May 2019
TOP 10
The best European start-ups to work for in 2019
AUGMENTED REALITY Cartilage conduction tech in AR headsets
Oliver Prill Tide’s CEO talks small and medium-sized enterprises and the changing face of business banking
Go Green Are your company’s eco credentials intact?
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elcome to our May edition of Digital Innovation Magazine! We are proud to bring you the latest news and tech stories each month, along with a host of exclusive interviews with many of our industry’s key figures. This issue, I chatted to Oliver Prill, CEO of banking platform, Tide. Oliver is passionate about making banking easier for small and medium-sized enterprises, freeing up the time of business owners, so they can focus on what they love doing (p24). It was refreshing to hear Oliver speak about his drive to provide a service for a sector that has been traditionally underserved, and with an increasing share of the total SME business current accounts in the UK, Tide is certainly one to watch. We are celebrating some of Europe’s start-up success stories this issue, with a feature on Swiss Fintech Award winners, Apiax and Crypto Finance (p6), as well as our start-up of the month, Swedish company, Zaver (p90). Thinking of a career change? Turn to page 36 for our guide to the top 10 European start-ups, promising the most attractive perks and staff benefits. What’s more, we bring you a snapshot of our digital future, with Facebook reportedly using cartilage conduction tech in their latest AR headsets (p14), Orange Spain teaming up with ZTE for Europe’s first voice and data call over a full 5G network (p50), plus BMW’s plan to create an impressive cloud-based open manufacturing platform (p70). On a final note, here at Digital Innovation, we strive to keep a close eye on the environment… That, for us, is one of the main attractions of being an online magazine. It’s essential that we all play our part, so if you’re in search of solutions for running a greener business, turn to page 58 for inspiration!
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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We talk to Tide’s Oliver Prill
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Our guide to the top 10 European start-ups Cartilage conduction tech in AR headsets
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14
6
This year’s Swiss Fintech Award winners
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Europe’s first voice and data call over a full 5G network 4
CEO,
Business solutions for lessening environmental impact
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70
BMW’s cloud-based open manufacturing platform
Could AI hold the key to immortality?
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90
Zaver is this issue’s start-up of the month 5
AWA R D W I N N E R S
SWISS FINTECH AWARDS
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Congratulations to start-ups, Apiax and Crypto Finance, and to former Federal Council, Johann Schneider-Ammann.
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or the last four years, the Swiss FinTech Awards have promoted regional development whilst helping create the strongest possible Swiss fintech ecosystem, underpinned by international network links. This network,
made up of selected partner organisations and fintech experts, awards Swiss fintech start-ups and influencers in the Early Stage Start-up of the Year, Growth Stage Start-up of the Year, and Fintech Influencer of the Year categories.
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EARLY STAGE START-UP OF THE YEAR
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his category awards Swiss-based fintech start-ups set up less than two years ago or funded with less than CHF 2.5million. This year’s winner was Apiax. Nicolas Blanchard, Marketing & Finance at Apiax, said, “Apiax is a Zürich-based fintech start-up. We have built a regulatory platform which allows lawyers and regulatory experts to transform regulatory requirements into actionable and machinereadable rules, which you can integrate for an API into any application or process to keep them compliant. “Since 2008 and the financial crisis, the number of regulations worldwide has increased massively, producing a lot of headaches for banks. There are assumptions that more than
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15 per cent of the people (in banks) are working on legal compliance-related tasks, and still the risks are not being controlled. Since the financial crisis, banks have paid more than 300 billion fines and penalties, so, we believe, that if banks want to be innovative again and ahead of the competition, they need to change the way they manage regulatory requirements. This is where we help them – with our regulatory platform.” So, having received the award for Early Stage Start-up of the Year, what are Apiax’s plans for the rest of 2019? Nicolas answered, “Our plan for this year is, first of all, to close this year’s A round. We have now proven that our technology works, and we are able to win clients. With the next set, we want to go to the UK and Singapore – our target markets besides Switzerland.”
