Digital Innovation Magazine - August 2022

ING's COO Daily Banking & Group Treasury discusses how digitisation and KYC are playing a role in integrating ING’s client lifecycle operations

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Days of Insightful Content

Welcome to our August edition of Digital Innovation. With summer in full swing, we hope you are managing to take time-out to make special memories with loved ones. As Asian culture has taught us, if your team is happy at home, then they will work harder in their day job!

ING's CO O Treasury Daily Banking & Group discusses KYC are how dig pla itis ING’s clie ying a role in inte ation and nt lifecyc grating le operat ions

Speaking of which, our dedicated DI team has been hard at work to bring you two exclusive interviews courtesy of ING’s Ivar Lammers and AutoStore’s Jon Brewin. On page 6, Ivar Lammers, COO Daily Banking & Group Treasury at ING, explains how digitisation and KYC are playing a key role in integrating client lifecycle operations towards seamless customer experience, with increased employee satisfaction and improved operational performance. Huge thanks to Ivar for taking the time to talk to us and share his vast expertise.

d.harris@ithink.media

It was also a pleasure to chat to Jon Brewin, Business Development Manager at AutoStore (p40). Jon tells us how his company’s vision for constant innovation has enabled it to evolve and meet future demands. Plus, Jon reveals which supply chain trends he believes will take the world by storm in the coming years.

Tom Barnes Director

Innovation remains a hot topic for our August features list, with a must-read article on how XR technologies are underpinning the new metaverse (p28), as well as the story of the latest brain-spine interface technology for restoring mobility and upper limb function (p54).

Diversity is another subject close to our heart, so we celebrate some of the winners of the InspiringFifty Europe 2022 Award (p74), whilst raising a glass to the 40 black-led European tech start-ups that will receive investment from Google’s Black Founders Fund (p46)… Congratulations to all!

Danielle Harris Director

t.barnes@ithink.media

Daniel May Senior Digital Designer design@ithink.media

What’s more, our start-up of the month this issue is Londonbased Ki, the first fully digital and algorithmically-driven syndicate in the world (p84).

Happy holidays everyone!

Anna McMahon Editor editorial@ithink.media

+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 product of iThink Media Ltd. Company Registration Number: 10933897.

Company Registered in England and Wales

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ONWARD has receiv a European Innovati Council grant to dev brain-spine interface technology

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Digitisation and KYC are playing a role in integrating ING’s client lifecycle operations

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XR technologies are of the chief enablers metaverse

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ved ion velop e

Tech and digital vacancies are dominating UK job opportunities

46 28

one s of the

Google has revealed 40 blackled European tech start-ups will receive $100,000

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40 Jon Brewin, Business Development Manager at AutoStore, on the benefits of having an innovation mindset

74 The InspiringFifty Europe 2022 Award recognises the women excelling in tech across Europe

London-based Ki is transforming the insurance market 5

C OV E R STO RY

Client Lifecycle Management: Utilising digitisation and KYC journeys to drive for a seamless client experience and increased operational performance

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IVAR LAMMERS, COO Daily Banking & Group Treasury at ING, shares how digitisation and KYC are playing a key role in integrating client lifecycle operations towards seamless customer experience with increased employee satisfaction.

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var Lammers has been at the global financial institution ING for the last 13 years, having started in retail payments and then moving to wholesale. More recently, he has been tasked with changing the operationalisation of ING’s client servicing operating model, driving the increase of both client experience and employee satisfaction. Ivar says, “Having gone

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through a journey at ING of taking on global transformations, Know Your Customer (KYC) and ING Hubs sourcing strategy, this brought me to the role of COO. Having undertaken the earlier challenge to rebuild existing locations for ING into its tech and operational target model, this allows for thorough end-to-end understanding of how the bank is wired, from a system, data, finance

and operations point of view, to service our clients. Afterwards, having taken on the KYC challenge, we have both boosted our ING Hubs sourcing strategy, and established the ability to have endto-end insights in how our clients identify themselves and whether that matches the products and activities they have with us. It is now paramount that we utilise

and integrate these experiences, solutions and the ING Hub strategy to roll out the increasingly seamless client experience.”

The KYC element in the client’s lifecycle management in Daily Banking involves complete understanding of how the client identifies itself to ING, including, amongst others, ownership

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“Financial institutions are expected to grow and stretch their KYC capabilities to understand not only their customer, but their customers’ customer” IVAR LAMMERS, COO Daily Banking & Group Treasury

structure, products/accounts used, and purpose and nature of the business, which all add up to create the client’s blueprint. But, in addition, there are the transaction and product flows, across jurisdictions and counterparties, summing up the client’s actual behaviour. Ivar explains, “It has been very challenging to engineer towards having all data in place, allowing for one regulatory holistic view. Having achieved that, the next step is to land this into a sustainable ecosystem that includes intensifying and rationalising market data procurement, but also utilise this market data to evolve to a regulatory client view that extends beyond our own system’s data into a social activity graph.

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“The challenge of market data procurement is that it is always required to use a combination of local chamber of commerces and a global source(s), and multiple times a year across multiple functions like Credit Risk, Relationship Management, Market Research and KYC. This leads to a complex of redundant costs, and the legacy API’s to these sources prevent us from rationalising. Driving towards the

“When extending the client and behavioural data with market data and technology such as artificial intelligence, advanced functions like entity resolution and network graphs allow you to better identify which activities inside and outside actually complement into an end-to-end activity schema. Having that in place is a next-level foundation to validate risk controls against, allowing for automation and extension of manual controls and an increased

“The relationship that we have with our operations partners is key. BlackSwan Technologies is a company we work with in smart data gathering”

concept of a third party data hub, that disconnects our consuming systems from trusted sources, allows us to gradually move into a ‘Netflix’ type of subscription, which we can periodically tender for. And it allows you to automate the flow of that information into the single source within your own system. Architecture securing every internal consumer has the most accurate set of equal information on one client will lead to a significant reduction of the market data procurement costs.

