Page 6 - EngineerIT February 2022 UPDATED

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

African AI start-up hits

international headlines with Covid

early warning system

I disruptor InstaDeep, made Detecting new high-risk Covid variants
international headlines last The global interest in the BioNTech-InstaDeep Covid early warning system showed the
Amonth after it co-developed an appetite for innovative AI thinking from beyond Silicon Valley. InstaDeep worked with
AI-powered early warning system for BioNTech, the German biotech company behind the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, to develop an
high-risk Covid variants with BioNTech. AI tool which detects high-risk SARS-CoV-2 variants based on their genetic code.
The start-up was founded in 2014 in
North Africa. Today, it is a leader in Meet the man
decision-making AI products, with a
headquarters in London and AI research behind the South
and engineering teams in Cape Town,
Tunis, Paris, Lagos, and Dubai. African operation
“When we started InstaDeep,
forecasts for AI’s contribution to global
rnu Pretorius describes himself as
economic growth neglected to even
a person who loves nature, likes
mention Africa,” recalls Karim Beguir,
A the outdoors, overnight hiking,
InstaDeep’s Co-Founder and CEO. “For
yoga, and meditation. He is married and
me, this was a call to arms. We needed
has two dogs which he loves dearly. He
to change the status quo. It could not be
says: “I am a proud South African who
that Africa was excluded when it came to
loves his country and like many others
shaping the future of AI.”
in our country, I want to help make it a
The status quo has changed.
better place to live in. I want to create
InstaDeep announced on 25 January that
opportunities for the incredible people who
it had raised $100 million and closed a
are trained at our universities to stay in South Africa while at the same time enabling
series B round led by Alpha Intelligence
them to make world-class contributions to our knowledge economy and abroad.
Capital together with CDIB. Investors in
Arnu studied mathematical sciences and majored in mathematical statistics at
the round included BioNTech, Chimera
Stellenbosch University. He joined the MIH Media Lab, which is a post-graduate
Abu Dhabi, Deutsche Bahn’s DB Digital
interdisciplinary space where “new media” technology research takes place, originally
Ventures, Google, G42 and Synergie,
funded by Naspers, to pursue his PhD studies in machine learning.
corporations that have shown their
During his PhD he wrote several papers and presented at major international
confidence in the work and research being
conferences where on two occasions he met Karim Beguir.
carried out by InstaDeep.
In 2019, when he had completed his PhD, Beguir approached him to start and
InstaDeep will use the funding to
manage a branch of InstaDeep in Cape Town. “I was extremely excited for this
advance its high-performance computing
amazing opportunity but suffering from PhD fatigue, I said ‘Please give me a month
infrastructure optimised for Decision-
to think about it’. Needless to say, it was an opportunity of a lifetime to carry on my
Making AI, continue to hire elite talent –
passion for research and to contribute to real engineering and development work that
particularly in South Africa – and accelerate
could have a significant positive impact on society. I accepted the challenge and opened
the launch of disruptive AI products across
the operation in South Africa. Today, in just under two years, we have grown to a team
multiple industries – including biotech,
consisting of 19 researchers, engineers and interns and we are looking to accelerate our
logistics, transportation and electronics
expansion even more this year. I’m humbled by our beginnings but even more excited
manufacturing. The firm is also expanding
by what lies in our future.” n
its global presence into the United States.

EngineerIT | February 2022 | 4