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GROWTH STAGE START-UP OF THE YEAR
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his category awards Swiss-based fintech start-ups being older than two years or having more than CHF 2.5million in funding. This year’s winner was Crypto Finance AG. Jan Brzezek, CEO of Crypto Finance AG, said, “Crypto Finance is a one-and-a-halfyear-old fintech company. It actually grew consisting of three businesses. We provide asset management, financial products for the blockchain and crypto base, and we offer brokerage, trading and prime brokerage for all financial situations and professional matters. The third company’s infrastructure allows us to store safely day assets to digital assets. “These days, banks don’t trade their assets themselves anymore. Smaller banks don’t have trading desks. They
outsource everything to larger or specialised providers, so we do exactly the same for digital assets. “With Crypto Finance, we are the first and only crypto company which has received a FINMA license. When we tried to get it, so many people said to forget it, it will take years. But we really did it, within one year or even less, which is amazing. We are so proud, our investors are proud, and our clients are proud of it and really like what we do. I think that’s the most astonishing result for us, and for the team.” 11
FINTECH INFLUENCER OF THE YEAR Johann Schneider-Ammann
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his category was created for individuals or organisations who have positively shaped or influenced the Swiss fintech scene. Former Federal Council Johann Schneider-Ammann was named FinTech Influencer of the Year for 2019 due to his support of fintech during his time as Federal Council. He was nominated directly by the jury. A Swiss businessman and politician, Schneider-Ammann graduated as an electrical engineer from the ETH ZĂźrich in 1977, and obtained a Master of Business Administration in 1983. In 1999, Schneider-
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Ammann was elected to the Swiss National Council, and is a member of the Free Democratic Party. From 1999, he chaired the corporate union, Swissmem, and was elected to the National Council that year, then re-elected in 2003 and 2007. In the context of the 2008 financial crisis, Schneider-Ammann took a critical stance on bonuses awarded to the financial industry, and in September 2010, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council before becoming head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, stepping down from his responsibilities at the end of last year.
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AU G M E N T E D R E A L I T Y
Audio Without
Facebook is reporte using cartilage condu AR hea
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t Headphones
edly thinking about uction technology in adsets.
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n a patent, Facebook has described using this pathway to provide sound without using headphones. The technology works by vibrating your ear, so you can hear sound coming from a headset without blocking out the ambient audio of the world around you. This novel approach to providing sound in augmented reality would therefore allow you to hear sound from a computer without the need to wear headphones. Adding sound to virtual reality is pretty straightforward — the user’s headset replaces the entire world with virtual imagery, so they can pop a pair of headphones or speakers on to complete the illusion. But, with augmented reality, where virtual objects are overlaid via a display over the real world, it’s much trickier – users might benefit from added sound, but traditional headphones could block out sound from real life entirely. Facebook’s potential solution, which it details in a patent application, is to avoid headphones entirely. Instead, a patent suggests building a ‘transducer’ that sits behind the user’s
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ear, and vibrates the cartilage in the ear, producing sound without blocking ambient audio from the surrounding world. The patent explains, “A user wearing a head-mounted display in a VR, AR, and MR system can benefit from keeping the ear canal open and not covered by an audio devices. For example, the user can have a more immersive and safer experience and receive spatial cues from ambient sound when the ear is unobstructed.” Tech giants like Facebook file for hundreds of patents, so there’s no guarantee that this idea will ever make its way into a commercial product. But, it does provide a window into how Facebook is
“Bone conduction allows you to h sound through the vibration of the of your face, so the sound waves b the outer and middle ear and direc stimulate the inner ear” 18
hear e bones bypass ctly 19
thinking about solving some of the core problems facing augmented reality headsets, as its own efforts inch closer to an eventual launch. Earlier this year, it was reported that Facebook had restructured its augmented reality glasses division, moving hundreds of employees from the researchfocused unit Facebook Reality Labs to a standalone product team focused on AR. Prior to the move, the employees had already been working on AR tech at the Reality Labs group, and the restructure of the team on this project indicates that the company continues to be focused on developing augmented-reality hardware. Clearly, its approach is shifting from something experimental and research-driven, to a focus on delivering actual commercial products. Facebook were unavailable for comment on this story. Other companies have explored similar bone conduction technology before. Bone conduction allows you to hear
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“Even Beethoven, who was hearing impaired, used bone conduction to listen to music by biting down on his composer’s wand that was touching the piano”
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sound through the vibration of the bones of your face, so the sound waves bypass the outer and middle ear and directly stimulate the inner ear. Bose, for example, features similar technology in a pair of sunglasses that lets users listen to music without having to wear headphones. In contrast to cartilage conduction technology, bone conduction technology has been around for many years, specifically as a tool to help those with hearing loss. Even Beethoven, who was hearing impaired, used bone conduction to listen to music by biting down on his composer’s wand that was touching the piano. Other industries that have benefitted from bone conduction technology include the military (by implementing behind-the-ear headsets for communication on the battlefield), and sports such as scuba diving (by using underwater bone conduction technology headsets). Notably, Casio was one of the first to popularise this technology with their Logosease device. It will be interesting to see what kind of new technology Facebook’s AR team delivers. 22
Facebook in numbers 2.32 Billion 8 Billion
Facebook users in 2018
Average Daily Video Views
350 Million Photos are uploaded every day 23
B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W
DO WHAT YOU LOVE Tide is fast becoming the go-to banking platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, freeing up the time of business owners to enable them to focus on what they want to do. CEO Oliver Prill tells us more. Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Tom Barnes
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Oliver Prill
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Oliver Prill, CEO of digital banking service for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), Tide, has over 20 years of leadership experience in financial services, having worked across both the banking and insurance sectors.
