The solution empowers call center operations by improving client interactions in real time through the implementation of leading-edge tech capabilities.
Scaling Up Data Access and Storage Without Scaling Up CostsSahil Gupta
The solution scales up data access and storage without scaling up costs through migration to a data lake facility coupled with data compression that enables an 80% reduction in data storage, also reducing response time for data queries from 30 to 2 seconds depending on query complexity. It also delivers better dashboard, faster KYC, data security and advanced analytics.
The solution mitigates fraud and risk by implementing a voice biometrics technology that assures user authentication by using every individual's unique voice print.
Virtual (and intelligent) Customer Assistant in a BoxSahil Gupta
The solution uses AI to provide virtual assistance by predicting and analyzing customer queries so that the virtual assistant can provide automated customer assistance through the use of NLU and ASR and thus act as a 'real agent'.
The solution eliminates the risks of non-performance and non-payment from both the seller's and buyer's side through providing a digital B2B platform to facilitate trade financing and acquisition of loans.The solution shows how users can leverage on the capital capabilities of buyers to finance suppliers.
The solution eliminates the time-consuming paperbound activities in trade finance by adopting an automation software and integrating it across other platforms to transfer other traditional trade finance processes on a single platform. The solution aids in AML and visualization as well.
SME Supply Chain Financing Solution on Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technolo...Sahil Gupta
The solution leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT) to allow buyers and sellers to create a trust system within the trade finance ecosystem through the elimination of fraud and human errors.
Securitizing Financial Transactions using DLTSahil Gupta
The solution allows for subdivisions of real estate with regard to loans and ownership in order to expand their real estate mortgage offerings to a wider demographic through leveraging blockchain technology which enables the conversion of an illiquid asset into a digital asset, which can then be owned by multiple stakeholders.
Cross Border Remittance Solution for Business to Business (B2B)Sahil Gupta
This Proof of Concept illustrates how innovation is providing cost-efficient and speedy cross border remittance for businesses that also serve as a payment solution for eCommerce merchants, in turn increasing transaction volume and customer acquisition rate.
Scaling Up Data Access and Storage Without Scaling Up CostsSahil Gupta
The solution scales up data access and storage without scaling up costs through migration to a data lake facility coupled with data compression that enables an 80% reduction in data storage, also reducing response time for data queries from 30 to 2 seconds depending on query complexity. It also delivers better dashboard, faster KYC, data security and advanced analytics.
The solution mitigates fraud and risk by implementing a voice biometrics technology that assures user authentication by using every individual's unique voice print.
Virtual (and intelligent) Customer Assistant in a BoxSahil Gupta
The solution uses AI to provide virtual assistance by predicting and analyzing customer queries so that the virtual assistant can provide automated customer assistance through the use of NLU and ASR and thus act as a 'real agent'.
The solution eliminates the risks of non-performance and non-payment from both the seller's and buyer's side through providing a digital B2B platform to facilitate trade financing and acquisition of loans.The solution shows how users can leverage on the capital capabilities of buyers to finance suppliers.
The solution eliminates the time-consuming paperbound activities in trade finance by adopting an automation software and integrating it across other platforms to transfer other traditional trade finance processes on a single platform. The solution aids in AML and visualization as well.
SME Supply Chain Financing Solution on Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technolo...Sahil Gupta
The solution leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT) to allow buyers and sellers to create a trust system within the trade finance ecosystem through the elimination of fraud and human errors.
Securitizing Financial Transactions using DLTSahil Gupta
The solution allows for subdivisions of real estate with regard to loans and ownership in order to expand their real estate mortgage offerings to a wider demographic through leveraging blockchain technology which enables the conversion of an illiquid asset into a digital asset, which can then be owned by multiple stakeholders.
Cross Border Remittance Solution for Business to Business (B2B)Sahil Gupta
This Proof of Concept illustrates how innovation is providing cost-efficient and speedy cross border remittance for businesses that also serve as a payment solution for eCommerce merchants, in turn increasing transaction volume and customer acquisition rate.
