William Sachiti

Sachiti was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he grew up before moving to the UK at 17.[6]

At 19, Sachiti started his first start-up 123-registration, a domain registration business which was acquired year after its inception. Sachiti first reached the public eye after appearing on the BBC investment programme Dragons' Den, where he was seeking 65K for his company Clever Bins.[7] Clever Bins was a solar-powered digital advertising bin which was aimed as an advertising platform for cities. After what was described by the BBC as a slick pitch, but described by Peter Jones as "the biggest load of bull I've ever heard in the Den",[8] Sachiti was unable to raise funding. The company nevertheless continued to trade for three years, during which time it successfully licensed its technology to 6 countries and local governments, before closing in 2013.[9][10][11][12][13]

In 2013, Sachiti founded mycityvenue, a digital concierge and holiday company which grew to approximately 1.6 million users before it was acquired by UK holiday company Secret Escapes.[14][15][16]

In 2015. Sachiti went to Aberystwyth University in Wales, where he studied artificial intelligence and robotics. While at university, he was credited with inventing the world's first artificially intelligent robot librarian, Hugh.[17] The robot was capable of holding a conversation or taking verbal commands and would be able to navigate users to any one of several million books in the library.[18][19][20][21][22]

Also while at university, Sachiti and a team of scientists started working on a way to autonomously deliver packages to try to solve the last mile delivery problem.[23] In 2016, after receiving a £10 000 cheque from Aberystwyth University, Sachiti founded the Academy of Robotics, a vehicle manufacturer company to develop Kar-go. Kar-go is driverless car able to deliver multiple packages by using a combination of advanced robotics and driverless vehicle technology.[24][25][26] Kar-go has been nominated for several awards and has a production facility in Small Dole near Brighton in the UK, thanks to a partnership with specialist automobile producer Pilgrim Motorsports.[27][28][29][30]

In 2018 William appeared on the National Assembly for Wales[31] where he discussed with MP's the state of "Self-driving vehicles - Automation and the Welsh Economy". The appearance was part of the "Welsh Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee", which was televised live on the Welsh Senate TV. The BBC later reported[32] that Sachiti warned AM's that self-driving vehicles could threaten traditional cars and buses. The company later reported to have closed a funding round in six hours.[33]

Kar-go self-driving autonomous delivery vehicle on launch pad at Goodwood Festival of Speed

HE Christian Katsande, Hon Minister SB Moyo, William Sachiti and Embassy party

In July 2019, Sachiti launched the Kar-go, hailed as Europe's first street-legal self-driving vehicle, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.[34] On July 12, Sachiti was visited by foreign dignitaries, the Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo together with Ambassador to the UK H.E. Christian Katsande, who inspected to autonomous vehicle in London.

November 2019, Sachiti toured the UK with Kar-go and was pictured demonstrating the vehicle to the UK Transport Secretary Michael Matheson [35][36] at a Glasgow CAV event and then in London with Mayor Sadiq Khan. In late 2019, Sachiti was reported to have traveled to Warsaw, Poland where he gave a lecture to pupils at CXXXVII Liceum Ogólnokształcące z Oddziałami Dwujęzycznymi im Roberta Schumana after which he was awarded the title of Honorary Teacher [37][38]

In February 2020, Sachiti published an 18 page white-paper titled ‘Trees of Knowledge’.[39] The paper, detailed Sachiti's invention to improve access to education using micro-computing, an A.I. assistant and 'clever software' to turn landmarks such as trees growing in the wild Africa into hubs of educational content.[40][41][42][43] The innovation is designed to help play a part in educating some of the 32 million children[44] in Africa who are currently out of education. Sachiti released the invention as an open-source, free-to-develop technology free of patents. The technology allows a tree to broadcast the pre-loaded educational content stored on the micro-computer to allow anyone in the vicinity to have access to the digital store of information using any mobile device.[45] The technology is all then moulded into the landmark or tree using a process called potting to protect it from theft or damage.

November 2020, Sachiti's company Academy of Robotics, was the first company to have a made-to-be-autonomous vehicle approved for use in the United Kingdom by the UK's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.[46] Currently the company is listed to be valued at approximately $100 million with Sachiti being the majority shareholder.[47]

Sachiti was married in 2009 to his Italian wife. In 2013 he received press attention after his “jealous wife”[48] hired a private investigator to track his movements.[49] The investigator planted a tracking device underneath Sachiti's £40K sports car. After being pulled over, the flashing device under his car was mistaken for a bomb and led to a bomb scare, shutting down a town and the military being called in. No evidence of a bomb or an affair was found but the story became popular and continued to circulate in tabloids.[50][51][52]