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Former Division I athlete Nyla Pollard is now innovating in the sports world as a founder. Ballin AI In 2023, Pollard, along with a team of coaches, evaluators, and seasoned AI engineers, launched Ballin AI, a sports technology company that helps high school and college athletes assess their performance and serves as a recruiting resource for coaches, its website mentions. Through the platform, athletes can gain insight into how they are playing as well as how college coaches view their game. Players upload their film, which is then analyzed by a nationally recognized evaluator and scored across key criteria such as defense, shooting, rebounding, scoring, transition, ball handling, and finishing. This platform was a three-year effort led by Ballin AI Chief Development Officer Tenishia Benson, Pollard mentioned on LinkedIn. “Our report gives you an in-depth look at your skills, shooting, defense, and IQ to show you where you’re thriving, but also where you need to improve,” Pollard...
Goldman Sachs is turning to AI to level up its developer workforce — and its latest team member isn’t even human. The global investment bank is testing an AI-powered software engineer from startup Cognition that can handle everything from writing code to fixing bugs and building full applications, with minimal human support, CNBC reports. Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti said the bank sees this as the beginning of a new kind of collaboration between people and machines. “We’re going to start augmenting our workforce with… our new employee who’s going to start doing stuff on behalf of our developers,” Argenti told CNBC. Goldman Sachs is the first major bank to use the tool and believes this tech has the potential to significantly boost productivity across its 12,000-person developer team. And if it proves successful, the firm may roll out thousands of AI engineers across the organization. What Makes The Goldman Sachs AI Engineer Different This isn’t your average AI assistant...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Over the past few years, the tech industry has revolutionized productivity through the creation and investment in AI technology. Leaders in AI boast about the technology’s capabilities to bolster productivity. If AI is really saving us so much time and energy in the workplace, tech companies should be pushing for businesses to adopt a 4-day workweek. Since the pandemic, workers have argued against returning to the office for the 5-day workweek. While most white-collar workers were either working from home or adhering to a hybrid work model, it made some employees realize that much of their work doesn’t need to be completed daily in an office. Companies like Kickstarter and Microsoft Japan have operated on a 4-day workweek schedule since 2021 and 2019, respectively. Microsoft Japan has reported that it led to a 40% increase in productivity. According to a 2024 CNBC and Generation Lab poll , 81% of...
What do sports and fintech have in common? For Kyle Rowley, it’s all about endurance, focus, and flawless execution. Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, the former basketball player once played for Northwestern University and St. Mary’s Gaels before going professional with Spain and Sweden. Now retired, Rowley is the founder of Ankor, a Sweden-based startup that, according to his recent post on LinkedIn, raised $1.3 million to solve one of e-commerce’s biggest pain points: manual reconciliation. In the post, Rowley reflected on the journey. “Today, I’m incredibly proud to say we’re launching something we built for an ecosystem I’ve genuinely come to love,” he shared. “For the past year, our team has been heads-down, rebuilding our entire platform, Ankor, from scratch.” What Is Ankor? Ankor automates the manual, time-consuming process of financial reconciliation by handling tasks such as matching purchase orders to invoices, flagging payment discrepancies, and syncing data across...
NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook’s AI-enabled funeral planning platform Eazewell has partnered with LegalZoom to help users simplify the process of preparing wills, trusts, and estate planning documents, according to a press release. Partnership With LegalZoom The partnership will grant access to LegalZoom’s estate planning infrastructure, allowing end-of-life documents to be created in minutes. It will also leverage LegalZoom’s attorney network and an advanced AI-driven interface to streamline the onboarding experience. “Our partnership with LegalZoom is a game-changer. Legal and estate planning has always felt out of reach for many families, too complex, too expensive, or simply too intimidating,” Donnell Beverly Jr., an Eazewell co-founder, told AFROTECH™ in an email interview. Adding, “LegalZoom helps us break down those barriers. Together, we’re democratizing access to essential documents like wills, power of attorney, and trusts, all through a seamless, user-friendly experience....
