Digital Innovation Magazine - March 2019

March 2019

A Fintech Future

UK investment reaches record levels

Apple’s CEO

Tim Cook shares his recipe for success

Haufe’s CIO & Head of Software Development knows a thing or two about digitalisation!

3rd & 4th of April 2019 LUXEXPO − THE BOX | LUXEMBOURG

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pring is in the air as we go live with our March edition of Digital Innovation Magazine. It is, for many, a time of reflection, contemplation and future planning. Not least for Haufe’s CIO & Head of Software Development, Bernd Sengpiehl (p28).

Treating me to an exclusive interview last month, it was fascinating to chart Bernd’s career history, as well as find out more about his experience in transforming organisations to become more agile. Bernd is the definition of an innovator, talking about digitalisation long before it became a word on any of our lips, and reaping the benefits of cloud computing over a decade before the majority of European companies would follow suit.

On the subject of keeping a close eye on future technologies, we were intrigued to learn more about Cisco’s latest tools and networking products as it takes on the IoT world (p44), as well as new research into giving robots the sense of touch (p54). It’s machine learning like we’ve never seen it before!

What’s more, we bring you our feature on what we think the data centre of tomorrow will look like (p18), plus an intriguing report on the fact that the UK has reached record levels in fintech investment (p64)… Great news!

And as if that’s not enough to keep you entertained, we bring you Apple’s CEO Tim Cook’s view on how to be successful (p6), while our celebrated start-up of the month this issue comes courtesy of Polish medtech, Genomtec (p82).

Happy reading!

Editor Anna McMahon

Managing Director Danielle Harris

editorial@digitalinnovationeu.com

d.harris@digitalinnovationeu.com

Senior Digital Designer Daniel May

Managing Director Tom Barnes

design@digitalinnovationeu.com

t.barnes@digitalinnovationeu.com

+44 (0) 203 890 1189 enquiries@digitalinnovationeu.com All rights reserved. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in Digital Innovation Magazine. However, the company cannot accept responsibility for the claims made by advertisers or contributors, or inaccurate material supplied by advertisers.

Digital Innovation is a trading name of HBL Europe Ltd. Company Registration Number: 10933897. Company Registered in England and Wales

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Our exclusive in Bernd Sen

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Introducing the data centre of tomorrow

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Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, on the subject of success

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Cisco has rolled out yet more new products 4

nterview with ngpiehl Machine learning gives touch to robots

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UK fintech investment reaches all-time high

Capgemini’s report on AI and the retail sector

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Meet this issue’s start-up of the month, Genomtec 5

B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

The Most Important Things In a recent interview, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, discussed the key factors for success – innovation, customer satisfaction, and the overall size and loyalty of customers.

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Shares of Apple are still below the levels from which they fell after the company’s marketshaking announcement of disappointing iPhone sales in China to start the year.

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ut, they have also shown signs of life more recently, as the company has sought to demonstrate that it has charted a path towards growth by focusing on selling more services and worrying less about iPhone sales.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, explained, “The most important things in Apple; one, a culture of innovation.

This team is unbelievable in creating hardware and software and services and getting them all to work together. It just works. Second,

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we have a very large active install base. It hit 1.3 billion a year ago, and we’ve added about 100 million in the last 12 months. Third, highest customer satisfaction and loyalty in the industry. So, you put those two things together, if you’ve got a lot of a big, active install base, and you’ve got a lot of heavy customers, then you have a recurring revenue stream on your product business. And then because of our ecosystem that we built, which has unbelievable developers in it and an app store to get services out there, we built a services business that was a little over $7 billion in 2010. Last year for the calendar year, over $41 billion.

And we’ve said that we’re going to double the 2016 numbers by 2020. And so we’re on a fast clip there. And then, of course, we are shareholder friendly on our capital allocation. So you put all these things together, and those are the most important things for us: innovation, customer satisfaction, and the overall size and loyalty of our customers.”

It is this notion of customer satisfaction that so many companies discuss freely, without actually putting their money where their mouth is. Cook added, “What I focus on is the customer. And so the customers speak every quarter.

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“What I fo the custom the custom every q

Tim C

ocus on is mer. And so mers speak quarter”

Cook

They speak every year. They speak every day. And the most important thing for us is that they’re satisfied.

And so when I read the emails and so forth from customers, they’re telling me how the Apple Watch has changed their life. They’re telling me how it motivated them to be more fit, be more active.