The solution provides innovative insurance products to cater to new customer segments previously underserved by one-size-fits-all insurance products.The modified products helps to address the different need and better serve the customers.
Alternative Credit Scoring of Underbanked ConsumersSahil Gupta
This Proof of Concept outlines a solution that undertake other means of assessing the credit score of underbanked consumers by analyzing their smartphone data to draw predictive behavioral insights.
The solution simplifies regulatory reporting by automating existing manual processes, revolutionizing data storage and management, and streamlining processes needed to comply with regulatory requirements through the implementation of a rules-based workflow engine.
The solution provides a suite of fully incorporated lending solutions, including a proprietary credit risk scorecard for risk assessment, automatic processing for efficiency, regular updates in tandem with banking regulations, built-in triggers to keep out payment issues and around-the-clock-tech-support.
The solution seamlessly and securely onboards customer with swift and accurate KYC processes powered by AI with custom-trained bank digital database, computer vision capability for object detection, intelligence character recognition (ICR), biometrics capability for facial recognition and application program interface (API) capability.
Frontline Sales Acceleration via GamificationSahil Gupta
The solution empowers frontline staff and boosts performance through gamification in forms of sales planning, activity tracking and performance management scorecards and incentives.
Expense Management Solution Enabled by APISahil Gupta
The solution manages operational expenses through application program interface (API) integration which seamlessly synchronizes data across accounting, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) to accelerate back-office processes and increase efficiency and cost savings.
The solution empowers and engages employees with an easy-to-use, scalable and secure mobile software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that tracks employee performance and satisfaction which in turn helps to improve productivity and return on spending on rest and recreation.
e-Know your Transaction (e-KYT) Solution for Financial Crime ComplianceSahil Gupta
The solution automates data governance and analytics with AI and distributed ledger technology to facilitate financial crime compliance processes during transactions, thereby enabling auditability, transparency and irrefutability of payment processing and digital transactions.
The solution removes customers' needs for a physical visit to a bank by providing virtual customer onboarding processes and a service platform which improves customer experience and overall efficiency while providing enhanced security and personal data protection.
The solution digitalizes customer onboarding through Algorithmic risk intelligence backed due diligence, bank-grade digital KYC and securing of digital contracts through national ID and biometrics, thereby achieving enhanced security, efficiency and user experience.
Customer Acquisition, Engagement and Sales via Social MediaSahil Gupta
This solution automates social media marketing by integrating sales engagement and completion in social media channels via Omni-channel contextual sales, Customizations and API integrations, and promotion through Key Opinion Leader (KOL) and influencers. As a result, merchants receive 30% more customer conversions, and customers experience a smoother and faster checkout.
Insurance in a box across all sales channelsSahil Gupta
The solution provides insurance provider the ability to launch new insurance products in new markets or segments at affordable product-based prices with the flexibility to "switch-off" products if they underperform, in turn increasing customer satisfaction by delivering a better insurtech experience.
This solution provides a robust multi-currency/tenancy white-labeled digital wallet that creates an ecosystem by integrating wallet with billers, merchants, payment gateways and other key players, aiming to streamline payment system and reduce capital expenditure while improving customer satisfaction and retention rate.
This document describes the Chile FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Chile has a population of 18m people as of end-2017 and mobile internet users account for 72% as of January 2018 according to Wearesocial. Chile’s government is spurring innovation through investments in startups and loosening restrictions for larger companies looking to penetrate the Latin American market.
Key Findings:
- Chilean FinTechs are driving financial inclusion and SME finance
- Chile’s regulators have recently moved to increase regulatory clarity for FinTechs.
- As of year end 2017, according to Finnovista, there were a total of 75 FinTech startups in Chile, a 34% increase from 2016. The top FinTech segments in Chile is Payment and Remittances, Enterprise Financial Management and crowdfunding at 30%, 16% and 15% of the total number of FinTech startups respectively.
