A BELFAST-nurtured Hong Kong-led tech start-up that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create literate machines has been named ‘most investible company’ following a three-month business accelerator programme at StartPlanetNI.
Entrepreneurs Alex Cheung, Simon Ho, Jonathan Chan, Howard Cheng and Barry Au, deep-tech specialists in the space of AI and software engineering, are the brains behind Kami, which creates machines that can think, reason and communicate like humans.
It was one of seven start-ups from four countries which pitched to an audience of international investors at Crumlin Road Gaol as its final challenge within the StartPlanetNI business accelerator initiative.
And Kami confirmed that it will create seven jobs in Belfast within the next four months (two have already been filled), with the roles being be for data scientists and AI experts.
Northern Ireland’s only private equity based start-up accelerator, StartPlanetNI (www.startplanetni.com) focuses on helping businesses establish themselves in the north, fast-track their technology based ideas for global markets and gain access to early stage investment.
Some 300 companies from 40 countries applied for the current cohort of the programme, which funds, advises and guides participants through an intensive workout overseen by network of internationally successful entrepreneurs and mentors.
StartPlanetNI is backed by private sector investment through a fund which utilises Northern Ireland’s first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). The programme is part of the SOSv Revolution Co-Working space and co-delivered by StartPlanet and local start-up experts Xcell Partners.
The culmination of an intensive mentoring, a ‘Demo Day’ at Crumlin Road gave participating start-ups from Northern Ireland, Italy, Britain and Hong Kong the chance to prove they are investment ready and actively seeking support.
Northern Ireland start-up Gordon Campbell of gaming start-up Testify was voted best overall contributor to the programme by his StartPlanetNI peers.
Testify - which Gordon created alongside his brother Adrian - is a self-service platform through which game studios can watch, listen and learn from real players all over the world in their own environment, and receive valuable feedback before their games are released to the mass market.
Bill Liao, lead mentor at StartPlanetNI and European Venture Partner at SOSv, said: “It is critical that our companies raise their expectations, go all out to compete at a global level and win important and valuable markets wherever that may be.
“The ability to compete in different markets and scale globally is a key factor in attracting investment to grow the business further.”