They’re telling me that they discovered that they had AFib (Atrial fibrillation). They’re telling me they found a problem with their heart that they didn’t know existed and if they wouldn’t’ve reached out to a doctor, they might’ve died.

And so these are life-changing things. We’ve got machine learning embedded in our silicon in our phone. This allows us not only the power efficiency to have an incredible performance in a very small package, but it allows us to manipulate this data on the phone, have the transactions on the phone, as opposed to letting them out in the world.”

Apple has always been dedicated to ensuring the customer has the best experience in store, whether setting up their new phone, making sure all their data is transferred or trading in their current phone. Cook said, “I want the customer to be happy.

We work for them. And so the important thing is that they’re 11

flop. Cook disagrees; “Since we began shipping the iPhone XR, it has been the most popular iPhone every day, every single day, from when we started shipping, until now. It’s an incredibly innovative product. It has a bunch of On the subject of new services, Cook alluded to an announcement advanced technologies in it from the chip with the neural engine to later this year, adding that there security embedded to an edge-towould be “material over time”. edge liquid retina display, the first The success of the iPhone XR, the in the industry, longest battery life twelfth generation of the iPhone, ever in an iPhone. It is unbelievable. has been a controversial topic, And the photos that you can take with some arguing it has been a happy. Because if they’re happy, they will eventually replace that product with another. And the services and the ecosystem around that will thrive.”

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“I want the customer to be happy. We work for them” Tim Cook

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“We’ve got into healthca through the Watch and t we’ve created with Rese

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are more and more through other things that earchKit and CareKit” Tim Cook

of your life and of your loved ones, I mean, it beats many, many of the standalone cameras that you could buy now that nobody uses anymore. And so these things give a lot of value to the customer.”

Later in the interview, Cook characterised the company’s healthcare efforts as poised to be “Apple’s most important contribution to mankind”. He added, “This is an area that I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, “What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?”, it will be about health. Because our business has always been about enriching people’s lives. And as we’ve got into healthcare more and more through the Watch and through other things that we’ve created with ResearchKit and CareKit and

putting your medical records on the iPhone, this is a huge deal.

And it’s something that is very important for people. We are democratising it. We are taking what has been with the institution and empowering the individual to manage their health. And we’re just at the front end of this.”

Building the services profile through revamped or new offerings is what many analysts consider a priority for Apple in 2019 and beyond, with Cook’s chess moves over the coming months laying the groundwork to help get Apple out of its darkest chapter in the modern iPhone era. One thing’s for certain, Cook is determined to remind investors that the company continues to be both a hotbed of innovation and an investorfriendly enterprise that’s mindful of shareholder returns.

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D ATA C E N T R E N E W S

Tomorrow’s Data Centre

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We consider the future of one of the key features of scalable, cohesive business operations in our digital economy.

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Regardless of where journey, there’s no do with more growth and

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you are on your data centre oubt this year will be filled d more innovation.

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o, what can we expect to see happen within the world of data centres, colocation, cloud and connectivity?

1. Data centre cooling techniques will start to be more varied High-density chip designs and ever-increasing rack densities will require ongoing innovation in cooling technologies that only the data centre industry can provide.

By the time they are made public, many of what some consider state-of-the-art approaches are already outmoded and ineffective.

According to Gartner, heat management techniques that were once highly touted – free cooling,

in particular – are waning in popularity and hype.

Rather than try to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation (and the capital investment that often goes along with it), enterprises increasingly will choose to rely on data centre providers with deep experience and expertise in advanced cooling design capabilities to meet higher demand, including what is needed to stay ahead of the technology curve and minimise associated costs.

Considering that approximately 40 per cent of all energy used by the typical data centre is for cooling, getting cooling costs down in these environments is critical.

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2. Private proximity will drive the next generation of applications In 2019, Gartner says organisations will turn their attention to finding ways to reduce latency and improve network efficiencies as part of their goals of becoming Zero-Latency Enterprises. As such, private proximity to underlying data and core cloud resources – not just edge ‘on ramps’ – will become an increasingly important consideration.

A 2018 survey from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found that over a third of network managers prioritised software-

defined data centre and private cloud architectures last year. Expect this trend to continue in 2019 as well.

3. Multi-cloud migration will become more prevalent Moving large workloads among clouds or executing efficient multicloud strategies can be daunting.

