Naspers is looking to invest in machine learning as Africa's largest company seeks to expand following an Amsterdam listing of assets including a stake in Tencent Holdings. The South African Internet and technology group spent about US$3-billion on its various ventures around the world last year, including Indian food-delivery service Swiggy and Russian classifieds site Avito. Machine learning -- a subset of artificial intelligence -- is another area of interest, as is online education, executives said on Friday. "We are interested in investing in machine learning," CEO Bob van Dijk told shareholders at the AGM in Cape Town. "The amount of data is exploding -- last year we collected more data in the world than ever before."

Sebastiaan Vaessen, head of strategy at Naspers warns those business leaders who have only just started thinking of being digital or being mobile-first, are probably already behind the curve – they will need to start thinking about how to become'AI-first'. Vaessen said that artificial intelligence had a major breakthrough in 2016 when Google DeepMind's AlphaGo computer programme defeated the world GO champion. This achievement, he said, proved that AI is now able to complete complex tasks that would take people years to master. He said that AI has already mastered a remarkable list of human tasks, ranging from translations to more creative undertakings like writing music and film scripts. Vaessen outlined the potential and relevance of AI for the world of business.

Search engines on large e-commerce sites often spit up a lot of results, which is great if you want to browse, but otherwise annoying. Twiggle thinks it has the solution. Internet conglomerate Naspers agrees, because it has led the Tel Aviv-based startup's 12.5 million Series A. Yahoo Japan, State of Mind Ventures (a returning investor), and Sir Ronald Cohen also participated in the round. Twiggle, which has raised 14.7 million so far, will launch on several e-commerce sites in August. It hasn't revealed who its clients are yet, but they will include other Naspers portfolio companies.