- A survey conducted by Finnovista showed that 22% of startups operate beyond the national border and the main market where Chilean startups operate in is Mexico (33%). Chile’s FinTech ecosystem is relatively young with 81% of the FinTechs surveyed by Finnovista being created during the last 4 years.
- 40% of Chilean FinTechs have a focus on the underbanked and unbanked population. Financial inclusion in Chile have been improving with 63% of the population above 15 years old having access to a bank account.
- FinTech Association of Chile, the industry association, was launched in March 2018 with the purpose of promoting and strengthening the 4 pillars for the proper development of the Fintech industry, namely Public policies and regulation; Education, development and attraction of talent; Attraction of capital and investments; and Promoting the use of Fintech business services. as of October 29, the association had 21 members.
- Chilean startups can access funding from both public and private sources. On the public side, Production Development Corporation (CORFO), founded in 1939, aims to promote economic development in Chile. For every $1 funds invested, the CORFO can match an additional US$2 or US$3 with low interest debt. CORFO also sponsors Chilean incubators up to US$310k in grants for operations each year. There are 18 incubators listed on CORFO’s site in 2016.
-Start-upChile, launched in 2010, is an accelerator with 2 mandates: to elevate Chile’s international profile and to build out a local culture of entrepreneurism. It offers up to CL$50 million (80K USD) in equity free funding across its programs & over 100K of perks as a participant and has attracted technology entrepreneurs from all over the world. As of October 2018, Start-Up Chile has worked with over 1,300 startups, 51% of which are still active.
This document describes the Toronto FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Key findings:
- As a FinTech hub, Toronto benefits from the abundant talent pool in financial services as well as technology.
- Major Canadian banks have connected with FinTechs through opening their API or through strategic investment.
- Toronto is the second largest financial center in North America after New York and eighth largest in the world. Major Canadian banks are headquartered in Toronto. Meanwhile, the Canadian tech startup scene is vibrant with famous SaaS companies such as Freshbooks, HootSuite and Shopify which are showcasing growth and emerging as next billion dollar companies. The availability of financial as well as tech talent, added together with the regulator’s initiative to grow the ecosystem, are helping the development of FinTech in Canada.
- As of May 2018, there are more than 140 fintech startups located in the Toronto region.
Canadian banks have taken various initiatives to connect with FinTechs. In March 2018, the Royal Bank of Canada launched its Application Programming Interface (API) developer portal.
- The RBC Developers portal will allow eligible, external software developers, industry innovators and clients to access select RBC APIs.
In June 2018, TD Bank bought Toronto-based artificial intelligence startup Layer 6, with the aim to transform itself in the industry shift from mobile-first to AI-first customer experiences.
- The Financial Innovation & Technology Association of Canada (FINACAN) was established with an objective to develop, support and promote FinTech ecosystem in Canada. It has 23 global alliance and 4,500 connections comprising FinTechs, investors and service firms.
- In February 2015, MaRS Discovery District (MaRS) launched the MaRS Financial Technology Cluster (MaRS FinTech) to provide a centralized hub to drive FinTech collaboration and innovation both domestically and internationally. MaRS FinTech is parked under MaRS’ Finance & Commerce sector and led by a FinTech director.
- Financial regulators in Canada, Ontario and Toronto have launched several dedicated initiatives to support FinTechs. In October 2016, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which administers and enforces securities law in the province of Ontario, introduced the OSC Launchpad to provide regulatory guidance to new FinTech businesses.
-The initiative is staffed with representatives of regulator’s branches, including the Compliance & Registrant Regulation, Corporate Finance, Derivatives, Investment Funds & Structured Products, Market Regulation and Strategy & Operations.
This document describes the Sweden FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
This document describes the Nigeria FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Nigeria presents vast opportunity for FinTech as 37% of the population is unbanked but the population is young (it is estimated that 62% of the population is under the age of 25), and well-connected (internet penetration is 50.2% and mobile penetration is 84%). The regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria, has established a regulatory sandbox for FinTech and is continuously exploring how to keep up with innovation in the space.
