Reality Zero One has secured £285,000 investment from startup funders and private investors  including the British Robotics Seed Fund, Startup Funding Club, and the London Co-Investment Fund.  The funidng will enhance its new digital reality capture platform. The tech makes it easy to capture ultra-high-definition 3D versions of real-world objects for use in any virtual or augmented-reality application.

With the virtual/augmented reality market predicted to hit $215 billion dollars by 2021 and an estimated ten billion commercial and cultural objects ripe for conversion, potential demand for the tech is huge. However, the high cost and difficulty of mass 3D capture has put potential users off - until now.

Birmingham-based Redbeard, a firm that develops code for Apple (iOS) apps has secured investment from the British Robotics Seed Fund (BRSF). The BRSF has provided £80,000 funding alongside £50,000 from private investors. Monies will be used to expand the company’s global development community and Code Store.

Britbots, the organisation dedicated to promoting U.K.-based robotics companies, and Sapphire Capital Partners, a specialist manager of tax-efficient funds, has announced that their second British Robotics Seed Fund has attracted a lot of investor interest and has been well subscribed.  

Eggplant (formerly Testplant), the provider of Digital Automation Intelligence solutions, has announced the acquisition of NCC Group’s Web Performance Division.

Digital Reasoning, a leader in Artificial Intelligence that understands human intentions and behaviors, has raised $30 million in new funding led by BNP Paribas.

MMC Ventures has launched a new podcast series, ‘Beyond the Hype: Artificial Intelligence’, sponsored by Barclays.

Industry leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) eclipses $1.1 billion valuation; validates RPA as a strategic imperative for digital transformation and path to AI

The UCL Technology Fund has invested in MediaGamma, the predictive analytics software company, as part of a £2m round in partnership with ParkWalk Advisors and the London Co-Investment Fund.

According to PitchBook, these are the 11 most active backers in European machine learning and AI startups since 2015.

Pioneering tech company Spark EV is driving business development of its artificial intelligence-based journey prediction system for electric vehicles

BYTON, an innovator of smart, premium electric vehicles, announced a partnership with Aurora, a leading self-driving technology company. The partnership will help BYTON incorporate Level 4 (L4) autonomous-driving vehicle capabilities into BYTON vehicles and enable BYTON to become among the very first group of carmakers to bring L4 and eventually Level 5 (L5) cars to market. 

CognitionX has announced that SoftBank Investment Advisers, which manages the SoftBank Vision Fund, will be the headline sponsor for CogX 2018, the Festival for All Things AI.