Podcasts about mmc ventures

MMC Partner Ollie Richards, interviews Stuart Cash, founder and CEO of Y TREE - an MMC portfolio company that combines data, technology and human experience to provide financial life intelligence. Ollie and Stuart discuss the importance of co-founders and first hires, raising institutional capital and the resulting expectations, as well as tips for managing your own money. Listen to the conversation now.

MMC Partner, Simon Menashy, interviews David Benigson, founder and CEO of Signal AI - an MMC portfolio company that helps companies make informed decisions with artificial intelligence allowing businesses to get ahead of risks, threats, issues and opportunities. David and Simon discuss how the company went from David's parents garage to one of the world's fastest-growing applied AI companies, the power in the combination of discriminative and generative AI and what this means for Signal AI and the industry as a whole. Listen to the the conversation now.

Kerno, a problem-solving technology for engineering and operations teams that swiftly monitors and troubleshoots applications, all within a matter of minutes has secured 1.69 million in a seed round led by Elkstone Ventures. Kerno was founded in 2022 by Sean Madigan, Karim Traiaia, Anibel Ambertin, Maxi Delo and Vlad Romanov, who all have extensive engineering backgrounds and have faced the very issues Kerno now solves. Despite substantial investments in observability tools, cloud-native developers can spend an astonishing 70% of their time finding and fixing production issues. Kerno reimagines the entire troubleshooting experience by empowering every engineer with the ability to swiftly monitor and troubleshoot applications, quickly and autonomously. By empowering developers, it will mobilise 90% of the engineering workforce who have the application domain knowledge - reducing the strain on already overstretched operation teams. The round is led by Elkstone Ventures, with participation from MMC Ventures in London and angel investors including Sean Mullaney (CTO at Algolia), and Stephan Schulze (CTO and MD at Project A Ventures). This financial backing will enable Kerno to double down on its engineering capabilities to further the efficiency and effectiveness of its problem-solving technology. Kerno plans to use the funding to scale across to 100k cloud-native developers and increase their employee headcount from 11 to 20 over the next 2 years. The product, which is currently still in testing with early adopters, can be installed with no code instrumentation or sidecar required, which typically bring hefty installation times and performance penalties. Kerno provides simplified, highly curated information on cloud application issues, meaning engineering and ops teams can quickly figure out when a problem occurred, how it impacts the business, what caused it, and who can fix it. Because Kerno can be deployed in the customer's cloud environment (at edge), it means customers can avail of their current cloud infrastructure and reduce expensive data processing and data egress costs typically associated with current monitoring solutions. Sean Madigan, co-founder and CEO of Kerno said: "Current solutions are data intensive, need continuous upkeep and ultimately have poor developer experiences. In a world where cloud applications are getting more expensive to run and troubleshoot due to complexity, accelerated release cycles, and customer expectations, developers need to be empowered to contribute. "Kerno is on a mission to deliver a true cloud-native experience, characterised by speed and cost-effectiveness, to the world of developer observability. With Kerno, development teams can reclaim their time and confidently drive innovation without compromising on speed and quality. This funding will help us accelerate time to market through increased engineering capacity and kickstart scaling to millions of developers globally." An entrepreneur with an engineering background, Sean is the former EMEA Director of Secure Code Warrior (raised over $100M from the likes of Paladin Capital Group and Goldman Sachs), where he hired and scaled the team that grew annual recurring revenue from $0 to $15M. Niall McEvoy, Venture Partner at Elkstone Ventures, said "We were impressed by Kerno's innovative approach to simplifying troubleshooting in cloud applications. Their commitment to providing a streamlined, out-of-the-box experience for engineering and ops teams sets them apart in a landscape where complexity and inefficiencies prevail. We believe in Kerno's potential to reshape how critical issues are addressed." See more stories here. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news If you'd like to be featur...

MMC Principal, Charlotte Barttelot, leads our focus on data-driven health investments. In this episode, she interviews Patrick Short, founder and CEO of Sano Genetics - an MMC portfolio company that connects patients directly with biotech and pharmaceutical companies, accelerating research on rare and chronic diseases. The dramatic reduction of cost and time to sequence the human genome has led to the acceleration of personalised medicine. Charlotte and Patrick discuss the impact this has on the evolution of the drug development process, the change in attitude to the use of personal data, and how important the move towards greater trust and transparency in the industry is.

In this episode MMC Partner, Ollie Richards, sits down with Kevin Cook, founder and CEO of TreasurySpring - an MMC portfolio company helping firms of all sizes unlock and protect the true value of their cash assets. Ollie and Kevin discuss what is like to build a business in “one of the least innovative corners of the financial markets” and convince investors and employees to join you on the journey. And, having raised a $29 million Series B led by Balderton Capital in the summer of 2023, Kevin shares insights on business building why it was so crucial that the business could scale in a capital efficient way. Listen to the full conversation now.

