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A young Black tech entrepreneur who launched a robotics gaming company to further STEM education just inked a major deal with tech giant Apple, Black Enterprise reported.

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Silas Adekunle—the founder of Reach Robotics—announced that his company will sell its gaming robots at Apple stores around the globe, the news outlet writes. Reach Robotics was created as an avenue to intertwine gaming with STEM education. Adekunle—who has a long history in the tech sector with stints at GE Aviation and Infineon—saw a need for ways to make STEM digestible.

The line of robots—dubbed MekaMons—that will be sold at the Apple stores will allow customers to be hands-on with augmented reality. The robot figures can be controlled with smartphones and multiple players can use their robots to battle each other through its Bluetooth functionality. Adekunle told Black Enterprise that his creation “straddles both the real and virtual worlds while taking the gaming experience beyond a player’s screen and turning their sitting room into a limitless robotic battle zone.” The STEM education aspect comes into play because users have the ability to control their robots with code commands through Apple’s Swift Playgrounds coding app.

According to Inverse, the British-Nigerian entrepreneur spent four years developing the product and oversaw a team of robotics specialists, video game designers, and engineers to bring his vision to fruition. He raised nearly $7 million for his company. MekaMons are already available in Apple stores throughout the U.S., the UK, and online.

Adekunle hopes that his products will leave a lasting mark on the gaming industry. “By fusing robotics, reality-bending technology and competitive play, we’re offering players a new twist on hardware and video games–a premium robotics product that’s easy to play but very difficult to master,” he told the news outlet. He also added that seeing his products—which initially started as a project in college— in the Apple store feels surreal.

Black entrepreneurs are making power moves in technology. A few weeks ago Julia Collins, the co-founder of a California-based robotic pizza company, reached the $48 million crowdfunding mark.

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SOURCE: Black Enterprise, Inverse

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Black Tech Entrepreneur Inks Deal With Apple  was originally published on newsone.com