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liver was attracted to the role at Tide, having worked closely with many small business owners over the years, and having been inspired by their energy and passion. He explained, “When I was looking for my next move, I thought about the sector in financial services that had been particularly neglected. I found that SMEs
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have been highly underserved by the traditional banks. Tide was a business that already had product-market fit in providing a far superior solution. I am delighted that I took the opportunity when the CEO role came up.” Tide became operational in January 2017, with the sole aim of offering financial services to SMEs, allowing them to run their businesses efficiently in today’s online/mobile environment. Oliver said, “Our business model is to provide a highly digital business current account, along with a broad range of additional services. If you think of a restauranteur or an IT consultant, they are very focused on driving their businesses forward. They really don’t want to be focused on
Tide currently has 10-12 per cent of the SME business current accounts in the UK
their banking and admin. We are different from traditional banks in that we don’t just offer a business current account, but we provide a platform for all banking and admin needs. You can write invoices on the platform, you can easily integrate with accounting software, and soon you will be able to do the payroll, so it’s much, much broader than just banking. We want to be the go-to place for all these needs.” And Tide has exhibited huge appeal for a large number of SMEs, with almost 1.3 per cent of the market share of a total of 5.7million SMEs. Having been let down in the past by traditional banks, Oliver is dedicated to putting the owners of small and medium-sized businesses at the 29
“Our mission is to save our members time (and money), but the primary purpose of Tide is to make the banking and admin of their business an easy process, so they can have the time to do what they love�
Oliver Prill
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forefront of Tide’s agenda and fix small business banking for good. He said, “Traditionally, the big five banks dominated this market, and SMEs have never been very wellserved. Recent years have seen branch closures, and SMEs have been put into very clunky, hard-toreach service centres. From their point of view, they are desperate
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to access better banking services. An SME is very different from a consumer – if they have time, they want to focus on their business. I speak to a lot of our members and they don’t spend days optimising their banking – they want to make their businesses better. They don’t want to spend much time on their banking and admin. Our mission is to save our members time (and money), but the primary purpose of Tide is to make the banking and admin of their business an easy process, so they can have the time to do what they love.” In addition, SMEs face a multitude of banking challenges on a dayto-day basis. Oliver added, “The first challenge comes when you are starting out – it is very hard to get a
Meet the team
business current account. It takes weeks, sometimes months. Once you’ve secured a business current account, there’s another set of challenges. While most banks offer a degree of online banking, it is very clunky and hard to access, and it is particularly hard to get the data out of banking into an accounting system. All of this is very time-consuming. The admin side is not very well-integrated with the bank account, so a lot of our members would spend a Sunday afternoon doing their admin. When all the banking information is easily put into their accounting system, it saves time.” Tide’s solution sets the company apart from its competitors, having been designed with the
“We provide a first-class service, which will become even better as we build our platform” Oliver Prill
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Harvir Sangha Founder of Doyenne
Tide Member
“Jumio has face recognition technology to verify that the applicant is the person that their ID card or identity document says that they are. It has become part of our application process now� 34
SME specifically in mind. Oliver explained, “In a large bank, small business banking sits in the middle of consumer and corporate banking. They therefore don’t receive the resources. We only focus on SMEs, so every hour of the day is spent improving things for them. We speak to our members to get their feedback, and we look at the data. This stream of continuous improvement for the SME is, we believe, our recipe for success, and the numbers bear it out.” When the RBS Alternative Remedies Scheme was set up by the UK government, following its rescue of RBS during the financial crisis, £775million was placed into a fund in a bid to increase competition in the small business sector. Tide’s partner, ClearBank, applied for a grant, Tide partnering with them, and they went on to win one of the major awards. Oliver said, “ClearBank won £60million, and we partnered with them. This partnership will allow us to step change the build out of the Tide proposition.” Tide currently has 10-12 per cent of the SME business current accounts in the UK, and every month, the company acquires close to 0.1 per cent of the market share of the
total SME market. Oliver believes the reason for this kind of traction is the fact that Tide’s proposition is entirely focused on SMEs. He added, “The future of the platform is very bright. We would argue that we are only about 10 per cent there. We have so many plans to bring it to the next level. We provide a first-class service, which will become even better as we build our platform.” The company is partnering with a number of other organisations to help bring its plans into fruition, notably online mobile payments and identity verification company, Jumio, which provides card and ID scanning and validation products for mobile and web transactions. Oliver said, “We have to check the identity of applicants. Jumio has face recognition technology to verify that the applicant is the person that their ID card or identity document says that they are. It has become part of our application process now.” Not shy in using the latest technology to improve services for its members, Tide is well on its way towards domination of the SME banking scene. For further information, visit our website
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TOP 10
THE B EUROP START
Our guide to the comp with the most lucrativ
C
ompany benefits have changed a lot in recent years. However, a handful of European startups seem to be getting it right, offering everything from educational grants to wellbeing packages, which
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BEST PEAN T-UPS
panies that attract staff ve perks and benefits.