Up this week:The AI wars are heating up: During London Tech Week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set the goal of establishing the UK as the global home of artificial intelligence. This week OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, announced that it would open its first international office in London, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis went on record stating that his engineers are building an AI system dubbed Gemini that will be more capable than that of OpenAI. All the while Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion is looking, well, a bit unstable.A new report from Frontline Growth took a look at how US companies succeed and fail when it comes to European expansion. Representing up to 40% of global revenue for public software businesses, The authors note that "the strength of today's European tech ecosystem makes ignoring the region a costly mistake." Frontline goes on to cite the problem of success amnesia, where companies focus on sales at the expense of local marketing, community development, and brand-building efforts. Their data shows that 50% of companies don't have a single marketing resource in Europe a year after landing.Following a retreat from France, Turkish speedy grocery service Getir is now pulling out of Spain. Spain's biggest trade union CCOO didn't mince words stating, "We condemn the disastrous business management of Getir, which has not known how to grow or have a market strategy in Spain. Now its staff will suffer the biggest harm." In light of these developments, it would appear as though Getir's rumoured offer to acquire Flink might well be off the table.VTT Spinout Steady Energy is working on a 50MW nuclear reactor to be used to heat homes in Europe. Operating at significantly lower temperatures and pressure than a traditional reactor, the company's CEO Tommi Nyman says, "The pressure required by the LDR-50 reactor is comparable to the pressure that of a household espresso machine. It operates at a lower pressure than a district heating network. This ensures that in case of a malfunction which leads to a leak, the leak is contained within the heating plant, without endangering people or the environment."Working on the algorithms that drive quantum computing, specifically, applying these algorithms to drug discovery and development, Finnish startup Algorithmiq 's CEO and co-founder Sabrina Maniscalco says that, "a useful quantum advantage is coming sooner than many think."A new report issued by ESG_VC and BVCA analysed ESG data provided by 450 startups backed by leading venture capital firms including Lakestar, Balderton, Molten Ventures, Highland Europe, Beringea, and MMC Ventures. We spoke to ESG_VC co-founder Henry Philipson about how the initiative is aiming to assist startups navigate the world of ESG, as well as gather his response to commentary that startups shouldn't be focusing on ESG in early days.

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Peter Specht, Partner bei Creandum. Peter bespricht die Series A von Supercritical und Mistral. Supercritical, ein Marktplatz für CO2-Entfernung, der hauptsächlich auf Technologieunternehmen abzielt, die "net zero" erreichen möchten, hat in einer Series-A-Finanzierungsrunde 13 Millionen US-Dollar eingesammelt. Die Runde wurde von Lightspeed Venture Partners angeführt und umfasst Beteiligungen von RTP Global, Greencode Ventures und MMC Ventures. Der Marktplatz von Supercritical ermöglicht es Unternehmen, "vollständig geprüfte und qualifizierte" Emissionsgutschriften zu erwerben, die dem Industriestandard der Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) entsprechen. Das Unternehmen wurde von Michelle You (CEO) und Aaron Randall (CTO) in London gegründet. Das erst vier Wochen alte Startup Mistral AI hat in einer Finanzierungsrunde 105 Millionen Euro eingesammelt, obwohl es noch kein Produkt und nur ein Pitchdeck hat. Investoren wie Lightspeed Venture Partners, Motier Ventures und andere haben in das Unternehmen investiert, um ein europäisches Large Language Model (LLM) zu entwickeln und dem von US-Firmen dominierten Markt entgegenzuwirken. Das Team von Mistral AI besteht aus ehemaligen Mitarbeitern von DeepMind, Meta und dem französischen Unicorn Alan, was ihnen einen Wettbewerbsvorteil verschafft.

Today we are happy to welcome Jon Coker, Founding Partner of Eka Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in Seed and early Series A consumer technology companies building sustainable economy. Jon founded Eka alongside Camilla Dolan to build a leading venture firm that integrates impact investing with mainstream venture. Prior to Eka, Jon has spent 11 years at MMC Ventures, ultimately as Managing Partner and led venture investments in 17 companies, been the investor representative at the board of 21 companies.In this episode you'll learn:- Everything about assessing founder development capacity and the pillars of self-awareness, impact awareness, systems and process thinking and speed of self-development- Jon's views on coaching and coaches in venture capital and the difference between looking for A players and Growth Mindset founders- How Jon and Eka build their founder assessment around honest interviews that uncover the story and person behind the startup- Why Jon has seen more value taken away by VCs than added by VCs