Key Findings:
- The regulator is exploring ways to regulate FinTech in order to keep up with innovation in the space.
- The government has multiple initiatives to support and encourage innovation for job creation.
- Digital payments, mobile lending and personal finance are currently the most popular areas where FinTechs are operating in.
- Some Nigerian fintechs are gaining worldwide attention of investors. Lagos-based payment company Paystack in August 2018 raised $80 million from Visa, Tencent, Stripe and Y Combinator. As of August 2018, Paystack had more than 17,000 live merchants (which includes Dominos, MTN, Taxify, and Lagos Internal Revenue Service). In July 2018, CowryWise, which helps Nigerians save and invest in government bonds, was selected to take part in the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator.
- Banks in Nigeria are also leveraging FinTech to improve customer experience. One of Nigeria's biggest banks, FirstBank, launched the FirstBank Digital Lab in July 2018, at the “Yabacon Valley,” Yaba, Lagos mainland. The lab is designed to serve as a platform for FirstBank to collaborate and advance with the rapidly evolving FinTech.
- International investors are taking notice of the potential of Nigerian FinTech. For example, in August 2018, a UK government delegation, led by the UK prime minister, visited Nigeria to meet with entrepreneurs and forge connections with the African FinTech community.
- The group included representatives from the Financial Conduct Authority, the London Stock Exchange Group and the Prime Minister’s Ambassador for FinTech as well as representatives from big financial service players.
SMEs in Nigeria can receive funding from dedicated funds or take out loans at friendlier rates.
- The Bank of Industry (BOI) provides funding to small business by offering customer friendly rates through the youth entrepreneurship support fund and the national youth service fund, with a focus on technology companies.
This document describes the Mexico FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Mexico’s FinTech ecosystem has been expanding, particularly the Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions and Trading and Capital Markets segments. Mexico presents a considerable opportunity for FinTech to further financial inclusion as bank account ownership of those aged above 15 years is only 35% in 2017, in contrast with high levels of digital penetration - more than 60% of Mexicans possess access to the internet in 2017 and smartphones account for almost 90% of internet connections.
Key Findings:
- As of August 2018, Mexico hosts 334 Fintech startups. The major areas of operations of FinTechs in Mexico are Lending, Payments and Remittances, Enterprise Financial Management, Personal Financial Management, Crowdfunding and Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions.
- Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions and Trading and Capital Markets segment are the fastest growing sub-sectors at 130% and 100% y-o-y growth respectively. FinTech Mexico, the country’s FinTech association, offers a collaboration space for companies with the aim to improve financial services for all.
- Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) supervises and regulates all financial institutions including banks, non-bank finance companies, stockbrokerage houses and mutual fund companies, among others.
- In 2010, it launched a three-prong strategy to promote financial inclusion:
1. New products: low transactional and mobile accounts;
2. Increasing availability of channels: introduction of banking agents;
3. Innovative risk-based regulation: mobile payment regulation
- On March 10, 2018, the Law regulating Financial Technology Institutions ("FinTech Law") became effective. The law creates a regulatory framework applicable to persons who, through IT platforms or tools, facilitate the execution of financial transactions and services, whether through FinTech institutions ("FTI"), entities authorized to operate through regulatory sandbox models, or any authorized Mexican financial entities ("Financial Entities").
- Mexican FinTechs have attracted investment from local and global investors alike. Most well-known deals include the US$89 million round raised by the lending platform Konfio, led by Vostok Emerging Finance; the US$7 million raised by Curu, led by QED Investors; or the US$6 million round raised by ePesos, led by Santander Innoventures.
Banks have set up funds to invest in FinTech. For example, Santander launched the $100 million fund Innoventures in July 2014 to get closer to the wave of disruptive innovation in the FinTech space.