Fireflies.ai, an AI meeting platform used by 75% of Fortune 500 companies, has officially joined the unicorn club, reaching a $1 billion valuation, according to a company news release . The milestone coincides with the launch of “Talk to Fireflies,” a voice-activated assistant built with AI answer engine Perplexity to bring real-time web search directly into virtual meetings. Founded by Nigerian-American aerospace engineer Sam Udotong and former Microsoft employee Krish Ramineni, as People of Color in Tech mentions, Fireflies has scaled rapidly without relying on traditional venture funding. Instead of raising another round, the company completed its first tender offer, allowing early employees to cash out some equity while keeping the firm’s cap table intact. Fireflies has been profitable since 2023 and hasn’t raised new capital since 2021, all while posting triple-digit annual growth, as the release states. “We wanted to recognize our earliest employees who’ve been vital to...
Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking a highly personal approach to what could become the company’s boldest artificial intelligence (AI) play yet. Frustrated with Meta’s current progress in AI, Zuckerberg is forming a new elite unit internally dubbed a “superintelligence” team, Bloomberg reports . His goal is to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) AI systems that can perform human-level tasks across domains. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has hosted top AI researchers and engineers at his California homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto, according to the outlet, pitching them directly on his vision. Around 50 new hires will form a group that will closely operate under Zuckerberg’s supervision at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. Insiders told Bloomberg that the Meta chief is personally selecting talent and serving as the primary point of contact during outreach. A $10 Billion Investment And A Strategic Ally In Scale AI Meta is reportedly building its...
Meta Platforms Inc. is reportedly in negotiations to invest over $10 billion in Scale AI, a rapidly emerging player in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, known for its data labeling services and model training, according to Bloomberg. If completed, the multi-billion-dollar deal would rank among the largest funding rounds ever for a private company and would be Meta’s largest external AI investment to date, the outlet reports. The move reflects Meta’s growing ambition to control the AI market, where tech giants are competing for the best language models to develop and implement across platforms and products. What Does Scale AI Do? Under the direction of CEO Alexandr Wang, Scale AI provides high-quality labeled data essential for training advanced AI models for major players, including Microsoft and OpenAI. In 2024, the company brought in roughly $870 million in revenue and is on track to more than double that to $2 billion in 2025, Bloomberg previously reported. Much of...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. The New York Times inked a multi-year deal with Amazon last month to license its content to Amazon’s artificial intelligence models. Amazon will have access to The New York Times’ content, including NYT Cooking and its sports publication, The Athletic. Amazon’s AI services, such as Alexa, will produce real-time summaries and short excerpts. Similar to other news publishers, The New York Times views a licensing deal as a viable way to generate profits as AI companies attempt to siphon copyrighted content to train their chatbots. Attitudes towards AI use, especially regarding news organizations, can be polarizing. Other publishers such as The Washington Post, Associated Press, and Axios have also signed deals with AI companies to license their content. A few years ago, AI companies were using copyrighted material without permission. Media company Ziff Davis and The New York Times sued OpenAI and...
One of Africa’s most prominent tech founders is stepping back into the spotlight with a new artificial intelligence (AI) venture. Karim Jouini and Jihed Othmani, his co-founder of Tunisian fintech startup Expensya, have launched Thunder Code, a generative AI-powered software testing platform. TechCrunch reports that the France- and Tunisia-based startup has already raised $9 million in seed funding. The return to startup life comes nearly two years after the duo sold Expensya to Swedish software firm Medius in 2023, according to the outlet. Although the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that they estimated it to be more than $120 million, marking one of the biggest African tech exits to date. From Promising Exit To New Beginnings Following the acquisition, Jouini assumed the role of chief product and technology officer at Medius. Neither he nor Othmani intended to return to entrepreneurship. However, Jouini’s exposure to the...