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Otto Birnbaum, General Partner von Revent. Otto kommentiert die Insolvenz von Yababa sowie die Runde von Recycleye:Yababa, ein Berliner Startup, das orientalische Lebensmittel liefert, ist insolvent. Rechtsanwalt Niklas Lütcke wurde zum vorläufigen Insolvenzverwalter bestellt. Creandum, Project A Ventures und FoodLabs haben in den letzten Monaten insgesamt 15,5 Millionen US-Dollar in das Unternehmen investiert. Yababa war in etwa 40 deutschen Städten tätig, aber es gab bereits Gerüchte über einen schwierigen Markt. GetHalal, ein ähnliches Startup, ist bereits in derselben Branche gescheitert.Recycleye, ein französisch-britisches Unternehmen für Abfallroboter, hat 17 Millionen US-Dollar in der Series-A-Finanzierung erhalten. Die Finanzierung wurde von DCVC geführt und von Promus Ventures, Playfair Capital, MMC Ventures, Creator Fund, Atypical und Seaya Andromeda unterstützt. Das Unternehmen beabsichtigt, die Mittel für die Skalierung seiner KI-gesteuerten Müllsammelroboter-Technologie zu verwenden. Diese Roboter "sehen" den Abfall und können eine unbegrenzte Anzahl von Materialklassen wie Kunststoff, Aluminium, Papier und Pappe auswählen. Die Technologie ist in verschiedenen Ländern installiert und das Team besteht aus 33 Expertinnen und Experten.

Interview de Cédric Montet, fondateur d'Api.video

Interview mit Tamás Petrovics, CEO und Co-Founder von Xund In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Tamás Petrovics, CEO und Co-Founder von Xund, über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Seed-Finanzierung in Höhe von 6 Millionen Euro. Xund ist ein MedTech, welches mithilfe einer künstlichen Intelligenz Millionen von medizinischen Publikationen automatisch analysieren und verarbeiten kann, um die Grundlage für eigene Lösungen zu schaffen. Bereits bewährte Algorithmen kombinieren die Symptome, persönliche Risikofaktoren und demografische Daten der Patientinnen und Patienten und identifizieren statistisch sowie medizinisch relevante Ursachen für Beschwerden. Durch die Analysen können präventive Versorgungsmethoden angewendet werden, um nicht mehr von der rein reaktiven Krankheitsbehandlung abhängig zu sein. Dieser effiziente Ansatz des Krankheitsmanagements kommt mehreren Teilen des Gesundheitsökosystems zugute, indem er Patientinnen und Patienten sowie medizinischem Fachpersonal evidenzbasierte Lösungen zur Verfügung stellt, die sie bei der Prävention und Behandlung von Krankheiten unterstützen. Xund wurde im Jahr 2018 von Lukas Seper, Tamás Petrovics und Zoltán Tarabó in Wien gegründet. Das Unternehmen beschäftigt mittlerweile mehr als 35 Mitarbeitende und hat neben dem Hauptsitz auch Büros in Budapest und London. Die eigens entwickelte Technologie wird als Digital Front Door von führenden Versicherungen, Krankenhäusern und Pharmaunternehmen verwendet und ist in diesem Segment aktuell das einzige zertifizierte Medizinprodukt der Klasse IIa in Europa. In einer Seed-Finanzierungsrunde hat das Wiener Healthtech-Startup nun 6 Millionen Euro unter der Führung von MMC Ventures und MassMutual Ventures eingesammelt. MMC Ventures ist eine britische Investmentgesellschaft, die in Technologieunternehmen in der Seed- und Series-A-Phase investiert. MassMutual Ventures ist eine US-amerikanische Risikokapitalgesellschaft, die in Unternehmenssoftware, Cybersicherheit, Finanztechnologie und digitale Gesundheitsunternehmen investiert. RoX Health und Lana Ventures haben die Runde ebenfalls begleitet, die damit die bestehenden Investoren der Haselsteiner Familien-Privatstiftung, unter der Führung von Peak Pride, den Tyrolean Business Angels und der 2m-quadrat AG ergänzen. Das frische Kapital soll dazu genutzt werden, das Wachstum zu fördern, die Expansion über die DACH-Region hinaus voranzutreiben und neue Märkte in Europa zu erschließen. Als mittelfristiges Ziel plant Xund die Expansion in die USA, für welche die Vorbereitungen des Markteintritts durch die Food and Drug Administration bereits angelaufen sind. Außerdem soll das Produktportfolio entlang der Patient Journey erweitert und weitere vielversprechende Anwendungsfälle integriert werden.