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risk-based view at potential red flags.

Ivar continues, “Financial institutions are expected to grow and stretch their KYC capabilities to understand not only their customer, but their customers’ customer, and, where possible, also the counterparts of them, which can potentially circle back in relation to us. These circles need to come to the surface in order for us to see end-to-end schemas.

Quantexa is a provider that we work with of the applied technologies,

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challenges Decision

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How ING Modernised its KYC operations with Decision Intelligence

How a Top 30 International Bank Achieved a Single Customer View

ING, the leading multinational banking and financial

A Top 30 international bank with a clientele of

services corporation, sought to future-proof its KYC operations after commiting to regulators that it would

20 million+ had to meet the regulatory requirement for a Single Customer View.

meet KYC remediation deadlines between 20212023. The organisation initiated a KYC remediation programme using BlackSwan Technologies’ ELEMENT of Compliance™ application suite, that would ensure improved data completeness, reliability and quality, reduced processing time and

Inorganic growth at the bank meant customers had been interacting with different business units, with their own distinct operational systems, resulting in data relating to the customer being unsynchronised.

a reduction in overall costs.

The programme involved collecting, enriching and aggregating KYC data for banking customers for multiple business units and multiple jurisdictions using a Data Fabric approach. BlackSwan also provided the functionality to retrieve related parties from intermediate parents of the focal entity with a single click.

BlackSwan made informed regulation-directed decisions readily available to ING’s analysts to verify, and then swiftly propagated the analysed results

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The bank was able to pull data on-demand from any internal or external source in its ecosystem, consolidate it without the need to replicate the data, and enrich it using structured and unstructured data.

in both human and machine readable formats for ingestion into the bank’s internal systems using Robotic Process Automation.

The bank was able to seamlessly resolve fragmented data from dispersed sources, to create a holistic view of its customers and activities across multiple accounts, booking centres and

ING has been able to significantly reduce the

divisions, and thereby improve multiple decisionbased processes, meet regulatory requirements

manual effort required by analysts, keep track of all backlogged cases, and dramatically improve data quality and decision accuracy, while reducing

and avoid monetary fines.

operational costs and meeting its deadlines.

BlackSwan has a history of providing AI-based Compliance to leading financial services firms. Read more in this article prepared in association with Accenture.

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such as AI and advanced analytics, that helps to solve this challenge.”

The point Ivar further makes is: “It is now key to recognise that, although a lot of these developments are largely regulatory driven, it opens up large opportunities for a more integrated and seamless client lifecycle management, also within our sourcing strategy. This improves the client experience and also increases employee satisfaction.”

ING has a strong network and presence, and its clients have certain expectations including having one single point of contact that services the client across that network. Ivar explains, “We have therefore our PanEuropean Desk in ING Hubs that services our clients through a single point of contact. This development has given us the ability to immediately see our client’s footprint and activity, allowing us to better and proactively anticipate on the service requests put forward.

It also gives the option to identify the products with our clients, and whether 16

this surfaces cross-selling opportunities.”

One such client expectation is for ING to digitise its processes, using all the information in its systems to ensure a seamless customer experience. Ivar adds, “Going the extra mile with client services is very important. A client expects us to proactively anticipate our KYC activities and to integrate these with our regular client service calls, evolving us to perpetual KYC. All this, as well as using all available information to minimise our eventual KYC client outreach requirements. Using the digitised environment in this way helps us to think ahead of the curve and be proactive.”

And this is the evolution that ING started to roll out in its Hub strategy. Ivar enthuses, “With both our Pan-European Desk and our KYC activities sourced into one single location, combined with the data maturity, we’ve been able to really start offering that seamless client lifecycle management out of ING Hubs that our clients expect from us.”

The further advantage of really knowing your customer relates 17

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to the now data-driven connection between Client Due Diligence and Client Activity Monitoring. It allows for that data-driven instant view on whether the client behaves as it had previously identified itself. Ivar explains, “Bringing the data points together in one place means you can capture the transactional behaviour of your client and compare the purpose and nature of their business, allowing a more 20

automated and data-driven identification of anomalies, without having to go to the front office or the client. As part of our client outreach, we need to ask clients questions to identify them, but clients are increasingly expecting us to utilise digitised processes.”

So, what does the organisation of ING look like? Ivar answers,

“Delta Capita helped to drive this within a nearshore/offshore combined setup, focusing specifically on overdue KYC statuses and remediations” the global end-to-end value chain to a product, utilising ING Hubs for our operations. The regions are the consumers to their local markets for these global value chains, with local operations footprints to comply with local regulatory uplifts that are not covered by the global value chain operation.”

“If you consider the Wholesale COO column, it is essentially a matrix of products and regions.

We have three product COOs; Daily Banking & Treasury, Trade Finance, and Lending & Financial Markets. In geographies, we have the Americas, EMEA, and Asia & Pacific. They all have a regional COO, with a local country COO below. If you look at product operations, we set up

ING is following a sourcing strategy where the back office is largely organised in centralised operations hubs. Ivar says, “So far, we have been very successful. We have harmonised all local flavours of our operational activities, and sourced these to ING Hubs. Building on that success, we are now in the phase where leadership profiles are starting to land in ING Hubs, bringing the design of the activity close to its execution, to ensure we maintain our efficiency. It is important for us to offer a framework that allows people to grow and acknowledges their competencies, by providing a job 21

perspective across the full value chain.”