This document describes the Dubai FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Dubai, the second largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with total population of ~2.7m of which 80% are expats. UAE has internet user penetration at 99%, social media penetration at 99% and unique mobile user penetration at 77% as per the We Are Social 2018 report, reflecting the country’s potential for digital banking services.
Dubai is taking initiatives in boosting application of blockchain. In 2017, Dubai announced its plan to become the world’s first Blockchain-powered government by 2020 and launched the Dubai Blockchain strategy, a collaboration between the Smart Dubai office and the Dubai Future Foundation, aimed at saving AED5.5bn annually in document processing.
Key Findings:
- The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Dubai’s financial district, has 2,003 active registered companies operating, with a combined workforce of 22,768 people.
In January 2017, DFIC established FinTech Hive, an accelerator that aims to bring financial and technology firms together. During the first six months of 2018, 50% of start-ups from the FinTech Hive programme have set up in DIFC. These start-ups have raised a total funding of US$10million.
- Banks are leveraging technology in their services. The Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) launched its first personal finance management platform in October 2015. In the remittance and payments space, Emirates NBD launched P2P payments to its customers via MePAY in 2014, while RakBank launched ATM card-less cash withdrawals in 2014. CBD launched in April 2017 CBD Now, Dubai’s first digital only bank.
- As of March 2018, the UAE Banks Federation, a body representing 50 banks in the country, was planning to launch its mobile wallet project – Emirates Digital Wallet by the end of 2018.
- In September 2017, Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy, and the UK-based Object Tech Group Ltd announced that they’re working to develop and implement emCash, an encrypted digital currency, which people can use to pay for various government and non-government services in Dubai.
- In November 2017, DIFC launched a US$100m FinTech-focused fund to accelerate the development of financial technology by investing in start-ups from incubation to growth stage.
- In June 2018, DIFC announced a partnership with incubator network Startupbootcamp. The partnership will explore setting up multiple programmes for early stage startups within the fields of FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech, in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders from various sectors – beyond the realm of financial services.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
The solution provides innovative insurance products to cater to new customer segments previously underserved by one-size-fits-all insurance products.The modified products helps to address the different need and better serve the customers.
Alternative Credit Scoring of Underbanked ConsumersSahil Gupta
This Proof of Concept outlines a solution that undertake other means of assessing the credit score of underbanked consumers by analyzing their smartphone data to draw predictive behavioral insights.
The solution simplifies regulatory reporting by automating existing manual processes, revolutionizing data storage and management, and streamlining processes needed to comply with regulatory requirements through the implementation of a rules-based workflow engine.
The solution provides a suite of fully incorporated lending solutions, including a proprietary credit risk scorecard for risk assessment, automatic processing for efficiency, regular updates in tandem with banking regulations, built-in triggers to keep out payment issues and around-the-clock-tech-support.
The solution seamlessly and securely onboards customer with swift and accurate KYC processes powered by AI with custom-trained bank digital database, computer vision capability for object detection, intelligence character recognition (ICR), biometrics capability for facial recognition and application program interface (API) capability.
Frontline Sales Acceleration via GamificationSahil Gupta
The solution empowers frontline staff and boosts performance through gamification in forms of sales planning, activity tracking and performance management scorecards and incentives.
Expense Management Solution Enabled by APISahil Gupta
The solution manages operational expenses through application program interface (API) integration which seamlessly synchronizes data across accounting, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) to accelerate back-office processes and increase efficiency and cost savings.
The solution empowers and engages employees with an easy-to-use, scalable and secure mobile software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that tracks employee performance and satisfaction which in turn helps to improve productivity and return on spending on rest and recreation.
e-Know your Transaction (e-KYT) Solution for Financial Crime ComplianceSahil Gupta
The solution automates data governance and analytics with AI and distributed ledger technology to facilitate financial crime compliance processes during transactions, thereby enabling auditability, transparency and irrefutability of payment processing and digital transactions.
The solution removes customers' needs for a physical visit to a bank by providing virtual customer onboarding processes and a service platform which improves customer experience and overall efficiency while providing enhanced security and personal data protection.