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Sven Przywarra, Co-Founder von LiveEO, über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 19 Millionen Euro. LiveEO leitet durch den Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz aus Satellitendaten verwertbare Erkenntnisse ab und trägt damit zu mehr Sicherheit, Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit bei Wartungsarbeiten bei. Die Produkte des Unternehmens werden heute weltweit von Betreibern linearer Infrastrukturen eingesetzt, um das Risiko von Ausfällen und Störungen zu verringern. Anwendungsbeispiele sind u.a. satellitengestützte Überwachungen von kritischen Infrastrukturen wie Stromnetzen, Pipelines und Schienennetzen. Die Satellitenbilder werden dazu automatisiert ausgewertet, sodass Kunden vor Gefahren durch Vegetation, tektonische Einflüsse und Interaktion mit Dritten gewarnt werden können. Die Datenströme des New-Space-Unternehmens machen die Netze somit widerstandsfähiger und minimieren den Bedarf an Überwachungsansätzen, die weniger klimafreundlich sind. LiveEO wurde im Jahr 2016 von Sven Przywarra und Daniel Seidel in Berlin gegründet. Das internationale Team von 100 Mitarbeitenden arbeitet neben dem Hauptsitz auch an den Standorten New York und Lettland. Zu den bestehenden Kunden des Unternehmens gehören u.a. die Deutsche Bahn, E.ON, der Versorgungsnetzbetreiber E.dis und das amerikanische Energieunternehmen AEP. Der Anbieter von Satellitenanalysen hat nun eine Finanzierungrunde in Höhe von 19 Millionen Euro abgeschlossen. Die Runde wurde von MMC Ventures angeführt und umfasst 17 Millionen Euro Risikokapital sowie weitere Mittel von der Europäischen Kommission und der Investitionsbank Berlin. MMC Ventures ist eine Londoner Investmentgesellschaft, die in Technologieunternehmen in der Seed- und Series-A-Phase investiert. Zu dem Unternehmensportfolio des VCs gehören u.a. Mubi, DigitalGenius, Elder, Eatron Technologies, TreasurySpring, Snowplow, Somo, Apexx, Gousto, Superfluid, Cloudsmith, Agamon, Opal und Loadsure. Alle Bestandsinvestoren unterstützen das Startup weiterhin, darunter Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures, Helen Ventures, Matterwave und Motu Ventures. Neben MMC haben sich Segenia Capital und Hannover Digital Investments als neue Investoren an der Runde beteiligt. Die neuen Mittel sollen die globale Marktexpansion von LiveEO beschleunigen und den Eintritt in neue Märkte ermöglichen. One more thing wird präsentiert von OMR Reviews – Finde die richtige Software für Dein Business. Wenn auch Du Dein Lieblingstool bewerten willst, schreibe eine Review auf OMR Reviews unter https://moin.omr.com/insider. Dafür erhältst du einen 15€ Amazon Gutschein.

Proving that there's room in the robotic process automation (RPA) market for another vendor, RPA Supervisor today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Dawn Capital with participation from S16vc and existing investor MMC Ventures.

Proving that there's room in the robotic process automation (RPA) market for another vendor, RPA Supervisor today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Dawn Capital with participation from S16vc and existing investor MMC Ventures.

In der Nachmittagsfolge begrüßen wir heute David Mayer-Heinisch, Co-Founder und CEO von Froots, und sprechen mit ihm über eine Kapitalerhöhung von 2,5 Millionen Euro. Froots (eine Ableitung der Wörter financial roots) hat eine Plattform entwickelt, die es Anlegerinnen und Anlegern ermöglicht, in Wertanlagen zu investieren und gleichzeitig ein Vermögensaufbau zu initiieren. Dabei soll es nach Unternehmensangaben unwichtig sein, ob bereits Vorwissen zu den Finanzmärkten vorliegt. Nach diesen Angaben habe das Unternehmen einen innovativen Algorithmus entwickelt, der den Kundinnen und Kunden sinnvoll und verständlich die günstigsten Investmentprodukte aufzeigt, um das Sparen zu revolutionieren. Ab monatlichen Beträgen von 150 Euro kann mit Froots individualisiert in professionell gemanagte ETF-Portfolios investiert werden. Das FinTech wurde 2020 von David Mayer-Heinisch und Dirk van Wassenaer in Wien gegründet und verwaltet bereits Assets im Wert von mehreren Millionen Euro. Nachdem das Wiener Startup bereits ein Startkapital von einer Million Euro zur Verfügung gestellt bekommen hat, konnte sich das Investment-Unternehmen nun eine Kapitalerhöhung von 2,5 Millionen Euro sichern. Zu den Business Angels zählen der CEO der Kapsch Group, Georg Kapsch, die ehemalige CEO von Credit Suisse, Gina Goess, der Head of CEE LGT, namens Adam Lessing und der Founder von Revetas Capital, Kiril Klaturov. Der Co-Founder von MMC Ventures, Alan Morgan, der bereits in Unternehmen wie 9fin, Trilo, Penfold, CreditEnable, QRails, Brolly oder Cytora investiert hat, ist ebenso an der Kapitalerhöhung beteiligt wie der globale Wachstumsinvestor Greyhouse Capital. Der Londoner Kapitalgeber wurde 2015 gegründet und investiert vor allem in technologiegestützte Unternehmen, die einen Einfluss auf die Lebensqualität der Menschen haben. Zum Portfolio gehört u.a. Strike.sh, Choco, Weee!, Lunar und Kyash.

