Apple Commences Sale Of Robot Built By Nigerian-Born Engineer, Silas Adekunle

Apple Stores in the United States and United Kingdom have commenced the sale of gaming robots “MekaMons” built by a Nigerian-British, Silas Adekunle.
Adekunle is the founder/CEO of Reach Robotics, and developer of the world’s first augmented reality gaming robots.

Silas Adekunle, is the founder/CEO of Reach Robotics, and developer of the world’s first augmented reality gaming robots (Photo: Reach Robotics)

His company just signed an exclusive sales deal with Apple, and his robots, Mekamon, will now be exclusively sold in Apple stores in the UK and US.
The product with a price tag of $299.95 went on sale from 16 November in the shops and online.
The robots are made of plastic and can be operated with an iPhone and other smartphones, which creates a virtual world for users to battle in and explore. The app is also used to upgrade the robots with new abilities.
Adekunle, who was born in Nigeria, moved to the UK when he was 11 years old.

Adekunle Silas’ company just signed an exclusive sales deal with Apple, and his robots, Mekamon, will now be exclusively sold in Apple stores in the UK and US. (Photo: Reach Robotics)

He is an engineer who graduated with First Class Honours from the University of the West of England in Bristol, with a Bachelor of Science in robotics technology. He previously worked at GE Aviation and Infineon.

“We’ve created an entirely new video gaming platform,” said Adekunle in a press release, published by Black Enterprise.

“MekaMon 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. MekaMon represents a quantum leap forward in the leveraging of augmented reality. Players can whip out their iPhone to battle their multi-functional, connected battlebots in the physical and virtual worlds at the same time.”

Speaking to TechCrunch, Silas described how the move came about:

“I demoed to (Apple) at GDC. One of our investors set up a meeting and they loved it. At the time, I didn’t know they were going to announce ARKit. When I saw it, it made sense. It was the right direction.”