Given the challenge of matching everything in terms of demand and capacity in a specific location, ING also works with selected partners for its operational activities. Ivar says, “The maturity model that we follow is to start on a times and material basis, but to move after the initial

offshore combined setup, focusing specifically on overdue KYC statuses and remediations.”

Ivar continues, “The relationship that we have with our operations partners is key. BlackSwan Technologies is a company we work with in smart data gathering.

Their solution allows us to enter a user interface into a platform that is connected to all (trusted) public

“ING works with vendors that collaborate with ING in together driving the maturity, quality and efficiency of the delivered services, of which we share the benefit.

Genpact has, for instance, helped us to drive this setup for Client Due Diligence”

learning curve to a price-per-ticket basis. This allows to share the entrepreneurial and performance risk across ING and vendor.

ING works with vendors that collaborate with ING in together driving the maturity, quality and efficiency of the delivered services, of which we share the benefit.

Genpact has, for instance, helped us to drive this set-up for Client Due Diligence. Delta Capita helped to drive this within a nearshore/ 22

sources, which are automatically loaded into our systems. With BlackSwan Technologies, we are able to identify all that is required across sources at once and understand which source we should prioritise over another.

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per client, and gains more job satisfaction. We are currently in the final test phases and are aiming to roll this relief out.”

perspective now together allows us to see how it presents itself in terms of data, cost, and revenue.”

Ivar highlights the importance of understanding the value of connecting the data, as well as connecting the business and the people behind it. He continues, “Where larger enterprises tend to build silos, we need to break them down and connect the

As far as the challenges are concerned, Ivar says that dealing with regulators and global data privacy can be challenging. He explains, “On the one hand, we have our operations model, but on the other hand, we also have a global client coverage view.

“Quantexa is a provider that we work with of the applied technologies, such as AI and advanced analytics” people into a collective brain, opening up opportunities for a more seamless client experience.

That’s where the 1 + 1 = 3 comes in. We are eliminating handovers between front and back office, allowing the front office to focus on sales activities, while keeping data to the back office. Also, we have commenced our pilots to start performing client outreach out of the back office, to drive the customer experience by leveraging all the information we have and reducing the burden on the client and front office. Having the end-to-end client lifecycle management from an operations

For a client operating across a jurisdiction with multiple products, you need a full global view, but the countries need to agree that the data in their local systems can be released to contribute to this global view. This is what is known as data liberation process.

With the increasing evolution of technology, it becomes more abstract for functions to understand what their data aggregates into, and what views out of this are going on record.

This needs to be navigated very carefully. Having said that, failure to digitise does not seem to be an option.”

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Looking ahead to the future, Ivar mentions sustainability and points to two angles pertaining to the topic. He concludes, “Using low-cost countries for operations handling, for instance, obviously requires us to also give back to society. ING is evolving to, next to donations, also drive Environmental and Social Responsibility as an integral and repetitive part of our partnerships. An example is the Udayan Care program in India that is an integral part of our partnership with Genpact, which provides end-to-end education to local girls and support for their families. ING has, as part of this initiative, also built a network of colleagues offering coaching, workshops and interview training sessions to these girls, so they can contribute back to their local environment.

“Furthermore, with sustainability now being translated into regulations, it might become a new KYC angle. And we have the opportunity to be ahead of the curve here.”

For further information, visit www.ing.com 26

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EXTENDED REALITY

XR INNOVATION has surged in recent years as one of the most exciting technologies underpinning the development of the metaverse.

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EXTENDED REALITY (XR) TECHNOLOGIES are one of the key enabling technologies for the metaverse. According to new analysis from Marks & Clerk, the leading global intellectual property firm, the number of XR patent applications filed collectively by ‘small-filers’ – who typically file on average one patent application a year – is surprisingly the same as those filed by the top-ten ‘mega-filers’.

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ver the course of 2016 to 2021, the smaller filers group, which is made up of 4953 applications from firms that have five or fewer publications of XR filings, are collectively responsible for almost as many publications of PCT patent applications for XR technology over the 2016 to 2021 period as the top 10 mega-filers – those that filed at least several hundred and often thousands of XR patents over the period.

Graham McGlashan, Partner and European Patent Attorney at Marks & Clerk, commented, “Whilst many associate innovation in XR technologies that underpin the metaverse with big tech giants, the fact that small-filers are matching the number of applications of megafilers is a sign of the significant contributions they are making to the XR innovation landscape – it’s not just dominated by so-called tech giants.

In fact, there is clearly a thriving ecosystem of small firms that are making an impression in the space.”

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The findings, which are based on patent filing data for published patent applications filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) and PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) Patent Publications, form part of Marks & Clerks’ annual XR Report. It looks at the trends in patent filings related to XR technologies over the five-year time frame.

The report reveals that there has been a period of positive growth for PCT publications, with there being almost a fifth (19 per cent) increase between 2016 and 2020, against an overall growth of 18 per cent in PCT applications in the same phase. By contrast, the picture at the EPO is even brighter, with XR publications increasing by 42 per cent in the same period, against an overall average increase of 13 per cent in applications.

That said, 2021 saw a 16 per cent drop in the number of PCT publications relating to XR technology, which is most likely driven by the impact of the pandemic, especially when considering that patent applications are usually published around 18 months after a patent application for 32

“The report reveals that there has been a period of positive growth for PCT publications, with there being almost a fifth (19 per cent) increase between 2016 and 2020, against an overall growth of 18 per cent in PCT applications in the same phase” the inventions has been first filed.