Asen Kostadinov is the Chief Strategy Officer at Copper, cryptocurrency custody firm. He joined the company from MMC Ventures where he led the blockchain/crypto investment portfolio and also led the fund's research department. Previously, he spent four years as an equity research analyst at Barclays, covering European media and video and internet gaming. Initially, he worked in the aerospace industry as an engineer the Airbus Flight Physics Division, after completing his engineering degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Kostadinov is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).Kostadinov explains Copper's approach to solving the crypto currency custody problem, one of the most important issues in the digital assets space. He lays out the current obstacles to institutional crypto adoption and discusses the infrastructure that will facilitate rapid growth in crypto and Web3 gaming. Kostadinov also offers his thoughts global geopolitical events and their effects on crypto.—————————————————————— Watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SALTTube/videosFor podcast transcripts and show notes, visit https://www.salt.org/talks/aboutModerated by Anthony Scaramucci. Developed, created and produced by SALT Venture Group, LLC.#SALT #SALTCrypto

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In this episode, MMC Managing Partner, Bruce Macfarlane, sits down with Sally Matthews, Chief Product Officer of Gousto, the AI-powered recipe box delivery business. Bruce and Sally discuss what it's like to be a unicorn, the use of AI in the Gousto proposition, and why the business's values have played a huge part in its success.

In this episode, MMC Principal Alexia Arts talks to Adam Carrigan and Jorge Torres founders of MindsDB. An MMC portfolio company that helps organisations use machine learning and artificial intelligence to obtain predictive insights that can allow them to make better business decisions. They discuss  why they're on a mission to democratise machine learning, the role that AI plays in their business and what differentiates them from the competition.  

In this episode, MMC Principal Mina Samaan talks to Erik Lien CEO of RPA Supervisor. An MMC portfolio company that is a Automation Management Platform, keeping bots operating as they encounter common issues. They discuss what led them to launch RPA Supervisor, why it is important to bring in an NED and their most recent round of fundraising.

In this episode, MMC Manager Dele Akinyemi talks to Ian Braithwaite and Napala Pratini co-founders of Habitual. An MMC portfolio company that is a digital-first diabetes prevention and reversal programme that delivers lifelong weight loss and behaviour change. They discuss why they're on a mission to change diabetes type 2 as we know it, the role technology plays in their business and what differentiates them from the competition.  

Jon Coker is one of the Founding Partners of Eka Ventures. His work at the Impact VC fund has transformed him into one of the pioneers of ESG investments in Europe. Prior to Eka Ventures Jon led the investment team as a partner at MMC Ventures. The Oxford alumni sat down with James and Hector and shared some insights into his upbringing, his passion for maths and science and his life prior to entering the world of VC. Later in the conversation the trio touch upon topics such as, how VC has changed and continues to change, what makes a good VC and the concerns people have over impact investing. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

In this episode, MMC Managing Partner, Bruce Macfarlane, talks to Richard Wilson, CEO of Interactive Investor, an MMC portfolio company that is the the UK's second largest direct to consumer investment platform. They discuss the transition from non-executive to the CEO role, the benefits and challenges of acquiring your competitors, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the growth of the businesses.

In this episode, MMC Investment Manager, Dele Akinyemi, talks to Nigel Phan, Founder of Whirli. An MMC portfolio company that is the world's first fully flexible sharing economy platform for children's toys. They discuss how Nigel came to founding Whirli, despite not yet having children, what it is like to be a sole founder and what people can do to transition to a circular economy.

In this episode, MMC Partner Simon Menashy talks to Matt O'Riordan, the CEO and co-founder of Ably. Ably is an MMC portfolio company that provides the underlying software and infrastructure required to power digital real-time experiences. They discuss everything-from their journey since inception to their recent $70m fundraise.   