This is especially true at the two extremes of the organisational scale spectrum – with both large, geographically-distributed and smaller organisations lacking adequate IT resources and cloud expertise.

According to Gartner, “End-user organisations are increasingly

“Enterprises in 2019 will lean eve heavily on the experience of data providers who lead in hybrid and cloud provisioning to ensure oper and economic excellence” 22

en more centre multirational

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by 2020, over 80% of all enterprise workloads may be in the cloud.

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n

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“Between 2018 and 2022, Gartner predicts the percentage of all data processed outside of a traditional centralised hub to go from 10 to 50 per cent�

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adopting multi-cloud strategies.”

Enterprises in 2019 will lean even more heavily on the experience of data centre providers who lead in hybrid and multi-cloud provisioning to ensure operational and economic excellence.

hardware market remains robust even as cloud computing continues to grow in popularity. By 2020, an estimated 22 per cent of all enterprise workloads will be in hybrid cloud environments.

5. Everything will revolve 4. Hybrid cloud will come of age around the edge Cloud users fall into two camps – those who launched their businesses in the cloud and those who have moved some of their onpremises resources to public clouds in the last few years. Yet, by 2020, over 80 per cent of all enterprise workloads may be in the cloud.

According to Gartner, “As the volume and velocity of data increases, so, too, does the inefficiency of streaming all this information to a cloud or data centre for processing.”

Regardless of where their journey began, most organisations in 2019 will realise that not everything belongs in the cloud.

In the last 12 months, we’ve seen that organisations far and wide are working hard to decentralise compute power and place it closer to the point where data is generated.

And this is a trend not going anywhere.

Achieving a proper mix of onpremises and cloud-resident workloads and infrastructure are important to ensure optimal workplace performance and operational efficiency.

Between 2018 and 2022, Gartner predicts the percentage of all data processed outside of a traditional centralised hub to go from 10 to 50 per cent… We wait with bated breath!

This helps to explain why the IT

Source: www.datacentrenews.eu

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B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

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Editor Anna McMahon talks to Bernd Sengpiehl, CIO & Head of Software Development at Haufe, in an exclusive interview.

Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Tom Barnes

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A digital leader and entrepreneurial thinker, Bernd Sengpiehl is one of the industry’s most respected figures, having occupied the post of CIO & Head of Software Development at Haufe for the last four and a half years. ith a vast amount of experience in digitalisation, connecting the old economy in transformation with the new economy, and building an organisation for the future, it was fascinating to learn more about Bernd’s interesting career history, as well as his plans for the coming years. Bernd explained, “I studied for a classic IT career, starting work as a software engineer and then founding my own small 30

software company some years after university, which was very successful. Strategy-wise, I had a partner who had different opinions about how we had to grow the company for the future, so after a few years, I stepped away from my start-up and joined IBM’s development laboratory as a project manager, shortly before the internet exploded.”

A management career within IBM followed before Bernd took

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â‚Ź366 million

1,950

annual sales for Haufe Group

employees worldwide

95.3%

All DAX 30

Lexware software market share based on sales

companies rely on the expertise

on his first role as CIO in a midmarket company, where he had the opportunity to completely restructure the IT from the ground, installing new hardware and undergoing a complete virtualisation at a time when it was the hottest thing you could do in infrastructure. Bernd said, “I pushed to create a totally new environment for the company.

I was successful in reinventing the infrastructure and pushing IT into a central role where it was accepted as part of the supply chain. But, the most fascinating thing was when the iPad came along and we had the idea of digitalising the whole sales process. The company had a

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“By turning an organisation on its side 180 degrees, you transform into an agile style of organisation.

This type of transformation is the most difficult one to do�

Bernd Sengpiehl, CIO & Head of Software Development at Haufe

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large catalogue of products and we brought them all onto the iPad. It was fascinating at this point in time when nobody talked about digitalisation and we were doing it for the first time. The outcome was that we reduced the delivery of new sales activities, pushing them to within 10 hours onto the iPads, instead of an eight-week delivery time.”

This was just the start.

