Tech in Africa
Guzo Technologies has received a grant from Epic Games to fund the Ethiopia XploreR project. According to Shega.co the amount is undisclosed (but is estimated at tens of thousands of US dollars). The grant comes from The Epic MegaGrants program mainly targeting the Unreal Engine ecosystem/3D graphics community.
Guzo Technologies is founded by Daniel Getachew and develops Internet of Things, Extended Reality (XR) products, prototyping, and enterprise software development. The Addis Ababa based company was founded in 2019, as is known for the Guzo Map.
Guzo Map is a map platform covering all Ethiopia’s historical sites through a photo and video virtual tour. Bakaffa Palace in Gondar is another example of Guzo map’s virtual reality project.
XploreR project is also part of Guzo Maps and will be financed by Epic Games. The first version of this project will cover 4 select projects across Ethiopia. There will be a virtual tour narrating the story behind each destination and absolutely free-to-access for tourists intent on visiting the country. A 5-month timeframe is estimated to complete the project.
Epic Games is a video game and software development company based in the US. It has created games like Fortnite and further committed a $100 million grant to support game developers, media and entertainment creators, enterprise professionals, educators, students, and tool developers working on enhancing the 3D graphics community in one way or the other.
