A pioneer in several areas of smartphone technology has joined the board of London-listed investor capAI Plc following its restructure.
Professor Ronjon Nag, who divides his time between Silicon Valley and Cambridge in the UK, has a BSc from the University of Birmingham, a Master’s from legendary US tech institution MIT and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
His research has contributed to breakthroughs in the application of speech recognition, handwriting recognition, predictive text and touch screens for mobile devices, as well as App Stores for smartphones.
Prof. Nag co-founded the technology company Lexicus, acquired by Motorola in 1993 and Cellmania, acquired by Research in Motion (later known as BlackBerry Ltd) in 2010.
He has also sold a company to Apple and is a former VP at Motorola and BlackBerry.
The British-American inventor, president of the R42 Institute – which develops and funds AI and longevity projects – is now an Adjunct Professor in Genetics at the Stanford School of Medicine.
In January 2025 Dukemount Capital PLC announced a strategic overhaul to concentrate exclusively on the AI sector under the new name capAI Plc, having completed a restructuring process.
Saying this was to address legacy financial and personnel issues, it added Sarah Davy and Marcus Yeoman as non-executive directors, bringing expertise in accounting, tax, strategy and growth.
It revealed at the time that directors had not been paid or accrued any salary to ‘conserve cash’.
Now Prof. Nag has been appointed as an executive director.
“We are tremendously excited to confirm Ronjon’s formal appointment,” said Richard Edwards, capAI chairman.
“Over the last few weeks, we have been working very closely with Ronjon. Not only is he a truly inspirational person, but also a person of integrity. His insights into how the future with AI might look are scintillating and he is already presenting proprietary and extremely interesting commercial ideas, processes and opportunities for capAI to consider and execute.
“The market should rest assured that the first announcement in the new ‘Ronjon era’ will be forthcoming shortly.”
Prof. Nag added: “I too share the excitement of my fellow directors and I am totally committed to developing capAI into a major player in the AI space, using my own innovations as well as R42 Group resources – more to come on that later.
“This is my first listed board position in the UK and I am particularly attracted by being able to offer investors listed exposure to an asset class which is typically reserved for unlisted investors.
“I am determined to make this venture an outstanding success for all shareholders, both small and large, and I trust that my performance-only remuneration package indicates my clear intent to achieve this.”