Digitalisation has since become a huge part of Bernd’s life, more recently in his role of CIO at AEG Power Solutions, where he had 36

worldwide responsibility of IT services for the group. Bernd said, “I did pretty much the same thing at AEG. I completely restructured the whole IT system for a modern IT organisation. I

“We don’t have advantages to being centrallyorganised anymore, so the company becomes even more customer-orientated” Bernd Sengpiehl, CIO & Head of Software Development at Haufe 37

“in agile organisations, the team is responsible for what they are doing and how they organise themselves”

Bernd Sengpie CIO & Head of Software Development at Hau

installed the first Office 365 tools for email and collaboration, which was the first cloud service that was available, as well as a new CRM system, also based on cloud software, which was all relatively soon in the history of cloud computing.”

Pushing to restructure the company using the technology that is available to ensure a competitive advantage whilst settling the IT in the middle of the company as one of the key performers, Bernd’s latest position at Haufe has seen him carving out its internal IT. The company no longer has its own data centre draining resources, as everything has now been 38

moved to the cloud. Bernd explained, “Again, I repositioned the IT and software development at Haufe as it steps into the next wave of transformation without the need for the CIO role, ensuring a structure that will enable it to continue to grow. We don’t have advantages to being centrally-organised anymore, so the company becomes even more customer-orientated.”

Bernd likes to talk about agile transformation when turning an existing organisation that is projects-based or matrix-based into a completely different style of organisation, with different thinking, different mindset, different behaviour and different

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ehl, ufe

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roles. Bernd added, “By turning an organisation on its side 180 degrees, you transform into an agile style of organisation. This type of transformation is the most difficult one to do. New companies have an advantage because they can create a new team and find people who are already experienced with agile technologies and agile methods, starting from scratch in an agile mode.”

And a very different style of leadership is required to complete an agile transformation, as Bernd explains, “In a projects-based or matrix-based organisation, you have managers and a top-down hierarchy, but in agile organisations, the team is responsible for what they are doing and how they organise themselves. They don’t have someone telling them what needs to be done. The leadership team must enable the environment, preparing processes

around the team so that they can act responsibly. A different style of leader is therefore needed, especially in the transformation process, where there may be parts of the old world. The leadership structure needs to bring together the old and the new.”

So, speaking of this new world, where does Bernd see himself in the next five years? Bernd answered, “I see myself in a position where I can help transform organisations into this new agile style, bringing them into the next stage of what is coming up afterwards. The most interesting thing, for me, is that agile isn’t equally agile.

Every company has to transform in different ways and adapt the methodologies, artefacts and frameworks to its own behaviour, culture and style. I want to see organisations transform to get closer to the market and become more successful by building products that the customer wants. My role will be to help create a completely futureorientated new type of company.”

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“The Digital Innovation team are incredibly professional and it was my pleasure to be part of the August 2018 edition. At each stage, Danielle and her team were highly prepared and very thorough. I was impressed with the level of diligence and attention to detail that they paid throughout the whole process. It was good to work with a team who had an extremely high level of contextual expertise in the industry in terms of breadth and depth, and they had clearly done their research properly. I wish them every success and it was a real career high to be involved with the project, and I’d like to thank the Digital Innovation team for everything they have done for me” – Jen Stirrup, Director – Data Relish

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INTERNET OF THINGS

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ALL THE GEAR

Cisco has rolled out a new family of switches, software, developer tools and blueprints to establish its position in the IoT world.

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INTERNET NETWORKING CO CISCO, WANTS TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR BUSINESSES IN MANUFACTURING, UTILITIE MOBILE WORKING TO INTR IOT DEVICES, AND THEREFO HAS REVEALED NEW TOOLS NETWORKING PRODUCTS A PARTNERSHIPS.

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he first major facilitator is the launch of its Catalyst industrialnetworking switches and integrated services routers that have been specifically built for IoT environments, specifically the Cisco Catalyst IE3x00 series of Gigabit Ethernet switches and IR1101 Integrated Services Routers.

Both tools are managed by Cisco DNA Center that allows businesses to manage their infrastructure in a single area, even if they are being

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used across environments, and Cisco IoT Field Network Director, letting customers fuse their IoT and industrial-network control with their business IT world. The IR1101 are also modular, so customers can upgrade to new features such as 5G without ripping and replacing.

Liz Centoni, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IoT at Cisco, said, “In IoT, the conversation is about business outcomes. It starts with secure connectivity

OMPANY, T N ES AND RODUCE ORE S, AND

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DNA CENTER IS CISCO’S CENTRAL MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR ENTERPRISE NETWORKS

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as the foundation of every IoT deployment. By providing scale, flexibility and security, we’re turning the network into a secret weapon for our IoT customers. With a new DevNet IoT Developer Center, we’re empowering thousands of partners and developers around the world to build upon our IoT platform.”