The solution digitalizes customer onboarding through Algorithmic risk intelligence backed due diligence, bank-grade digital KYC and securing of digital contracts through national ID and biometrics, thereby achieving enhanced security, efficiency and user experience.
Customer Acquisition, Engagement and Sales via Social MediaSahil Gupta
This solution automates social media marketing by integrating sales engagement and completion in social media channels via Omni-channel contextual sales, Customizations and API integrations, and promotion through Key Opinion Leader (KOL) and influencers. As a result, merchants receive 30% more customer conversions, and customers experience a smoother and faster checkout.
Insurance in a box across all sales channelsSahil Gupta
The solution provides insurance provider the ability to launch new insurance products in new markets or segments at affordable product-based prices with the flexibility to "switch-off" products if they underperform, in turn increasing customer satisfaction by delivering a better insurtech experience.
This solution provides a robust multi-currency/tenancy white-labeled digital wallet that creates an ecosystem by integrating wallet with billers, merchants, payment gateways and other key players, aiming to streamline payment system and reduce capital expenditure while improving customer satisfaction and retention rate.
This document describes the Chile FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Chile has a population of 18m people as of end-2017 and mobile internet users account for 72% as of January 2018 according to Wearesocial. Chile’s government is spurring innovation through investments in startups and loosening restrictions for larger companies looking to penetrate the Latin American market.
Key Findings:
- Chilean FinTechs are driving financial inclusion and SME finance
- Chile’s regulators have recently moved to increase regulatory clarity for FinTechs.
- As of year end 2017, according to Finnovista, there were a total of 75 FinTech startups in Chile, a 34% increase from 2016. The top FinTech segments in Chile is Payment and Remittances, Enterprise Financial Management and crowdfunding at 30%, 16% and 15% of the total number of FinTech startups respectively.
- A survey conducted by Finnovista showed that 22% of startups operate beyond the national border and the main market where Chilean startups operate in is Mexico (33%). Chile’s FinTech ecosystem is relatively young with 81% of the FinTechs surveyed by Finnovista being created during the last 4 years.
- 40% of Chilean FinTechs have a focus on the underbanked and unbanked population. Financial inclusion in Chile have been improving with 63% of the population above 15 years old having access to a bank account.
- FinTech Association of Chile, the industry association, was launched in March 2018 with the purpose of promoting and strengthening the 4 pillars for the proper development of the Fintech industry, namely Public policies and regulation; Education, development and attraction of talent; Attraction of capital and investments; and Promoting the use of Fintech business services. as of October 29, the association had 21 members.
- Chilean startups can access funding from both public and private sources. On the public side, Production Development Corporation (CORFO), founded in 1939, aims to promote economic development in Chile. For every $1 funds invested, the CORFO can match an additional US$2 or US$3 with low interest debt. CORFO also sponsors Chilean incubators up to US$310k in grants for operations each year. There are 18 incubators listed on CORFO’s site in 2016.
-Start-upChile, launched in 2010, is an accelerator with 2 mandates: to elevate Chile’s international profile and to build out a local culture of entrepreneurism. It offers up to CL$50 million (80K USD) in equity free funding across its programs & over 100K of perks as a participant and has attracted technology entrepreneurs from all over the world. As of October 2018, Start-Up Chile has worked with over 1,300 startups, 51% of which are still active.
This document describes the Toronto FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Key findings:
- As a FinTech hub, Toronto benefits from the abundant talent pool in financial services as well as technology.
- Major Canadian banks have connected with FinTechs through opening their API or through strategic investment.
- Toronto is the second largest financial center in North America after New York and eighth largest in the world. Major Canadian banks are headquartered in Toronto. Meanwhile, the Canadian tech startup scene is vibrant with famous SaaS companies such as Freshbooks, HootSuite and Shopify which are showcasing growth and emerging as next billion dollar companies. The availability of financial as well as tech talent, added together with the regulator’s initiative to grow the ecosystem, are helping the development of FinTech in Canada.