Graham adds, “Whilst it’s likely that the slow-down in the number of PCT publications in 2021 is due to the widespread disruption caused by the pandemic, this may have been compounded by the rapid increase in demand for remote collaboration technologies, and therefore a shift in resource from product research to product delivery to capitalise on this change.

It has yet to be seen if this is just a temporary blip, or the beginning of a more general slow-down.”

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On a country-by-country basis, the US continues to dominate. The PCT publication data reveals that the US is responsible for 55 times more XR publications between 2016 and 2021, than that of the second country, Japan.

When examining the EPO data more closely, whilst the US 34

continues to dominate the XR applications with over 18,000 patent publications for XR technology over the period, overall, it’s a much more diverse picture of origin. Japan still comes second, with over 7,000 XR related patent publications, and is closely followed by China (over 5,000), Germany (over 4,000), and South Korea. The

UK comes in at the eight highest filer with a respectable 1,560 publications.

Drilling deeper, analysis shows that the most common technologies that are subject to patent filings are optical systems and apparatus, such as headsets, followed by input and output arrangements, which include eye/gaze tracking

and haptic feedback devices, and image analysis (for example, segmentation of images and feature or object recognition).

Graham concludes, “It comes as no surprise that the US continues to top the charts when it comes to patent applications, and we don’t expect this will change anytime soon. However, it’s interesting to 35

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see that Japan is the second largest across both the EPO and PCT. Beyond that, it’s worth mentioning the relatively strong filing figures that arose from Israel, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Canada at the EPO. “Whilst the focus on innovation in headsets and displays may seem like the obvious choice when it comes to XR technologies, the other two top categories address interesting developments when it comes to XR technologies. In particular, how to provide input to allow the user to interact with objects and other users in the XR realm, rather than just simply watch.

“Above all, it’s encouraging that applications are over time still rising, especially in what is a new and important technology. We cannot stress enough the importance of developers getting protections in place from the outset to ensure businesses safeguard their IP and allow themselves to maximise future opportunities and business value.”

For further information on Marks & Clerk, visit www.marks-clerk.com

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

The Power of Automated Warehousing JON BREWIN, UK Business Development Manager at AutoStore, sings the praises of his company’s culture of innovation, with a focus on the key future supply chain trends.

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utoStore is an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) that harnesses the power of warehouse robots for 24/7 order fulfilment within a cubic layout. The technology solutions provider was founded in the late 90s when an electronics distributor needed more warehouse space. The warehouse manager was advised to find a creative solution, and AutoStore was born.

Jon Brewin, UK Business Development Manager at AutoStore, picks up the story; “The solution started life as a basic boxed structure with creative temporary solutions like tape measures on it to create a robot.

It took eight years of meticulous innovating and a pilot site before it became a commercialised product, so the system has been around for 25 years, but as a business, we have really propelled over the last 15 years.”

Unique selling points of AutoStore include the fact it is a pioneer in cube storage technology, the system can be expanded gradually during a live operation, and its lead time from order placement to a site being kitted out with a fancy new grid is as little as four months. Jon says, “The slogan we live by is to ‘stop airhousing and start warehousing’.

It is about removing unnecessary and expensive air from the warehouse and just using the storage space for storing products, in a Rubik’s cube sense, rather than traditional shelving.

Typically, utilising an AutoStore system would save you 75 per cent of your floor space compared to manual shelving.”

Last year, SoftBank in Japan acquired 40 per cent of AutoStore, following that the company listed on the Oslo stock exchange as the most valuable listing in Norway in two decades.

AutoStore recently won a Le Fonti Award for its commitment to innovation in business, sustainability, technological achievements, leadership, and employee engagement. Jon describes the AutoStore approach to innovation as ‘innovation as a culture’. He continues, “There is a philosophy inside the business that everyone gets involved and everyone can play

“Typically, utilising an AutoStore system would save you 75 per cent of your floor space compared to manual shelving” 41

Jon Brewin

a role in how we shape the business, the product, and the culture. We have a system that enables anyone inside the business in any function to submit ideas. There are key performance indicators so the product team can respond in good time to the idea to determine feasibility and move to the next stage. There is also a fail-fast philosophy – we will look through as many ideas as possible to try to make them fail as fast as possible. If they don’t, we know it is something that is a bit more robust and could make a difference, so more likely we can move forward and benefit from it as a business.”

AutoStore has a mantra of being lean, transparent and bold, the bold part being the culture of innovation within the business. But, does Jon and his team face any challenges in convincing customers that automation is the way forward? Jon says, “What we focus on is the fact that we have a simple solution. We look to make small incremental advances in the technology, but we strive to continue to do so constantly and consistently.

When suggesting AutoStore as a solution, the alternative is usually 42

doing nothing at all and maintaining a manual warehouse. We are more often faced with the challenge of outreach and education i.e. describing what we offer and how we can help you. It is sometimes a slow and careful transformation from changing what people have been doing for tens of years to a solution that makes use of advanced technology and clever software. It can be a different mindset altogether!”

The aim is to make the transition from traditional manual systems to automated warehousing as smooth as possible for AutoStore customers.

Jon adds, “With AutoStore, you do not have to learn all of the complexities of advanced technology and how it works. Our aim is to make that interface with the customer or the people using the system as simple as possible. This means it does not have to be a daunting transition in the business in terms of mindset. It is just a case of tweaking what you already know in order to use the technology to your best advantage.”