An extension of Cisco’s IoT developer tools will make it easier for creators to integrate Cisco’s IoT networking solutions into their apps and services. Vikas Butaney, Vice President of Product Management for IoT at Cisco, added, “We have over 40,000 customers with IoT technology in all manner of applications – from connected roadways and cars to healthcare – and many face the same challenges in deploying IoT – project complexity, scale, and endto-end security. We are bringing to those customers a manageable, secure network that will let them deploy IoT at a massive scale.”

DNA Center is Cisco’s central management tool for enterprise networks, featuring automation capabilities, assurance setting, fabric provisioning and policybased segmentation. It is also

at the centre of the company’s Intent Based Networking initiative, offering customers the ability to automatically implement network and policy changes on the fly and ensure data delivery. The IoT Field Network Director is software that manages multiservice networks of Cisco industrial, connected grid routers, and endpoints. Taking DNA Center’s features into an industrial IoT-based network is an important move for customers.

The industrial IoT rollout has enabled the network edge to extend its natural boundaries into places that traditional IT and network support hasn’t had to have a lot of complexity and innovation. One of the stumbling blocks for success is the customer experience of end-to-end integration and delivery of services.

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In addition to the hardware, Cisco also said it wants to work closer with resellers, ISVs, manufacturers and service providers to spread the reach of its IoT programme.

By providing the hardware and software tools businesses need to embrace the IoT world, Cisco believes it can make a difference to a whole host of industries, particularly manufacturing, utilities and remote and mobile assets.

It has recently unveiled validated designs for those industries to get them up and running faster.

Didier Hinguant, Telecom Director at Cisco partner, Enedis, said, “We closely collaborated with Cisco on Cisco’s new compact, lowpower industrial router to meet the stringent environmental and

safety standards used in the utilities industry. We operate and deploy our connected grid with thousands of Cisco routers via Field Network Director zero touch provisioning, with an agile, highly secure and futureproof network using IPv6 to address our scalability constraints.�

In addition, Cisco rolled out three new Cisco Validated Designs for IoT architectures that customers can use to fast-track IoT deployments.

The blueprints are directed at manufacturing, industrial automation and utility designs, and define common use cases and security best practices. The company also said it would expand its training resources as part of its IoT Partner Program.

For further information, visit www.cisco.com

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“WE CLOSELY COLLABORATED WITH CISCO ON CISCO’S NEW COMPACT, LOW-POWER INDUSTRIAL ROUTER TO MEET THE STRINGENT ENVIRONMENTAL AND SAFETY STANDARDS USED IN THE UTILITIES INDUSTRY” Didier Hinguant, Telecom Director at Enedis

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Welcome to

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aking place this month on the 26th & 27th at Birmingham’s NEC, it is the UK’s ultimate event for the smart technologies revolutionising the way we live.

The smart technologies market has been growing at a remarkable rate

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and is still considered to be in its early stages of development.

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M AC H I N E L E A R N I N G

THE ROBOT

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TIC TOUCH How is deep learning being implemented to give bots the sense of touch?

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THE MAJORITY OF AI RESEA DATE HAS BEEN PRIMARILY VISION. THANKS TO MACHIN AND, IN PARTICULAR, DEEP WE NOW HAVE ROBOTS WIT GOOD VISUAL UNDERSTANDI ENVIRONMENT. BUT...

sight is just one of the human senses. For algorithms that better mimic human intelligence, researchers have now turned their hand to studying the sensorimotor system. With this extra sense to draw on, future robots and AI devices will have even more awareness of their surroundings, opening up new possibilities.

their surroundings via the sense of touch. The project is called SenseNET: 3D Objects Database and Tactile Simulator, and it aims to expand beyond the concept of machines understanding their environment through visual imagery to object recognition by touch, giving them the ability to understand the characteristics of objects such as contours,

An AI enthusiast and founder of the company, Somatic, which specialises in deep learning image and neuro-linguistic programming models optimised for mobile applications, Jason Toy’s latest project is entering into a new realm for AI advancement, focusing on training AI systems to interact with Jason Toy, founder of Somatic 56