can seriously make a difference when it comes to choosing a workplace. Here are 10 of the best European startup companies to work for in 2019 (in no particular order):
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his British online food delivery company has transformed the way we order a takeaway meal. Orders are placed through its app or website then couriers transport the food from restaurants to customers. Based in London, Deliveroo operates in more than 200 cities worldwide, with a staff of over 5,000 people, both behind the desk and on the streets.
BENEFITS For the office staff, there is a flexible working atmosphere, pension plan, health insurance, annual leave, sick pay, job training and employee discounts. For the riders, there is free accident insurance and courses available.
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he leading global provider of fresh food at home, German company, Hello Fresh, is the largest meal-kit provider in the US, and also has operations in Canada, Western Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
BENEFITS If you’re a foodie and the idea of a regular office job doesn’t appeal, Hello Fresh could be the perfect company for you. It is known for its millennial company culture, casual atmosphere, flexible schedule, health and life insurance, great coaching and training opportunities, and excellent pay structure. As an added bonus, Hello Fresh also organises fun company social events and activities. 39
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dream workplace for music geeks, Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming platform, providing DRM-protected music and podcasts from record companies and music labels. Launched in October 2008, it gives access to over 40 million tracks, paying royalties based on the number of artists’ streams as a proportion of total songs streamed.
BENEFITS In 2014, Universum placed Spotify on its top 10 best places to work in Sweden due to its excellent health insurance, maternity and paternity plans, stock options, free snacks, video games, and table tennis tables. When it comes to music, employees also benefit from free concert tickets, music hackathons, and a music room to blow off steam whilst enjoying their lunch. 40
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26 is Europe’s first completely mobile bank, headquartered in Germany. With offices in Berlin and Barcelona, it is one of the fastest growing start-ups in Europe, offering its services throughout most of the Eurozone. N26 has also announced plans to expand to the US this year.
BENEFITS All employees receive the N26 black card, discounted language and gym classes, and a professional development budget (with the freedom to spend it in the way they believe will benefit their career the most). Each week, there are company-wide brown bag lunches, where employees can share ideas and experiences, along with fresh fruit and drinks available each day in every office. This pet-friendly workplace also hosts local community events throughout the year.
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urope’s leading music festival travel platform, Festicket is an innovative website that packages together festival tickets with travel, accommodation and add-ons, to create complete festival trips that can be booked in one click.
BENEFITS Festicket offers a dynamic place to work with benefits such as 25 days holiday per annum, 15 sick days per annum, a cycle-towork scheme, free breakfasts, free tickets for music festivals, monthly company events, free merchandise, remote working days and weekly Friday drinks. You even receive an extra day’s holiday for your birthday!
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uto1 Group operates a technology platform that connects the buyers and sellers of used cars. With a workforce of 4,000 in over 30 countries and a stock of more than 30,000 cars, it is Europe’s leading used car platform. The company also sources or buys used cars from original equipment manufacturers, dealerships and its own business units to sell them into its global dealership network.
BENEFITS At Auto1 Group’s Berlin office, employees from more than 55 nationalities enjoy a fast-paced and ambitious atmosphere. To foster a culture of learning and teamwork, the company has a budget for professional development, special events and team nights. Employees can also take advantage of a discount price when purchasing from Auto1 Group’s car stock.