In terms of the current trends in supply chain, Jon highlights six key areas:

1. Increased demand on delivery speed & accuracy 2. Labour shortages 3. Ecommerce boom 4. Sustainability 5. Urbanisation & increasing real estate costs 6. Onshoring with complexities around goods importing Jon explains, “People are increasingly demanding that the item they are receiving is correct, and it arrives either the same day or the next day. The only

way you can achieve this is through automation, or a very, very slick process when doing it manually. This is a trend we are seeing that is pushing through automation as a solution – people want products, they want them to be correct, and they want them now.

“Labour shortages are the next huge trend. If you cannot get the people in to manage fulfilment for a warehouse, you have no choice but to transform, and potentially automation can be that transformation which would reduce the need for additional labour.”

Ecommerce sales as a share of total retail sales went up 10 per cent during the pandemic and sits at around a third now. Ecommerce fulfilment is a lot more strenuous on manual pick and pack due to the profile of small and frequent orders, so bringing in automation can alleviate some of the pressure and help adapt to the new ecommerce environment.”

Next, sustainability, in which AutoStore has won multiple awards for its sustainable solution. Jon enthuses, “Usually, you would see a huge electricity bill at the end of the month

“With AutoStore, you do not have to learn all of the complexities of advanced technology and how it works. Our aim is to make that interface with the customer or the people using the system as simple as possible” - Jon Brewin when you have an automation solution involving lots of moving parts and complexities. With AutoStore, we have designed the solution in a way to reduce power consumption.

10 of our robots use the same power as a vacuum cleaner, opening up sustainable options such as solar panels on the roof of your fulfilment centre to generate the energy you need at the site. It is huge for us to be able to offer a solution that is sustainable and can play its part in reducing the impact on the environment. When discussing with new customers, usual decision criteria involve aspects around price, productivity and lead times, but we are now seeing more and more that

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sustainability is an important part of their criteria. Being able to wear that badge and say that we are investing in sustainable solutions is a great feeling for us.

“The last big one is urbanisation. We are seeing a shift from having one or two large traditional fulfilment centres across the country towards more localised fulfilment. Many businesses cannot physically reach their customers as quickly as they would like, and be as reactive as they want to be. Localised microfulfilment centres closer to the customer can be more efficient and reduce unnecessary carbon outputs from long haul delivery, whilst being much more reactive. With real estate costs only growing, it also means that you need to be doing more with less space, so density of storage is an important factor to consider in your solutions when considering more local fulfilment. Fortunately, with AutoStore, we can offer that ability to store significantly more stock in existing and new spaces. The trend of localised fulfilment is growing, and in the next few years, I believe it will really start to take over, so businesses need to adapt quickly.”

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Warehouse automation can also play a role in helping businesses overcome the impact of regulatory changes, such as the UK’s post-Brexit trading agreements. Jon continues, “The main challenge is with the speed at which you can import raw materials or products into the UK. There are dramatic changes in the number of queues at ports and businesses waiting to ship in containers. The more stringent post-Brexit processes are adding to the time it takes for both import and export, and this is reducing the ability to react quickly to help realise or even increase your outputs.

Businesses are therefore moving stock into UK sites to be stored, thus enabling reactiveness in your supply chain and production environment. This notion of keeping local stock rather than relying on imports from abroad is referred to as ‘onshoring’.”

As far as the future of warehousing is concerned, Jon believes the UK in general will move away from having central warehouses for B2C distribution, implementing potentially 30 more localised sites across the region. He continues, “Once the process for imports into the UK from abroad is made simpler, you might not see as much change being implemented to cope. For the moment though, this trend will continue as businesses look to separate themselves from their competition by implementing innovative technology that can increase efficiencies and reduce costs.

There is still space for large fulfilment centres, but it all depends on the geography, the type of business, and your business profile. For example, do you have a very tight service promise

“We have designed the solution in a way to reduce power consumption. 10 of our robots use the same power as a vacuum cleaner” in terms of delivery, or a strict policy in terms of accuracy of your stock? Some companies still have a relaxed service promise whilst others have to deliver the right product to the customer as quickly as possible. That is when you cannot afford to fail.”

Finally, How would Jon describe the future of AutoStore? He concludes, “First and foremost, it is about keeping what we are doing lean by not trying to overcomplicate the solution. We will further engineer and innovate and move the product forward, but only where we see value being added to the industry and to our customers. We could even see AutoStore becoming a solution for trends outside of warehousing e.g. shared storage space in apartments, storage in

shopping centres, and rentable storage space. Finding different ways to apply our solution to the market will only help to advance the technology and bring more benefits to customers.

We want to make sure we are reaching as much of the market as possible whilst continuing to serve and develop as a leader in automated storage and order fulfilment.”

AutoStore operates from offices throughout Europe – in the UK and Ireland; Germany, Austria, Switzerland; and Southern Europe – as well as North America and a newly opened office in Singapore covering Asia and Pacific to continue the growth in the region.

For further information on AutoStore, visit www.autostoresystem.com

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TECH

UK tech start-ups have dominated in support offered by Google for black-led tech start-ups.

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GOOGLE HAS REVEALED 40 BLACK-LED TECH START-UPS FROM EUROPE THAT WILL RECEIVE $100,000 (£82,000) INVESTMENT FROM ITS $4 MILLION (£3.3 MILLION) BLACK FOUNDERS FUND, WITH 26 OF THE START-UPS BEING UK-BASED. he Black Founders Fund comes from the tech giant’s Google for Startups initiative that helps founders scale their start-ups. The fund was created to tackle racial inequality in venture capital funding.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, held a meet-up for London-based

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founders, as part of London Tech Week.