ARCH TO Y FOCUSED ON NE LEARNING, LEARNING, TH A PRETTY ING OF THEIR

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offers a pathway to developing autonomous robots that could master certain independent behaviours with minimal human intervention. For example, initial evaluations of deep RL techniques The project opens possibilities indicate that it is possible to use for the application of robotics in wider domains, such as developing simulation to develop dextrous 3D manipulation skills without robotic hands for use in factories and distribution centres to perform having to manually create representations. packing, parts retrieval, order fulfilment, sorting, and many other tasks that require robots to handle SenseNET and its supporting resources are designed to objects sensitively. Other possible overcome many of the common applications include preparing food, performing household tasks challenges researchers face when embarking on touch-based AI and assembling components. projects. An open source dataset of shapes, most of which can be SenseNET relies on deep 3D printed, as well as a touch reinforcement learning (RL), a simulator built by Toy, the project branch of machine learning that allows researchers to accelerate draws from both supervised and unsupervised learning techniques their work. and relies on a system of rewards based on monitored interactions to The GiftHub repository for find better ways to improve results SenseNET dataset provides numerous resources beyond the 3D iteratively. Many believe that RL textures, shapes and hardness.

This is accomplished by adding sensorimotor neural systems and tactile feedback to robotic systems.

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object dataset including training examples, classification tests, benchmarks, and more that can benefit AI researchers interested in a particular domain, while the simulator lets the researchers load and manipulate the objects.

include a robotic hand called the MPL that allows for a full range of motion in the fingers and we have embedded a touch sensor on the tip of the index finger that allows the hand to simulate touch.�

To accelerate the training and testing of many reinforcement Toy explained, “We have built learning algorithms, Toy used Intel’s a layer upon the Bullet physics Reinforcement Learning Coach, a engine. Bullet is a widely used machine learning test framework. physics engine in games, movies, Functioning within a Python and, most recently, robotics and environment, the Reinforcement machine learning research. It is Learning Coach lets developers a real-time physics engine that model the interaction between an simulates soft and rigid bodies, collision detection, and gravity. We agent and the environment. By

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“DON’T JUST STUDY ART FROM THE POINT OF VI AND COMPUTER SCIENCE SUCH AS COMPUTATI AND COGNITIV

Jason Toy, Foun

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TIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IEW OF MATHEMATICS E. LOOK AT OTHER FIELDS IONAL NEUROSCIENCE VE SCIENCE”

nder of Somatic

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“DON’T BE AFRAID TO GO AGAIN NORM. MOST OF THE DEEP LEA IS CENTRED AROUND CONVOLUT NEURAL NETWORKS (CNNS) AN VISION, SINCE THAT IS WHERE GAINS HAVE OCCURRED” Jason Toy combining various building blocks and providing visualisation tools to dynamically display training and test results, the Reinforcement Learning Coach makes the training process more efficient, as well as supporting testing of the agent on multiple environments. The advanced visualisation tools, based on data collected during the training sequences, can be readily accessed through the Coach dashboard and used to debug and optimise the agent being trained.

where the most gains have occurred.” Other less-explored areas offer insights and sometimes breakthroughs in AI, and these less popular avenues can lead in promising directions.

In terms of opportunities for other developers, Toy said, “Don’t be afraid to go against the norm.

Most of the deep learning craze is centred around convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and computer vision, since that is

And as we begin to train robots to interact with objects more like humans, we can look to a future with more advanced and innovative features on a robot, which will make it even more capable than its creators.

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Finally, Toy added, “Don’t just study artificial intelligence from the point of view of mathematics and computer science. Look at other fields such as computational neuroscience and cognitive science.”

NST THE ARNING CRAZE TIONAL ND COMPUTER THE MOST

y, Founder of Somatic

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FINTECH

RECORD

UK fintech in reached an high las

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D LEVELS

nvestment n all-time st year.

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NEW FIGURES SHOW THAT 20 AMOUNT OF FINTECH INVESTM BILLION FOR THE YEAR, WHICH IS AS THE INDUSTRY MATU

P

rivate equity investment soared by 57 per cent to $1.6 billion, while venture capital dipped to $1.7 billion, as the UK fintech sector entered a new stage of growth, according to the report from industry body, Innovate Finance.

Innovate Finance said, “The United Kingdom’s fintech sector kept its position as a world leader, ranking third globally in terms of venture capital invested behind China and the US. Within Europe, the UK continues to

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dominate, followed by Germany ($716 million and 48 deals) and Switzerland ($328 million and 40 deals).”