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ne of Europe’s busiest bus companies, the German brand, Flixbus, offers intercity bus services in various European companies, as well as the US. It is rapidly expanding across the whole of Europe.
BENEFITS Flixbus is known for its open-minded and friendly working environment. Employees are offered health insurance, referral bonuses, language courses, performance bonuses, anniversary gifts, relocation support, maternity and paternity leave, paid sick days, holiday allowance, flexible working hours, complimentary healthy snacks, regular team events and afterwork drinks. Plus, that’s not forgetting the free bus rides! 45
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n online marketplace for carpooling, BlaBlaCar’s website and mobile apps connect drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey. It has revolutionised the way carpooling works around the world, with 70 million users across 22 counties, and picking up more than 600 employees along the way.
BENEFITS Perks include BlaBlaBreak (a yearly weekend team gathering), BlaBlaSwap (a yearly office swap in another BlaBlaCar office of your choice), bi-weekly BlaBlaTalks, free carpooling and many more.
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ruecaller is a mobile app that finds mobile number details globally given a telephone number, where people are either using the app or their phonebook contacts are synced. Around 250 million people rely on this Stockholm-based app when it comes to caller identification, call blocking and social media integration (to keep up-to-date with pictures and birthdays).
BENEFITS Job benefits include a pension and insurance package, relocation support, free lunches, hackathons, lab days, employee discounts, and ‘just because’ office parties!
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ransferwise is a UK-based online money transfer service, moving £3billion every month globally, and saving people £80million in hidden charges. With headquarters in London and offices in a number of cities worldwide, the company supports more than 750 currency routes across the world, and provides multi-currency accounts.
BENEFITS All employees are offered stock options, 25 days of paid holiday, private healthcare, a flexi-working policy, generous maternity and paternity leave, an annual all-company trip to Estonia, as well as free breakfasts every day, plus free lunches on Fridays.
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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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TELECOMS
Orange Spain has announced that it has made Europe’s first voice and data call over a full 5G mobile network, in cooperation with ZTE.
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he call was the first of its kind for Spain, as well as the rest of Europe, as all other trials have been done over non-standalone networks. Previous 5G calls in the region were made using architecture which uses existing 4G network infrastructure to support 5G networks. Where a full standalone mode is used, the 5G
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network is built independently without architecture from current systems, and therefore allows for 5G enhancements. The end-to-end solution was provided by ZTE, one of Orange’s suppliers. The test achieved a peak downlink data rate of 876 Mbps on one test terminal, and 3.2 Gbps with 12 test terminals working simultaneously in the same cell.
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Xiao Ming, Presid
Mónica Sala, Director of Networks at Orange (translated from Spanish), said, “It is critical to understand this new and disruptive technology, with which we could close the gap from our 4G networks to offer our customers the best possible 5G
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network in the world when the time is right. The know-how of ZTE is evident in achieving this milestone, and we are very proud of the results.” The live 5G networks today, in South Korea and the US, for
dent of Global Sales at ZTE
example, are primarily providing enhanced mobile broadband services, which can be achieved with non-standalone mode i.e. overlaying 5G radio networks on top of 4G core. This was the architecture that Huawei used when demonstrating 5G at
MWC on Vodafone’s network. On the other hand, to achieve 5G’s full capabilities, including to provide virtualised networks (e.g. network slicing for a particular client) and to run the extreme low latency applications (e.g. automatic cars), they would need
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end-to-end 5G networks i.e. 5G radio and 5G core. Xiao Ming, President of Global Sales at ZTE, was pleased with the success of the trial. He said, “It is a great pleasure for us to work hand-in-hand with Orange for technological innovation and 5G leadership. We foresee this longterm relationship as a way to learn on 5G commercialisation.”
Orange is one of ZTE’s two biggest accounts in Europe (the other being the Three group), so holding on and expanding the partnership is critical for the company that has been struggling in the mature markets. However, the test is still far from the commercial use of 5G, as the process could last as long as a year.
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In the interim, Orange Spain plans to extend 5G trials to other industries including construction, energy, health, automotive and tourism, to test out the use cases. The company also said that it is going to test 5G in a handful of cities, with the support provided by Red.es, the country’s digital transformation programme, operated under the direction of the Secretary of State for
Information Society and Digital Agenda. Tests will be carried out in the cities of Valencia, Seville, Malaga, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona and Bilbao. For further information on Orange Spain, visit www.orange.es
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ENVIRONMENT
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Businesses have a responsibility for implementing environmentallyfriendly solutions. 59
THE CALL TO INTRODUCE BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES HAS BECOME MORE URGENT NOW THAN EVER BEFORE.