Detect Technologies, a company specializing in industrial AI, has raised $12 million in a round led by Accel Partners and Elevation Capital. According to the company's statement, the money will be used to enhance worldwide industrial efficiency and extend the company's position as a leader in industrial digitalization. The firm provides a wide range of AI and IoT solutions for the industrial sector.BMW i Ventures announce their second sustainability-focused fund for early to mid-stage startups in the industries of transportation, manufacturing, supply chain and others. Previously, investments of the VC firm's first fund, BMW i Ventures Fund 1, had helped companies in their journey to public.ServiceTitan, a software company built to accelerate the home and commercial service industries, has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Aspire Software, a landscaping business management software provider. Alongside the acquisition, the company announced its $200 million Series G funding from Thoma Bravo at a valuation of $9.5 billion. This acquisition marks ServiceTitan's second investment in the last twelve months (previously ServicePro) and its largest to date.Slack launches Huddles, a feature to encourage casual conversations that get missed out due to remote working, and new video sharing and recording capabilities to help users share their thoughts ahead of a scheduled meeting, as per their convenience. These features would be rolled out for paid teams.Device42 has developed a new solution that analyses your infrastructure and provides recommendations for cost-effective cloud migration. The program uses machine learning to assist in the discovery of the optimum configuration. Device42 is a software business founded in 2012 that specializes in hybrid IT discovery and application dependency mapping.Ably, a synchronized digital experience platform provider has announced that it has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round led by Insight Partners and Dawn Capital LLP. Other participants include Digital Horizon, Forward Partners, and MMC Ventures, Triple Point. The new funds will help Ably continue developing and innovating its platform, giving businesses a comprehensive solution for offloading the rising complexity of real-time data synchronization at scale for distributed applications, devices, and hybrid cloud environments.A pan-European venture capital firm, Nauta Capital, has announced ambitions to invest in pre-seed deeptech businesses across Europe. The specialized venture program will provide funding to pre-seed B2B deeptech businesses in order to help them develop and thrive. Nauta Funding's new initiative, motivated by a shortage of capital available for pre-seed and pre-revenue B2B deeptech enterprises, will support 12-16 startups for the next 12 months to close the gap and propel Europe's next generation of deeptech entrepreneurs.Shogun has raised $67.5 million in a $575 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partners. The cash will improve the company's two major products, Shogun Frontend and Page Builder. Frontend, Shogun's newest offering, is a “headless” solution aimed at web designers and others who want to create more personalized experiences. It caters to the midmarket to the corporate consumers and has hundreds of clients.   ARIADNEXT, French remote identity verification, and digital identity creation company, has been bought by IDnow, a German identity verification startup. As a result of the acquisition, IDNow is now on a level with OnFido, Europe's other major participant. IDnow will keep ARIADNEXT's offices in Rennes, Paris, Madrid, Bucharest, Iasi, Warsaw, and its approximately 125 employees. Mandolin, a concert live stream platform to help artists, venues, and fans connect through live music, has raised $12 million in its Series A fundraise in an oversubscribed round co-led by 645 Ventures and Foundry Group. Existing investors, High Alpha and TIME Ventures, participated in the round.Pietra, a platform providing Creators business-building tools, has announced its Series A fundraise of $15 million in a round led by Founders Fund with participation from its existing investor, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), TQ Ventures, Abstract Ventures and other strategic investors.Nodes & Links, a startup offering AI and cloud tools for engineering projects to be delivered on time and budget, has announced its Series A fundraise of €9.3 million ($11 million roughly). The round was led by urban sustainability-focused fund 2150, alongside Zigg Capital and Westerly Winds.FloLive, an IoT company, has raised an additional $15.5 million in a Series B investment round led by Intel Capital. The additional money will be used to improve the company's service and invest in and develop the company's technology stack and upgrade its network to 5G. Rather than creating new infrastructure, FloLive's approach is to stitch together networks from several places and run them as a single network.Gusto, a unicorn company developing web-based payroll solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, has announced the launch of its new product, Gusto Embedded Payroll (GEP), which facilitates software developers to embed and customize payroll directly into their software. Noname Security, an enterprise API security business, raised $60M in a Series B funding round headed by Insight Partners. The company offers a security platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist businesses in monitoring and securing both managed and uncontrolled APIs. Since its launch, the firm has recruited 40 technical, reseller, and channel partners in six months.Hyperexponential (hx), a mathematical software provider for the insurance sector, raised $18 million in a funding round headed by Highland Europe. According to the company, actuaries, data scientists, and underwriters may use Hx's Renew SaaS platform to create, deploy, and update insurance pricing models more quickly.

Jullite Souliman is a VC Investor at MMC Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in early stage, high-growth UK companies. Juliette is well regarded for her expertise in fintech, insurtech and the blockchain. Away from MMC Julliette is also the co-founder of Ground Floor Ventures, a European and US business angel network focusing on pre-seed venture deals.Juliette, Hector and James sat down and discussed the two sides of investing and operating, what characteristics she looks out for in founders, VC's look for and why founders need to paint a big vision when talking to investors. For all you crypto enthusiasts we also delve into blockchain and its long term viability from an investment perspective. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Magdalena Krön, Rise Global FinTech Platform Director at Barclays, goes ‘Beyond The Hype’ with co-founder and Chairman of MMC Ventures, Alan Morgan. Magdalena digs deeper into Alan's career and how he came to co-founding MMC. They discuss his interest in Fintech and how it evolved, AI and its impact on the financial industry, and the main challenges of adopting AI in large enterprises.