Khan said, “London celebrates the diversity of its business community and it’s fantastic to see that 60 per cent of the companies selected for Google’s latest Black Founders support programme are from London.”

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“FOUNDERS OF THE 2021 COHORT HAVE GONE ON TO RAISE £64 MILLION IN FURTHER FUNDING, ACCORDING TO GOOGLE”

This continues Khan’s crusade to draw tech investment into the capital. A few months ago, Khan went on a tour of the US, including Silicon Valley, to meet with senior tech executives.

UK start-ups on the list include fashion tech Sojo UK, artificial intelligence company Yuty, fintech Goodloans, and on-demand business school Framework.

Rachael Palmer, Head of VC and Startup Partnerships, EMEA, Google, said “Last year’s founders have generated significant returns for investors – in some cases, more than 10 times the initial investment in less than a year.”

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Founders of the 2021 cohort have gone on to raise £64 million in further funding, according to Google.

Members of the cohort will be allocated $100,000 (£82,000) in non-dilutive cash awards, up to $200,000 in cloud credits and ad

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“THROUGH THE FUND, WE’RE HOPING TO IGNITE THE CHANGE NEEDED ACROSS THE ENTIRE START-UP ECOSYSTEM, DELIVER MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERREPRESENTED ENTREPRENEURS” Rachael Palmer, Head of VC and Startup Partnerships, EMEA, Google

support, mentoring, as well as access to Google’s connections.

The fund was launched last year with £1.5 million funding. Before this, less than 0.25 per cent of venture capital went to black-led start-ups in the UK, according to State of European Tech.

Palmer added, “Through the fund, we’re hoping to ignite the change needed across the entire start-up ecosystem, deliver more opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs, and ultimately change the face of what a successful founder looks like.”

Source: www.uktech.news

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M E DT EC H

Restoring Mobility in People with SCI ONWARD has been awarded a European Innovation Council grant to develop brain-spine interface technology.

Photos from www.onwd.com 54

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NWARD, the medical technology company creating innovative therapies to restore movement, independence, and health in people with spinal cord injury (SCI), has announced it has been awarded a grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC), to support the development of an innovative brain-spine interface technology for restoring mobility and upper limb function.

The 3.6 million euros grant was awarded to ONWARD and its research partners; EPFL (one of the world’s preeminent neuroscience research institutions); CEAClinatec; the Edmond J. Safra Biomedical Research Centre 57

(co-founded by Professor Alim-Louis Benabid, a leader in medical devices for the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and motor disabilities); and Sint Maartenskliniek (a leading rehabilitation centre for SCI in the Netherlands).

The project is entitled, “BrainSpine Interfaces to Reverse Upper- and Lower-limb

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Paralysis”. Under the terms of the award, ONWARD will receive 1.2 million euros.

The consortium will use the grant proceeds to fund integration between ONWARD’s ARCIM Therapy, which delivers targeted, programmed stimulation of the spinal cord, and Clinatec’s WIMAGINE, a fully-implantable

The consortium will use the grant proceeds to fund integration between ONWARD’s ARCIM Therapy, which delivers targeted, programmed stimulation of the spinal cord

device approved for chronic use in clinical trials in two European countries, which records and decodes the brain’s cortical signal to predict a person’s desired movement intentions.

The consortium will also conduct two clinical feasibility studies using their BSI system, assessing its use

for upper- and lower-limb control and rehabilitation, and including two participants per study. Lastly, clinicians from Sint-Maartenskliniek will provide feedback on the usability of the system.

The final deliverable is a set of system specifications for a commercially-viable BSI system for people with spinal cord injuries.

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Dave Marver, CEO of ONWARD, said, “This grant from the EIC validates ONWARD’s position as a leader in the fast emerging realm of Brain-Spine Interface technologies. In combination with the IP rights option obtained from EPFL in March, we now have foundational elements in place to develop and pioneer the use of BSI technology to help people with spinal cord injuries.”

ONWARD is headquartered at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It maintains a significant team in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has a growing US presence in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. To learn more about ONWARD’s ARC Therapy and the company’s vision to restore movement, independence, and health in people with spinal cord injuries, visit ONWD.com Source: www.businesswire.com

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This grant from the EIC validates ONWARD’s position as a leader in the fast emerging realm of Brain-Spine Interface technologies Dave Marver, CEO of ONWARD

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E M P L OY M E N T

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UK job opportunities hit around 870,000 tech and digital vacancies between January to May 2022, according to data from the job search engine Adzuna analysed by Tech Nation for the UK’s Digital Economy Council.

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Tech roles now make up 14 per cent of all job opportunities in the UK, up from 11 per cent in 2019, while hiring continues to remain 42 per cent higher than in 2021. What’s more, UK tech companies have raised £12.4 billion in VC funding this year to date, more than the whole of 2020 (£12 billion).

ities such as London, Bristol and Oxford, ranked in the top 20 European tech hubs for funding this year, reflect the increased role of tech in our everyday lives. Roles for software developers continue to remain the most in-demand by companies, while there has also been a strong uptake in hiring for security roles. The key to success is upskilling.

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For every ‘no experience’ tech and digital role advertised, there are approximately eight senior roles available, despite the fact there are more STEM graduates in the UK than there are entry-level roles in the industry. This demonstrates that on-the-job training and upskilling are essential to ensure businesses have the digital skills they need to succeed.