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s a result, businesses are under greater pressure to play their part in addressing climate change. This means revamping their strategy from top-to-bottom and participating in various initiatives to promote better habits. Here are just a few ways businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and save money:
GO PAPERLESS
We live in a digital world, and much of the information companies receive is now 60
digital, so it is very easy to reduce the amount of paper a company uses. From cloud storage services to digital pay stubs, business data and documents can be safely stored and easy to manage in a quicker and more efficient way. But, first of all, you need to ensure that everyone within your organisation understands the initiative and agrees to work towards avoiding using unnecessary paper. And if paper cannot be avoided, instead opt for eco-friendly paper, which has been made from recycled waste.
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RECYCLE & REDUCE
Recycling used electronics (e.g. metal components in old computers) provides materials which can be reused to build or repair other electronics. One quick way to reduce office waste is to make recycle bins readily available, clearly marked to explain which recyclable materials go in which bin. You can also use surge protectors to ensure electronic devices are not using needless energy, enable power saving models on applications and electronics
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that are used intermittently, and make sure all heating and cooling units are set appropriately to only run during office hours. Also encourage employees to unplug electronics before leaving the office – powering down devices is simply not enough, as power is still being consumed when they are plugged in. Light sensors are also a great way to reduce your light wastage, making sure all office lights are off once employees have gone home.
ONE QUICK WAY TO REDUCE OFFICE WASTE IS TO MAKE RECYCLE BINS READILY AVAILABLE
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SHREWD ECO-FRIENDLY BUSINESSES ARE BENEFITTING FROM SAVING MONEY WHILST WORKING TOWARDS PROTECTING OUR PLANET... IT’S A WIN-WIN SITUATION!
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REUSE ELECTRONICS
Purchasing refurbished laptops, desktops and servers will help towards becoming a more eco-friendly business. Most products have been lightly used in the past and usually undergo extensive testing to meet specific standards before they can be resold.
PARTNER WITH LIKE-MINDED COMPANIES
Utilising the services of companies which are also eco-minded guarantees your supply chain, on the whole, benefits the environment, whether taking shorter routes or using less energy. You could also work together on ideas for products, services or events to promote an agenda of sustainability, as well as attending energy-saving events such as Earth Day, which is celebrated worldwide on 22nd April.
FUNDING SCHEMES There are funding schemes available to businesses investing in green initiatives. Some banks offer funding to 66
small businesses looking to install solar panels, for example. The UK government initiated the Fed-in-Tariff, paying companies for every unit of electricity that is generated by their solar system. Businesses can also receive funding towards the cost of installing EV charge points. This is something that may be worth investigating, with more and more electric cars on our roads. Providing this facility will also make your workplace appear more desirable to potential employees, as well as being one step ahead of your competitors!
THE UK GOVERNMENT INITIATED THE FED-IN-TARIFF, PAYING COMPANIES FOR EVERY UNIT OF ELECTRICITY THAT IS GENERATED BY THEIR SOLAR SYSTEM
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ENCOURAGE OTHERS
Encourage your workforce to find healthier ways to commute to work, whether offering financial assistance towards the purchase of electric cars, running cycle-to-work schemes, or promoting carsharing. Running an eco-friendly company requires all your staff to be on board, with incentives
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for those who adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. It is clear that companies are shifting towards marketing strategies that support environmentally-friendly initiatives. As a result, shrewd ecofriendly businesses are benefitting from saving money whilst working towards protecting our planet... It’s a win-win situation!
RUNNING AN ECO-FRIENDLY COMPANY REQUIRES ALL YOUR STAFF TO BE ON BOARD, WITH INCENTIVES FOR THOSE WHO ADOPT AN ECO-FRIENDLY LIFESTYLE
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CLOUD NEWS
PERFECT PARTNERS BMW has embraced Microsoft Azure technology to create a cloud-based open manufacturing platform.
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BMW and Microsoft have joined forces to develop a cloud-based open manufacturing platform to increase efficiency for suppliers and manufacturers, helping businesses to take advantage of industrial IoT applications.