Ghana is set to become a leading force in Africa’s digital economy with the launch of a $1 billion innovation hub, funded entirely by the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corp. (PCFC), a government-owned entity of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reports People of Color in Tech (POCIT). The outlet shares that the project, scheduled to break ground next year, will be constructed on a 9.7-square-mile site in Ningo Prampram, situated in the Greater Accra Region. Construction is expected to wrap up by the end of 2027. A Major Step Toward Africa’s AI Future Sam George, Ghana’s minister of communication, digital technology, and innovation, stated that the initiative directly supports President John Mahama’s national vision of positioning the country as Africa’s next hub for artificial intelligence (AI) through the One Million Coders program. Launched in April 2025, the program aims to equip Ghanaian youth with software development skills to help close the country’s digital gap and prepare the...
Salesforce is making a bold move in the enterprise tech space with its planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Informatica, a long-established leader in AI-powered data integration and governance, according to a press release. It’s the company’s largest deal since buying Slack for nearly $28 billion in 2021 and signals a deeper investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Informatica Stock Rises On Deal News Salesforce will pay $25 per Informatica share, a 30% premium over its May 22, 2025, closing price, the day before acquisition talks resumed, as The Network Journal (TNJ) reports. Informatica stock jumped nearly 6% following the announcement. The Salesforce Informatica acquisition is expected to close by February 2026, pending regulatory approval, and will be funded through cash and new debt, per the outlet. A deal was previously discussed in 2024, but the two parties could not agree on terms at the time, according to Reuters. For Salesforce, Informatica offers an...
Klarna’s plans to go public may need to be on standby. The Sweden-based fintech company has reportedly had a loss of $99 million in Q1 2025, according to Tip Ranks. In comparison, it saw a loss of $47 million in Q1 2024. There are several reasons for this decline. For one, customer credit losses increased by 17%, totaling $136 million, according to its Q1 report. However a spokesperson told The Tab this statistic was to be expected. “Bear in mind that we made 13% more loans than a year ago so, all else being equal, you’d expect credit losses to increase by at least 13%,” the spokesperson mentioned. Klarna And Artificial Intelligence While Klarna replaced human roles with artificial intelligence (AI), as AFROTECH™ previously reported, this decision was driven by a desire to increase operational efficiency and reduce overhead. As a result, 700 customer service representatives were replaced with tools that leveraged OpenAI. Tip Ranks notes that this move did help the company meet its...
Millions have been raised to simplify the workflow of tax returns. Founded in 2024, Filed is an accounting software company that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare tax returns in minutes rather than hours, according to its website. Its inception was inspired by real-time observations of accounting firms, including those in India, which revealed that their challenges stemmed not from a lack of tools but from labor shortages. This is where AI comes into play. “Filed automates the most time-consuming parts of tax prep. It organizes documents, validates returns, and flags anomalies based on the logic your team already uses. It integrates directly with CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake, and other major tax software,” a post shared by the company read. So far, Filed has proven to be a success. Tens of thousands of tax returns were processed using Filed in the Q1 2025 tax season with firms sharing hopeful testimonials, as seen on the company website. One includes Josh...
With some assistance from artificial intelligence (AI) and a great deal of artistic vision, one business is reinventing the virtual fitting room. Doji, a fashion-tech startup co-founded by Dorian Dargan and Jim Winkens, has raised $14 million in seed funding, led by Thrive Capital with participation from Seven Seven Six Ventures, to scale its AI-powered avatar app that lets users virtually try on clothes in a fun, social, and personalized way. Dargan, Doji’s CEO, shared the news on his LinkedIn page, expressing his excitement about building a platform that puts users at the center of their fashion journey, stating, “Fashion is meant to be fun. But somewhere along the way, shopping for clothes online became overwhelming instead of exciting. We believe there’s a better way – one that celebrates creativity and self-expression.” Doji, which combines the founders’ first names, Dorian and Jim, lets users upload selfies and full-body images to generate an avatar, as TechCrunch reports....