- As of May 2018, there are more than 140 fintech startups located in the Toronto region.
Canadian banks have taken various initiatives to connect with FinTechs. In March 2018, the Royal Bank of Canada launched its Application Programming Interface (API) developer portal.
- The RBC Developers portal will allow eligible, external software developers, industry innovators and clients to access select RBC APIs.
In June 2018, TD Bank bought Toronto-based artificial intelligence startup Layer 6, with the aim to transform itself in the industry shift from mobile-first to AI-first customer experiences.
- The Financial Innovation & Technology Association of Canada (FINACAN) was established with an objective to develop, support and promote FinTech ecosystem in Canada. It has 23 global alliance and 4,500 connections comprising FinTechs, investors and service firms.
- In February 2015, MaRS Discovery District (MaRS) launched the MaRS Financial Technology Cluster (MaRS FinTech) to provide a centralized hub to drive FinTech collaboration and innovation both domestically and internationally. MaRS FinTech is parked under MaRS’ Finance & Commerce sector and led by a FinTech director.
- Financial regulators in Canada, Ontario and Toronto have launched several dedicated initiatives to support FinTechs. In October 2016, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which administers and enforces securities law in the province of Ontario, introduced the OSC Launchpad to provide regulatory guidance to new FinTech businesses.
-The initiative is staffed with representatives of regulator’s branches, including the Compliance & Registrant Regulation, Corporate Finance, Derivatives, Investment Funds & Structured Products, Market Regulation and Strategy & Operations.
This document describes the Sweden FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
This document describes the Nigeria FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Nigeria presents vast opportunity for FinTech as 37% of the population is unbanked but the population is young (it is estimated that 62% of the population is under the age of 25), and well-connected (internet penetration is 50.2% and mobile penetration is 84%). The regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria, has established a regulatory sandbox for FinTech and is continuously exploring how to keep up with innovation in the space.
Key Findings:
- The regulator is exploring ways to regulate FinTech in order to keep up with innovation in the space.
- The government has multiple initiatives to support and encourage innovation for job creation.
- Digital payments, mobile lending and personal finance are currently the most popular areas where FinTechs are operating in.
- Some Nigerian fintechs are gaining worldwide attention of investors. Lagos-based payment company Paystack in August 2018 raised $80 million from Visa, Tencent, Stripe and Y Combinator. As of August 2018, Paystack had more than 17,000 live merchants (which includes Dominos, MTN, Taxify, and Lagos Internal Revenue Service). In July 2018, CowryWise, which helps Nigerians save and invest in government bonds, was selected to take part in the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator accelerator.
- Banks in Nigeria are also leveraging FinTech to improve customer experience. One of Nigeria's biggest banks, FirstBank, launched the FirstBank Digital Lab in July 2018, at the “Yabacon Valley,” Yaba, Lagos mainland. The lab is designed to serve as a platform for FirstBank to collaborate and advance with the rapidly evolving FinTech.
- International investors are taking notice of the potential of Nigerian FinTech. For example, in August 2018, a UK government delegation, led by the UK prime minister, visited Nigeria to meet with entrepreneurs and forge connections with the African FinTech community.
- The group included representatives from the Financial Conduct Authority, the London Stock Exchange Group and the Prime Minister’s Ambassador for FinTech as well as representatives from big financial service players.
SMEs in Nigeria can receive funding from dedicated funds or take out loans at friendlier rates.
- The Bank of Industry (BOI) provides funding to small business by offering customer friendly rates through the youth entrepreneurship support fund and the national youth service fund, with a focus on technology companies.
This document describes the Mexico FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Mexico’s FinTech ecosystem has been expanding, particularly the Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions and Trading and Capital Markets segments. Mexico presents a considerable opportunity for FinTech to further financial inclusion as bank account ownership of those aged above 15 years is only 35% in 2017, in contrast with high levels of digital penetration - more than 60% of Mexicans possess access to the internet in 2017 and smartphones account for almost 90% of internet connections.