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he platform runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, which BMW already uses to streamline logistics in its German factories. Microsoft said that the goal is to have an initial set of between four and six other manufacturers in place by the end of the year. This new platform has been built to power ‘smart’ factories of the future, focusing on open technologies that can be used and interconnected with any other manufacturer’s infrastructure.
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The industrial IoT market generated $57million in 2017, and is expected to grow 21 per cent per year over the next five years, sparking fierce competition between Amazon and Microsoft, the two biggest players in public cloud computing. Neither BMW nor Microsoft has disclosed how much money they are investing in the project, or which other businesses they are in talks with to expand it. The partnership also revealed that it wants to have launched
The amount generated by the industrial IoT market in 2017
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Microsoft is joining forces wit transform digital production e the industry. Our commitment t community will create new opp collaboration across the entir value chain
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th the BMW Group to efficiency across to building an open portunities for re manufacturing Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Cloud + AI Group
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BMW alrea machines, transport cloud suit tools, con IoT platfo 76
a minimum of 15 use cases, deployed in a production setting, by the end of 2019, whether they are to create open source components that can be used across manufacturers, standards or data. Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Cloud + AI Group, said, “Microsoft is joining forces with the BMW Group to transform digital production efficiency across the industry.
ady manages more than 3,000 , robots and autonomous t systems using Microsoft’s te of services and analytics nnected with its own industrial orm, which is built on Azure 77
Our commitment to building an open community will create new opportunities for collaboration across the entire manufacturing value chain.� BMW already manages more than 3,000 machines, robots and autonomous transport systems using Microsoft’s cloud suite of services and analytics tools, connected with its own industrial IoT platform, which is built on Azure. Many of its innovations will be absorbed into the open manufacturing platform, designed to encourage other partners to join in, and providing use cases to manufacturers who sign up to the platform. Members will have access to a reference architecture with open source components to integrate their own systems, and a repository of data models to apply machine learning solutions. Oliver Zipse, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Production, said, “The interconnection of production sites and systems, as well as the secure integration of partners and suppliers, are particularly
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important. We have been relying on the cloud since 2016 and are consistently developing new approaches. With the open manufacturing platform as the next step, we want to make our solutions available to other companies and jointly leverage potential in order to secure our strong position in the market in the long term.�
We have been relying on the cloud since 2016 and are consistently developing new approaches Oliver Zipse, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Production 79
A RT I F I C A L I N T E L L I G E N C E
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KEY TO IMMORTALIT
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Could AI help figure out how to make humans live forever?
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DURING A PANEL DISCUSSION ON TRANSHUMANISM AT THIS YEAR’S MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, ONE EXPERT PREDICTED AI COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO MA A HUMAN LIVE FOREVER.
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he session was entitled ‘If You’re Under 50, You’ll Live Forever: Hello Transhumanism’, and it featured Alex Rodriguez Vitello of the World Economic Forum, and Stephen Dunne of Telefonica-owned innovation facility, Alpha. Transhumanism is the idea that humans can evolve beyond their current physical and mental limitations using 82
technological advancements. In some ways, this is already happening. Medical advancements have extended our lifespans, and AI is helping to make further breakthroughs in areas such as cancer treatment. Alex notes how Dr Aubrey de Grey from the SENS Research Foundation has been able to extend the lifespan of mice threefold. He said, “That’s about 300 years in human
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years. And these mice are superhappy.” Prosthetics, meanwhile, are enabling people to overcome their disabilities. But, artificial limbs will go beyond matching the abilities of natural body parts and provide things such as enhanced vision or superhuman strength. Plus, CRISPR gene editing will one day help to eliminate disorders prior to birth. Alex added, “You can eliminate cancer, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis… All these things.” These are exciting possibilities, but some transhumanist concepts are many years from becoming available. Even when they are, most enhancements will remain unaffordable for quite some time. Cryogenics, the idea of being frozen to be revived years in the future, is one such example of something that is possible today, but unaffordable to most. One of the biggest companies in the field is Alcor – if you’re willing to part with $200,000! In answer to whether he agreed with the panel’s title, Stephen Dunne responded that a better question to ask is whether the first person is alive that will live forever. On that basis, he 84