According to the survey carried out by Tech Nation and YouGov, 64 per cent of people who work in UK tech said that having tech skills was essential for job security. Plus, 26 per cent believe that upskilling themselves in new digital or tech skills will allow them to earn more in the future. Of the 16 per cent of respondents who picked up a new tech skill since the pandemic, people have chosen to learn coding or cloud technologies, whilst others have learned data visualisation skills.

Employees choosing to upskill themselves is only one part of the equation though.

Companies that focus on on-the-job training for future 66

“64 per cent of people who work in UK tech said that having tech skills was essential for job security” developers and tech leaders, such as London-based Multiverse and Manchesterfounded Academy, are continuing to grow to help increase the talent pipeline.

Tech companies including Amazon and Google have also launched digital skills programmes to train employees across the UK. There are almost five million people working in UK tech start-ups and scale-ups, with regions across the UK enjoying strong hiring growth for tech and digital positions. The North West has more tech opportunities than any other region in the UK outside of London and the South East, with over 40,000 available 67

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jobs this year – an increase of 50 per cent on last year’s figures. The devolved nations have been enjoying increased interest in their respective tech industries recently, with Northern Ireland seeing its tech job opportunities increase to nearly 20 per cent of all available vacancies, to 5,079 in Q1 2022, whilst Scotland has seen its tech

on average advertised tech salaries of over £50,000 – Scotland, South East, North West, South West and West Midlands.

Software development continues to be the most in-demand tech role in the UK, increasing 56 per cent compared to 2019’s advertised tech vacancies.

“Already in 2022, there have been over 56,000 available software developer roles, making up nearly 8 per cent of all available tech jobs” vacancies rise to 13 per cent of all available vacancies so far in 2022.

London continues to have the highest number of tech and digital jobs available, with over 170,000 advertised in Q1 2022, and the highest average advertised salary at £75,223. Highly-paid tech jobs aren’t just available in London however: five regions across the UK have

Already in 2022, there have been over 56,000 available software developer roles, making up nearly 8 per cent of all available tech jobs.

This high demand comes from both tech and nontech companies because software developers are essential to all areas of technology – they create, design and build the programs and applications that many businesses rely 69

on. As well, the role encompasses many verticals and languages, explaining why the demand for candidates is so high. Other indemand jobs include business analysts, data analysts and product managers. Business analysts are now the second most in-demand tech role in the UK, having overtaken engineers.

Security roles are also increasing rapidly, particularly for cybersecurity engineers with demand doubling compared to 2019. This suggests that companies are shoring up defences against

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increasing cyber threats, with an 11 per cent increase in security incidents last year compared to 2020. Security is now in the top five most in-demand skills when it comes to tech, increasing 671 per cent since 2019.

As the tech sector grows and evolves, so too have the main skills employers’ desire. Data has now become the number one skill in UK tech, rising from third position in previous years, with a 1006 per cent increase in demand for data skills since 2019. Engineering has declined from first to third, but is

still an essential skill, with a 216 per cent growth in job adverts with the skill engineering included.

and finance, which demonstrates the diversity and opportunity across the industry.

Though technical skills are important, there has been a growing demand for softer skills from employees. Often management, clients and communication are within the top 10 sought-after skills in tech jobs – there has been a 602 per cent growth in job adverts looking for management experience. Around 36.8 per cent of people working in UK tech are in non-technical roles, including user experience, HR, sales

Euan Blair, CEO of Multiverse, said, “As a tech industry, we’ve a duty to make sure jobs are accessible to talented people regardless of background or financial circumstances – we’ve built an outstanding alternative to university to deliver on exactly this goal.”

To read The Tech Nation People and Skills report 2022, visit technation.io/people-and-skillsreport-2022/ Source: www.electronicsweekly.com

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sive IT ntinued and efficiency

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an der Wiel supply chain e of the eal

"The team were professional and diligent throughout" Leigh Feaviour, CTIO for BT’s Supply Chain

"Absolute pleasure working with the Digital Innovation team" Mun Valiji, Chief Information Security Officer at Sainsbury’s

"A highly professional approach" Andy Brierley, Vice President, Cloud Application Modernisation at IBM

"Digital innovation Magazine is a very flexible and professional team" Kim Larsen CTIO, T-Mobile Netherlands

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WOMEN IN TECH

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THE INSPIRINGFIFTY EUROPE 2022 AWARD RECOGNISES THE INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN EXCELLING IN TECH CAREERS ACROSS EUROPE. nspiringFifty is a global initiative on a mission to increase diversity in tech.

Ran by EQL:HER, its focus is to provide diverse role models, inspiring the next generation of leaders and tech talent across the ecosystem. Recognising and amplifying the incredible women excelling in STEM, here are some of the recipients of the InspiringFifty Europe Award.

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DR ANNE-MARIE IMAFIDON MBE

Co-Founder & CEO Stemettes

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level Computing, and was just 20 when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford.

In 2013, Anne-Marie co-founded Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. Since its inception eight years ago, it has exposed more than 50,000 girls across Europe to her vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community.

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DEWI VAN DE VYVER

CEO Flow Pilots

As Co-founder and CEO of Flow Pilots, Dewi Van De Vyver never stops asking why technology drives people instead of the other way around? How can we use technology for a better life?

Why do inclusiveness and ethics disappear as soon as the doors of the boardrooms close?

Sometimes the problem doesn't get solved because the question was wrong. Companies and governments want to transform digitally, but they should also ask why and for whom. Dewi pleads for ethics in tech and more diversity on the panel of the podcast Tech45, with the event The Ada Talks, in several boards of directors, and in the government’s advisory group for technology education.