Emily Bremner heads up operations & scaling at Signal – a UK scaleup who've raised $52m in funding from the likes of Redline Capital, MMC Ventures, Hearst Ventures, GMG Ventures & Frontline Ventures. Signal's solution uses machine learning to help their clients track the competitive landscape & monitor their reputation & key regulatory changes — empowering them to make smarter, faster, business decisions. We explored: Why ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance - objectives are crucial for tech ventures & for society How Signal's solutions help their clients embrace ESG The initiatives Signal has implemented to strengthen diversity & inclusivity including: diversity shortlist quotas prioritising candidate abilities rather than focusing on “markers of prestige” recalibrating their Board and Advisory Board to better reflect and lead their D&I aspirations How Signal has changed - in terms of structure and hiring practices - to handle rapid growth in revenues & headcount Since "businesses grow exponentially and people often grow linearly" – ideas for supporting employees who cannot grow with the business Why startups & scaleups need to be careful not to be seduced large blue chip employers on candidates' CVs Tools & techniques Signal have implemented to build a harmonious & highly effective global team that performs effectively in a WFH environment We also discussed how Emily's inspirations come not from the Tech/VC community - but from the likes of Dave Chapelle (stand-up comedian) & Neil deGrasse Tyson (US astrophysicist) who's advice includes: “if you're good at bullshitting people, you're not hanging out with the right people”! And Emily recommended all startups and scaleups can learn valuable lessons from these 2 books: The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni) and The Lean Startup (Eric Ries)   For more insights into Signal check out https://www.signal-ai.com/ and for guidance on recruiting stellar senior talent at B2B tech startups & scaleups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Our guest in this episode is Rory Stirling - Partner at Connect Ventures - the London based Venture Capital seed firm is a product-focused, seed stage firm investing across Europe. They are singularly focussed on investing in purpose-led founders, obsessed with solving hard problems at scale, by creating products and companies that people love. Previous roles...- Partner and co-founder at BGF Ventures.- Partner at MMC Ventures.Previous investments include...- Software: NewVoiceMedia (acquired by Vonage plc for $350m), Triptease, Marvel, Masabi, Reevoo, Somo, Brightpearl, Base79 (acquired by Rightster plc).- Marketplace: Appear Hear, LoveHomeSwap (acquired by Wyndham), Hubbub.- Consumer: Gousto, AlexandAlexa (acquired by The Luxury Kids Group), Wool and the Gang (acquired by Crafts Group Holdings), Pact, Tyres on the Drive, PayasUgym.

Petra and Francesca spend some time with Dele Akinyemi on this episode; Dele is an Associate for MMC Ventures, a fund investing in early stage UK start-ups. From East London to Indonesia, Dele has quite literally crossed the globe in his career so far and lets us in on how all the different pieces – medicine, consulting, start-up operations - fit together. Dele's LinkedIn MMC

