Jupiter vice chair Edward Bonham Carter says asset managers are on the cusp of a revolution, as regulation remains a worry according to a PwC survey March 14, 2018 The vice chairman of London-listed Jupiter Fund Management has said the asset management industry is on the “cusp of a significant change”. Speaking at an event this morning hosted by Byhiras, a fintech firm which provides accountability and transparency across the industry, Edward Bonham Carter said that financial technology and machine learning would play a [...]
The social media battle against fake news has begun – beware your own emotions March 14, 2018 Did Donald Tusk, the former Prime Minister of Poland and now president of the European Council, conspire with Vladimir Putin to murder the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski? Many Poles believe this preposterous story, I learned last week at a fascinating conference on social influence at the University of Warsaw. In 2010, a Polish Air [...]
Startup tackling fake news with artificial intelligence Factmata nets funding to expand March 8, 2018 A startup using artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle the proliferation of fake news and extremist content online will expand after closing a $1m (£720,000) seed funding round that attracted major US backers. London-based Factmata’s funding round was led by tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, but also attracted high-profile investors such as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, internet [...]
Will one of these 26 companies joining Tech City’s Future Fifty become the new Zoopla or Just Eat? March 7, 2018 An AI-driven cybersecurity company, a fashion industry analytics business and a tech-based language teaching company are among the 26 UK startups that have been identified as potential future tech stars. Darktrace, Featurespace and Firefly are among the companies joining companies such as SpitfireAudio, Thread and Superawesome on Tech City’s Future Fifty programme. Future Fifty alumni [...]
Big fish: The seven largest types of institutional investors March 7, 2018 Say whatever you want about the world, but there’s never been a better time to be an end investor. Many things investment professionals fear — fee compression, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain — benefit clients through higher account balances and lower fees. Asset owners are the largest of those clients. Though they are frequently [...]
Beware the real Beast from the East: Chinese tech giants March 5, 2018 The last week has seen the UK battered by the worst snow we’ve seen in years, thanks to freezing temperatures coming from the east. But cold weather and heavy snow is not the only thing that is making the move from east to west. Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and JD.com have started to [...]
Harnessing tech can help break the glass ceiling March 1, 2018 While issues around diversity and inclusion have been well and truly thrust into the spotlight following a year of sexual harassment and gender pay inequality scandals, the numbers still paint a bleak picture. In the UK, there is still no single sector where women make up more than 33 per cent of total senior management [...]
Microsoft opens Shoreditch startup space Reactor February 22, 2018 Microsoft is the latest company eyeing up London's hot shot startups with a $20m (£14.3m) investment in a new space in Shoreditch, opening today. Reactor will host the Silicon Valley tech giant's accelerator for scale-ups, along with a space for events such as hackathons to help grow the capital's startup ecosystem. Read more: Robot bookworms? [...]
Fears of evil innovations are as wrong as they’ve always been February 22, 2018 Whenever an impressive new technology comes along, people rush to imagine the havoc it could wreak on society – and they overreact. In the sixteenth century, parliament banned mechanical gig mills, and the hosiers guild ran William Lee out of Britain for inventing a better knitting frame. In the early nineteenth century, Luddite stocking knitters [...]
StatusToday, a startup tracking employees with AI, backed by Brent Hoberman’s Firstminute Capital, Saul Klein’s LocalGlobe and Notion Capital February 21, 2018 A startup using artificial intelligence to track employees and improve their productivity has raised fresh cash from top investors, including lastminute.com entrepreneur Brent Hoberman. StatusToday has landed $3.9m (£2.8m) from the serial entrepreneur and investor’s newly launched venture capital firm Firstminute Capital, along with Transferwise and Citymapper backer LocalGlobe and Notion Capital. Read more: This [...]