Key Findings:
- As of August 2018, Mexico hosts 334 Fintech startups. The major areas of operations of FinTechs in Mexico are Lending, Payments and Remittances, Enterprise Financial Management, Personal Financial Management, Crowdfunding and Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions.
- Enterprise Technologies for Financial Institutions and Trading and Capital Markets segment are the fastest growing sub-sectors at 130% and 100% y-o-y growth respectively. FinTech Mexico, the country’s FinTech association, offers a collaboration space for companies with the aim to improve financial services for all.
- Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) supervises and regulates all financial institutions including banks, non-bank finance companies, stockbrokerage houses and mutual fund companies, among others.
- In 2010, it launched a three-prong strategy to promote financial inclusion:
1. New products: low transactional and mobile accounts;
2. Increasing availability of channels: introduction of banking agents;
3. Innovative risk-based regulation: mobile payment regulation
- On March 10, 2018, the Law regulating Financial Technology Institutions ("FinTech Law") became effective. The law creates a regulatory framework applicable to persons who, through IT platforms or tools, facilitate the execution of financial transactions and services, whether through FinTech institutions ("FTI"), entities authorized to operate through regulatory sandbox models, or any authorized Mexican financial entities ("Financial Entities").
- Mexican FinTechs have attracted investment from local and global investors alike. Most well-known deals include the US$89 million round raised by the lending platform Konfio, led by Vostok Emerging Finance; the US$7 million raised by Curu, led by QED Investors; or the US$6 million round raised by ePesos, led by Santander Innoventures.
Banks have set up funds to invest in FinTech. For example, Santander launched the $100 million fund Innoventures in July 2014 to get closer to the wave of disruptive innovation in the FinTech space.
This document describes the Dubai FinTech landscape, approaching the analysis from a FinTech, regulatory, Investment and talent standpoint.
This document serves as a snapshot of the key pillars of a FinTech ecosystem in a country and provides a good overall view of the state of FinTech at a glance.
Dubai, the second largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with total population of ~2.7m of which 80% are expats. UAE has internet user penetration at 99%, social media penetration at 99% and unique mobile user penetration at 77% as per the We Are Social 2018 report, reflecting the country’s potential for digital banking services.
Dubai is taking initiatives in boosting application of blockchain. In 2017, Dubai announced its plan to become the world’s first Blockchain-powered government by 2020 and launched the Dubai Blockchain strategy, a collaboration between the Smart Dubai office and the Dubai Future Foundation, aimed at saving AED5.5bn annually in document processing.
Key Findings:
- The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Dubai’s financial district, has 2,003 active registered companies operating, with a combined workforce of 22,768 people.
In January 2017, DFIC established FinTech Hive, an accelerator that aims to bring financial and technology firms together. During the first six months of 2018, 50% of start-ups from the FinTech Hive programme have set up in DIFC. These start-ups have raised a total funding of US$10million.
- Banks are leveraging technology in their services. The Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) launched its first personal finance management platform in October 2015. In the remittance and payments space, Emirates NBD launched P2P payments to its customers via MePAY in 2014, while RakBank launched ATM card-less cash withdrawals in 2014. CBD launched in April 2017 CBD Now, Dubai’s first digital only bank.
- As of March 2018, the UAE Banks Federation, a body representing 50 banks in the country, was planning to launch its mobile wallet project – Emirates Digital Wallet by the end of 2018.
- In September 2017, Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy, and the UK-based Object Tech Group Ltd announced that they’re working to develop and implement emCash, an encrypted digital currency, which people can use to pay for various government and non-government services in Dubai.
- In November 2017, DIFC launched a US$100m FinTech-focused fund to accelerate the development of financial technology by investing in start-ups from incubation to growth stage.
- In June 2018, DIFC announced a partnership with incubator network Startupbootcamp. The partnership will explore setting up multiple programmes for early stage startups within the fields of FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech, in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders from various sectors – beyond the realm of financial services.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.