11 tech startups to watch according to top insurers in Startupbootcamp’s insurtech accelerator December 11, 2017 Nearly a dozen startups looking to disrupt the insurance industry with technology such as artificial intelligence have been chosen for the latest cohort of a London programme, backed by Lloyds Banking Group, Allianz, Scottish Widows and Confused.com among several high-profile financial firms. The 11 early stage startups from nine countries around the world will join [...]
Could fintech be opening the door to more financial crime? December 8, 2017 Fintech startups aim to disrupt current practices and to do it fast. The emerging business model requires product managers find a buyer need, put out a minimum viable product, and iterate change in response to customer use. However, all this innovation—especially with entrepreneurs who have more tech savvy than experience in financial services—opens opportunities [...]
Google DeepMind’s “superhuman” artificial intelligence won top-level chess within four hours of learning game December 7, 2017 DeepMind’s artificial intelligence programme has beaten a top-level chess computer programme after learning the game in just four hours without human help. The Google owned tech company’s machine learning algorithm, which last year won a landmark game of Go against a human player in what has been described as a “superhuman performance”, was applied to [...]
Trump’s tweets have more of an effect on market volatility than North Korean missile tests, finds Goldman Sachs December 4, 2017 Whether US President Donald Trump is making any headway in his campaign to Make America Great Again is hard to gauge. But there is one area where he is having a quantifiable impact, according to Goldman Sachs: market volatility. Analysts at the investment bank noted that in a year when volatility seemed stubbornly flat, rare [...]
From Xero to Hero: Gary Turner has his head in the cloud December 4, 2017 It is the dream of every startup to overtake the incumbent, dominant player in its field. Facebook swallowed Myspace; Uber is usurping taxis; Spotifykilled the CD. London’s fintechs are chipping away at just about every area of financial services. We are witnessing an era of great technological change. Some of the present disruption is quite [...]
Data is the fuel for AI, so let’s ensure we get the ethics right December 4, 2017 Data is the propulsive energy behind the fourth industrial revolution – playing the same role as coal, oil and electricity did in the previous revolutions. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new engine, just as the railways connected north and south, roads and cars connected our cities, and electrification lit up our homes and allowed domestic [...]
Carwow backer Episode 1 revs up with new £60m venture capital fund as SyndicateRoom launches new EIS | City A.M. December 1, 2017 Episode 1, the software-focused venture capital firm, has launched a new £60m fund to seed UK entrepreneur-led companies. The Enterprise Capital Fund is 60 per cent larger that Episode 1’s first, and received investment from the likes of the British Business Bank and later-stage venture capital firm Draper Esprit. Simon Murdoch, former Amazon UK chief [...]
Facebook’s now using artificial intelligence to remove terror content November 29, 2017 Facebook has revealed more about how it is now using artificial intelligence to remove terror related content that appears on its platforms. The tech giant has come under pressure from the UK government on the matter, with Prime Minister Theresa May going as far as accusing Facebook and others of providing a “safe space” for [...]
Automation, robots and artificial intelligence will bring a bigger shift than industrialisation November 29, 2017 Automation will bring a bigger historical shift to the world of work than the move from agriculture to manufacturing by 2030. Up to 14 per cent of the working population around the world – as many as 375m people – may have to change occupation, researchers at McKinsey estimate. They calculate that there is likely [...]
With the rise of fintech, banks have more on their plate than Brexit November 29, 2017 Britain’s biggest banks nervously opened their latest stress test results yesterday. They all passed, although Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland remain the laggards – seeing the Bank of England after class. Most hearteningly, the BoE gave Britain’s major lenders an A grade for their resilience even in the face of a “disorderly Brexit”. However, [...]