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EDWINA DUNN OBE

Founder The Female Lead

Edwina Dunn is one of the most successful leaders in the data industry, with a career of delivering transformational business change. Dunn revolutionised the world of retail and consumer goods when they pioneered Tesco Clubcard and other global loyalty programmes.

She is Founder & Chair at The Female Lead, an educational foundation celebrating the achievements and diversity of women who shape our world; using data to understand the challenges women face, working with business and government to help create new models and policies for the workplace, all driven by a social platform with six million followers. In 2019, Edwina received an OBE for her services to data and business in the UK. She is Interim Chair at the CDEI (Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation) and a Board member of the Geospatial Commission.

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GERALDINE NAJA

Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement European Space Agency

Geraldine Naja is Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement at the European Space Agency (ESA). A French national, Geraldine holds over 30 years of experience, expertise and knowledge within the European space sector, in programmatic, managerial and strategy development positions.

She is responsible for elaborating and implementing ESA’s industrial and procurement policies, conducting negotiations with industry, and managing procurement for all the Agency’s activities and programmes.

Furthermore, Geraldine is responsible for enabling and boosting European space commercialisation ambitions through innovative tools and partnerships.

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PROFESSOR ISABELLA CASTIGLIONI

Full Professor - University of Milan-Bicocca & Honorary President of DeepTrace Technologies S.R.L

Isabella Castiglioni is Full Professor in Applied Physics at the University of Milan-Bicocca. Lecturer in Machine Learning and Medical Imaging for Artificial Intelligence (AI), she is recognised as one of the 100 women against stereotypes for science. In 2021, she won the Tecnovisionarie International Award – category AI and Health – and was appointed by the Italian government as member of the Working Group for the Italian national strategy on AI. Professor Castiglioni has contributed to medical research with over 90 seminars in international conferences and schools, and 160 publications, as well as coordinating projects funded on competitive calls for funds of over 2 million euros.

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BARONESS JOANNA SHIELDS OBE

CEO BenevolentAl

Joanna Shields (Baroness Shields OBE) is a tech industry veteran with a successful track record of building some of the world’s best-known companies. Her career spans over 30 years and has focused on harnessing the power of technology to drive change that improves connectivity, humanity and society. Joanna is currently Chief Executive Officer of BenevolentAI, a leading clinical-stage AI drug discovery company that uses AI to develop more effective medicines. Prior to joining BenevolentAI, Joanna served as the UK’s first Minister for Internet Safety and Security, Under Secretary of State, Special Advisor on the Digital Economy, and Chair & CEO of TechCityUK. Prior to her government service, Joanna held executive roles at Google, Facebook, Bebo/Aol, Decru, RealNetworks, Veon and EFI, and served as a non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange Group.

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LISA JACOBS

CEO Funding Circle

Lisa is one of the leading women in fintech in Europe, having spent the last decade at one of the UK’s pioneering fintechs, Funding Circle. She now runs the FTSE-listed business as CEO. During her time at Funding Circle, as UK MD, she led the UK business through the pandemic, becoming one of the largest lenders under the CBILS government loan scheme; and as Chief Strategy Officer, she led the company’s international expansion with two acquisitions.

Alongside this, she co-founded FinTech women, a quarterly meet-up focused on showcasing inspiring women across the fintech landscape.

Lisa has been named on the Innovate Finance FinTech PowerList since 2017, and was named as AltFi’s Fintech Woman of the Year in 2021.

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ROBERTA LUCCA

Co-Founder Bossa Studios

Multi creative entrepreneur Roberta Lucca (aka Beta Lucca) is the Co-founder of the BAFTA-winning Bossa Studios, one of Europe’s most successful and innovative gaming companies. As an international keynote speaker, podcaster, creator, advisor and angel investor, Roberta is on a mission to empower everyone to innovate, live a MULTI life, and develop their boldest entrepreneurial mindset.

Roberta is amongst Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech and recently appeared as a judge and angel investor on BBC One’s The Apprentice, judging the contestants in a weekly task to create a video game. Before founding Bossa, Roberta worked as an innovation expert at Nokia, and at Brazilbased TV Globo, the world's second-largest commercial TV network.

For further information on InspiringFifty Europe 2022, visit inspiringfifty.org 83

IN THE SP OTLIGHT

London-based start-up Ki is transforming the insurance market. i (pronounced key) is the first fully digital and algorithmicallydriven syndicate within the Lloyd’s market, and in the world. Offering instant capacity, accessible anywhere, at any time, Ki is transforming the follow market by modernising the broker and client experience. Created for the needs of the London broker by taking an algorithmic approach to underwriting, Kia considers itself as ‘Risk, Simplified’.

Since announcing its creation

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in 2020, and launching in 2021, Ki has raised $500 million of capital from Blackstone and Fairfax. It was the largest start-up in the history of Lloyd’s of London, and in 2021, underwrote more than $400 million Gross Written Premium (GWP).

Ki’s trusted partners are true pioneers in their respective fields.

The company worked with University College London to collaborate on the first algorithmic underwriting approach for speciality insurance, which evaluates policies and quotes for business through the Ki Platform. It

“Ki was designed around the specific needs of the London broker, with a keen eye on the future of the London market”

was built on Google Cloud, with the support of Google’s Octo Labs.

Ki can underwrite 36 classes of business, deploying follow capacity when the policy is underwritten by a nominated syndicate, where they lead or follow. When this criteria is met,

Ki will offer an instant line, every time.

Ki was designed around the specific needs of the London broker, with a keen eye on the future of the London market. Available ondemand and on-the-go on your laptop or mobile device, Ki was built in London, for London.

For further information, visit www.ki-insurance.com

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