Revolut’s $250m fundraise ranked among the top ten largest global venture capital deals of 2018. Monzo, EToro, Liberis and BitFury were also among the UK’s top five deals, each raising over $80m.

Last year, challenger banks took the lion’s share of venture capital investment at 27 per

018 SAW THE LARGEST EVER MENT IN THE UK, HITTING $3.3 S AN INCREASE OF 18 PER CENT, URES AHEAD OF EUROPE.

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“TH FIN INN GOV CRU GRO

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cent of the total, followed by personal finance and wealth management (19 per cent), alternative lending and financing (18 per cent), and blockchain and bigital currencies (10 per cent).

Of course, recent fundraises at N26 and Oaknorth have carried on this trend into 2019. Londonbased Oaknorth is Europe’s most valuable fintech thanks to a Softbank-led funding round last, totalling a massive $440m, pushing its valuation to $2.8bn.

And the UK remains a competitive investment destination, with 50 per cent of investment flowing in from overseas, largely from North America (25 per cent) and Europe (18 per cent).

Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of Innovate Finance, said that it is “very encouraging” to see that investment continues to grow in the UK fintech sector, reaffirming its position as a leading global financial and technology

HE UK HAS A UNIQUE POSITION ACROSS NANCIAL SERVICES, TECHNOLOGICAL NOVATION, REGULATORS AND VERNMENT, WHICH ALL PLAY A UCIAL ROLE IN THIS IMPRESSIVE OWTH JOURNEY”

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centre. She added, “The UK has a unique position across financial services, technological innovation, regulators and government, which all play a crucial role in this impressive growth journey. However, we should not be complacent as new challenges lie ahead; we must focus on growing our talent and capital pipeline across the UK, to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth in the future.”

This welcome news comes off the back of data that showed that London beats all European competition when it comes to attracting tech talent, with new investment coming. Apple is to open a new London

headquarters in Battersea in 2020, and Google’s new King’s Cross headquarters will house up to 4,500 staff.

It should be noted that London was home to more than 80 per cent of the fintech start-ups that took in venture capital funding last year, and claimed more than 90 per cent of the capital invested overall, making it a hotbed for innovation, as these companies reach a new stage in their growth journey.

So, now’s time for the UK to deliver Brexit, become a globallyfocused nation, and continue to move forward as a world-leader in fintech delivery.

“LONDON WAS HOME TO MORE THAN 80 PER CENT OF THE FINTE START-UPS THAT TOOK IN VENTU CAPITAL FUNDING LAST YEAR” 70

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A RT I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E

An Unta Oppor

French digital consulta predicts AI is worth billi

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apped rtunity

ation firm, Capgemini, ions to the retail sector.

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Retail is a major focus of AI, and Capgemini, global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, has found that just one per cent of retailers have achieved the level of AI deployment needed to reach its full potential.

K

ees Jacobs, VP of Global Consumer Products and Retail Sector at Capgemini, said, “For global retailers, it appears reality has kicked in regarding AI, both in terms of what the technology can achieve and what they need to do to get there.

Of course, deploying and scaling will be the next big objective, but retailers should be wary not to chase ROI figures without also considering the customer experience.”

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According to the research, most retailers are focusing their efforts on using AI for sales and marketing purposes, but AI has the potential to be used across the value chain.

Kees added, “Our research shows a clear imbalance of organisations prioritising cost, data and ROI when deploying AI, with only a small minority considering the customer pain points also. These two factors need to be given equal weighing if long-term AI growth, with all of the benefits it brings, is to be achieved.”

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28%

78%

global retailers to have deployed AI in 2018

have not replaced any jobs in their organisation

The study involved 400 global retailers who have implemented AI, accounting for 23 per cent of the global retail market by revenue. Public data from the world’s largest 250 retailers by revenue were also included.

senior level, which could be out of reach for lower-skilled retail workers, who perhaps could be displaced

by AI. That said, the report showed that 75 per cent of the companies had not replaced any jobs in their organisation.

The findings revealed that over a quarter (28 per cent) had deployed AI in 2018, up from just 17 per cent in 2017. The debate over whether AI will have a positive or negative effect on society was also considered, especially with regard to jobs, as some believe AI will assist existing jobs, while others take the view that it will replace workers. The study found that 71 per cent of the retailers said AI was creating jobs. However, 68 per cent of the roles were of a

Capgemini likes to talk about five principles to secure your AI advantage, ensuring long-term success for businesses that do not wish to fall behind. The company’s Perform AI is a portfolio of solutions to help businesses compete in an AI-fuelled world, combining five critical success factors. According to Capgemini, “These guiding principles are crucial to infusing AI into your organisation in a way that will generate superior, sustainable and trustworthy business impact.”