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believes they might be. “If you’re (Amazon CEO) Jeff Bezos, maybe,” he added. “If you put all your resources towards that.” One concept is that we’ll be able to live forever virtually through storing a digital copy of our brains. American inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, wants his brain to be downloaded and uploaded elsewhere when he dies. Alex explained, “What’s more, he (Ray) has all these recordings of his father and he wants to take all of this information and put it on a computer brain to see if he can reproduce the essence of his father.” This kind of thing requires the ability to emulate the brain. While huge strides in computing power are being made, we’re some way off that level of processing power. Stephen said, “I met Ray recently
D HELP US IN SPEEDING KTHROUGHS THAT CULT FOR US TO HEND TODAY” 85
“IF WE DO INVENT ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE, IT MIGHT FIGURE OU ALL WE NEED TO KNO ABOUT THE BRAIN TO DO THIS WITHIN THE NEXT 30 YEARS”
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Stephen Dunne of Telefonica-owned innovation facility, Alpha
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“AI IS KEEPING THE DREAM BUT IT SEEMS UNLIKELY TH MANY – IF ANY – UNDER TH OF 50 WILL BE LIVING FOR and he thinks of it as a computer scientist, that if we have enough computing power, we can simulate the brain. I think we’re so far off understanding how the brain works (that) this is just wrong at the moment.” Even what consciousness is still eludes researchers. Only last year, a whole new neuron was discovered, which just goes to show how little we know about the brain. Stephen added, “The company I used to work for (Neurolectrics) has a project on measuring consciousness, but just the level of it. We just don’t know how this stuff works at a very fundamental level.” When asked how far along ‘the loading bar’ we are towards brain emulation, Stephen said that he’d put it at somewhere around one per cent. However, things such as stimulating the brain to improve memory retention or boost certain abilities, he believes, are a lot closer. But, this isn’t without its 88
own challenges. For example, it’s almost impossible for someone able-sighted to learn braille as not enough brain power is dedicated to the task. Stephen explained, “If you enhance one feature, you kind of have to take that processing power from somewhere else. To learn braille, you need to be blind, as otherwise you’re using your visual cortex and there’s not enough computing power for the task.” AI could help us in speeding up breakthroughs that are difficult for us to comprehend today. Stephen concluded, “If we do invent artificial general intelligence, it might figure out all we need to know about the brain to do this within the next 30 years.” To this end, AI is keeping the dream alive, but it seems unlikely that many – if any – under the age of 50 will be living forever, but at least we can look forward to some transhumanist enhancements in the coming years.
M ALIVE, HAT HE AGE EVER�
Source: www.artificialintelligence-news.com 89
IN THE SP OTLIGHT
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aver, is a Swedish fintech that has built a payments platform to facilitate peer-to-peer trades, having just picked up just over $1.2million in seed funding. Backing the burgeoning startup are VC firms, Inventure and Inbox Capital, as well as a number of relatively well-established investors. Aiming to disrupt the market for P2P payment solutions, Zaver is developing a SaaS and accompanying apps to bring together buyers, sellers and merchants, with the promise of ‘secure payments on your terms’. The fintech start-up aims to facilitate trades between peers by enabling the use of flexible payment methods such as direct payments, ‘buy now, pay later’, and installments. To support this, Zaver’s platform claims to embed intelligent fraud detection algorithms in tandem with the automatic creation of verified digital agreements between transacting parties. Co-founder Amir Marandi said, “The Zaver app is the first platform-independent checkout solution for P2P transactions. With
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dish fintech, Zaver, ssue.
Zaver’s intelligent fraud prevention, automated and immediate credit decisions and cryptographically signed digital receipts, peers can do safe payments on their own terms with people they really don’t know that well. We try to make P2P trades as safe as possible for all parties involved and offer flexible payment options, without compromising on the user experience.”
to sell their iPhone on a classified site in a secure way, or a plumber who wants to buy a used VW Golf today and pay later. Meanwhile, the typical customer of Zaver for Business is a company with omnichannel sales, selling products/ services online and offline. Amir said, “Our main competitors are not the kind of business you might expect. It’s not the banks, but rather upcoming start-ups wanting to innovate the payment industry. The most direct competitor today I would say is the credit card industry.” To this end, Zaver makes money from the transaction fees it charges merchants (which it says are up to 70 per cent cheaper than traditional payment services), and on interest charged when someone chooses to pay via instalments.
In addition, Zaver for Business enables merchants to utilise the platform to increase conversion and reduce transaction costs, removing the need for a physical card reader.
Amir added, “(By) using automated systems for the entire customer journey, we are able to offer individualised interest rates at the point of sale. The system automatically chooses an interest rate for you, based on your creditworthiness.”
Zaver’s typical user is described as a young student who wants
For further information on Zaver, visit www.zaver.se 91