very demanding in terms of technology, quality and price; you cannot take them for granted. We are [also] very serious about Africa. We [Wipro] are in a very niche area – IT services and solutions. Without question, the Narendra Modi government will forge better ties with Africa.”
Premji promises to be back in South Africa next year. Hopefully, by then, he would have won over the rest of Africa as well.

Tag: Tech

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