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1. Apply AI at scale

Pursuing AI as just another piece of shiny tech is a worthless strategy.

AI implementation needs to go beyond proofs-of-concept and isolate deployments. It needs to be industrialised across the enterprise, scalin business benefits throughout the organisation

2. Empower your people

A recent publication from the Capgemini Research Institute highlighte anxiety and ill-informed opinion obscuring the risks and opportunities implementing AI. Organisations need to take a pragmatic approach to move forward. Part of this will be a strong focus on people. Busines proactively manage the impact of AI initiatives on augmented workfo find the best interactions between people and AI.

3. Transform operations and beyond

At its heart, AI is about leveraging vast arrays of data to create insigh are then operationalised and continuously improved. It is, therefore, v organisations utilise AI-based technology to assist, augment, and au operations, right through to reimagining business processes.

4. Embed ethics into everything

AI needs to be applied with an ethical and responsible approach – on is transparent to users and customers, embeds privacy, ensures fairne builds trust. AI implementations should be transparent and unbiased to disclosure and explanation.

5. Spur innovation for competitive advantage

AI provides enterprises with a chance to get ahead of the pack. It offe enterprises the opportunity to leapfrog from their current market pos those previously reserved for digitally native enterprises.

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Businesses need to be strategic about how they infuse AI into their organisations

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Capgemini believes that AI is something to be excited about – it has the potential to revolutionise businesses and the way we live for the better. Through Perform AI, companies can achieve their untapped potential and compete in the digital world, whether introducing chatbots for consumer-facing functions, machine and deep learning for transforming operations, or the automation of backroom processes. But, these are only scratching the surface of what is possible. AI shouldn’t be seen as a bolt-on initiative or isolated project; it needs to be infused into an organisation’s business fabric.

Eventually, AI will underpin most – if not all – business processes.

Implementing AI correctly, therefore, is instrumental to longterm business planning and sustainable growth. Businesses need to be strategic about how they infuse AI into their organisations – or risk investment without reward. There is a lot of fear-mongering about AI, and businesses need to ensure that they are transparent, fair and ethical in how they implement it.

For further information about Capgemini, visit www.capgemini.com

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IN THE SP OTLIGHT

G

enomtec is one of only a few producers of mobile molecular analysers in the world – and the only one currently on the European market. The mobile laboratory device for disease diagnosis uses molecular technologies – users simply apply biological material to a reaction card and run it through an analyser. The simple diagnostic test can be performed by anyone without prior training and does not require the support of experienced diagnostics or modern laboratories, offering a fast, inexpensive and reliable solution – the dream of many doctors, veterinarians, parents, patients and scientists.

In only 15 minutes, the device is able to process the results and identify dangerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria and

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STARTTHE M

Introducing Polish Genom

fungi. Results are then delivered to the user’s email, with close to 100 per cent accuracy.

The company has recently received a grant of €2 million through the Fast Path program, the flagship initiative of the National Research and Development Center, to further develop the company’s R&D.

-UP OF MONTH

medtech start-up, mtec.

Genomtec ID is a diagnostic device based on the amplification and detection of specific DNA and RNA fragments. Diagnoses using Genomtec ID can be performed both in humans and animals, and can be used by hospitals, doctors, laboratories, as well as in the agriculture and food industries, and for environmental contamination control. The company’s goal for 2019-2021 is to develop and test commercial prototypes of analysers and reaction cards.

The financing will allow Genomtec to further develop its system for mobile molecular diagnostics.

According to Miron Tokarski, the founder of Genomtec, soon the device will be able to diagnose Lyme disease, causes of respiratory tract infection, cerebrospinal meningitis in children, MRSA, as well as staph infections.

Miron said, “The grant is another milestone along the way of Genomtec’s development. The funding will allow us to finalise work on the product and system for mobile molecular diagnostics. The next step will be the mass production and global commercialisation of the Genomtec ID device. There are no POCT solutions that enable simultaneous detection of up to five pathogens from a single sample. Soon the diagnosis of infections will be a matter of minutes, not long hours.”

For further information, visit www.genomtec.com

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