In this episode I meet Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of recipe box service, Gousto. We discuss ethics, personal data and the importance of managing yourself before you manage others. Be sure to visit SmallBusiness.co.uk for more articles on artificial intelligence and improving sustainability.  Remember to like us on Facebook @SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lower case. Want to read the Timo Boldt's podcast interview instead? Hello and welcome to Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk. I’m your host, Anna Jordan. Today we have Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of recipe box service, Gousto. He launched the firm in 2012 and it has been growing exponentially year on year. Earlier this year they raised £18 million collectively from health influencer Joe Wicks, Unilever Ventures, Hargreave Hale, BGF Ventures, MMC Ventures and Angel CoFund. In July, they raised a further £30 million to develop their artificial intelligence technology, bringing total raised to £100 million.   Boldt is also on the digital advisory board for Unilever. Anna: Hello, Timo. Timo: Nice to meet you. Anna: Yeah, and you. How are you doing? Timo: Very good, excellent. Anna: Great. Timo: What would you like to talk about? First, I’d like to talk a little bit about the artificial intelligence side. I understand it is a substantial part of the business. There’s also a real emphasis on tech, so much so that you have a separate Twitter account for @GoustoTech. I was wondering – do you see yourself as a tech company as much as a recipe box service? Timo: We see ourselves as a data company that happens to trade in food. We have always been on this huge, huge mission to be the most loved way to eat dinner and we can only really do that by harnessing the power of technology, transforming the way that UK families eat, plan, shop. So, technology is kind of the enabler. AI for the past six, seven years has played a crucial role. And the idea is that when you open the app, you should see a completely personalised menu. I should see a different menu. We should only see what we really love to eat. I think that’s the power of AI integrated into the app and that’s providing real differentiation.      From a personal data perspective, how are the pages personalised? What data tends to be taken to personalise these pages? Timo: The section is literally called ‘Just for You’. You open the menu and it has a selection of recipes on it that only you should see, no one else should see. You can still browse the entire catalogue of the menu, but you don’t have to. What we do is pretty simple – we look through your history, we look at what you ordered before and we try to make a recommendation. We also try to look at similar customers, so pattern recognition and then trying to predict what else they might want and then offering that to you. And those algorithms are the exact two types of algorithm Netflix is using. How did you find the transition when GDPR came in? Timo: Look, I mean, I think GDPR has caused a lot of increase in process. Directionally, I think it’s quite good for the customer. We definitely had to up our game in terms of process and understanding the legislation. I don’t think that it’s has impacted, at all, our ability to surface better menus and better value for the customer. We welcome it, it’s fine. I’d like to move on to Dragon’s Den. You appeared on the programme in 2013, but unfortunately you were turned down by the Dragons. You were contacted by an investor shortly afterwards offering you a substantial sum. How did that fit into the expectations you had from the programme when you signed up to go on? Timo: Yeah – as a young entrepreneur, I think you have to try absolutely everything to get attention and raise money. I hand-delivered 100+ boxes to journalists. One of the opportunities that emerged was Dragon’s Den. I had an enormously fun time going onto the show. I actually got two offers on the show – one they didn’t show and the other one we rejected. Duncan Bannatyne became a customer after the show which is almost better than getting money. And as you said we had a great offer from a group of angel investors. They’re amazing people – they’ve all spent their lives in the food industry. They added not only capital but lots of knowledge, helping us in the early days to set up the supply chain. You know, talking to farmers, making sure we source the best quality food. I think it was a big catalyst for us. We didn’t take the Dragons’ money, but it was an amazing opportunity and we had lots of fun.    Ethics play a big part in the business. It’d be interesting to know how you maintain those ethics throughout the supply chain. Timo: We’ve always been on this mission to make the planet better off with every single meal we sell. In the early days, when I launched Gousto, I really wanted to find a way of taking the 40pc of food that’s wasted our system out of the equation, both in the supply chain and at customer level. By setting up Gousto we’ve really managed to take out food waste and that’s been a phenomenal part since day one. And it makes great business sense because you don’t waste food. We are also extremely focused on plastic, on packaging. This year alone, we’re pledging to reduce plastic by 50pc and the team is on track. We’ve always had this massive ethos, or sustainability focus. Now that we’re larger, we employ people who really go deep into the supply chain to understand farmers’ credentials, animal welfare and so on. It’s very close to my heart. I’m interested in finding out more about the food waste side. If you’ve got a certain demand for one of the meals on the menu. If you had leftovers – say you have potatoes, for example – you have a certain demand and have some left over, what happens to that? Timo: What the clever guys are doing is that they are literally helping to come up with menus that reduce food waste to zero. One, there’s a huge focus on food forecasting, making sure we only buy what we really need. But then secondly, we can really play with the menu, so that we can make sure that we only use the food all the time when it’s fresh and tasting the best. You talked a little bit about sustainability before – and it makes up a large part of the brand’s image. As we’ve mentioned before, you’ve got Unilever as an investor and you’re also a member of the digital advisory board. Unilever hasn’t always had the best reputation when it comes to sustainability. For example, it was named one of the most prominent plastic polluters in the Philippines [research from Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives] earlier this year. When you were presented with the opportunity to partner with them, both on an investment level and on their board, what was going through your mind? Did you worry that it might affect Gousto’s company image? Timo: Almost no FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) company in the world has done as much as Unilever has done for sustainability. They are so driven by the topic of sustainability. Paul Polman, the former CEO, is leading the agenda and the charge globally. I really admire what they’ve done. Are they perfect? No. Do I work for them? No. Do they ask me what they should do about sustainability? No. I think they are a force for good. They’re not perfect. I think when I joined the Digital Advisory Board, I saw an opportunity to impact and influence and raise the agenda even further. But I’m not working for them in any way – I’m an advisor, I’m unpaid and I think we have to work with large business to really drive change. It’s amazing if Gousto can change the world. But ultimately, we need Tesco, Amazon, Sainsbury’s and Unilever to have impact at scale.   Tell me more about your role on the Digital Advisory Board. What kind of things do you do in that role? Timo: It’s an amazing board, they’ve got super-experienced CEOs from large companies. Unilever is spending £10bn on marketing per year and the big challenge is yesterday they got beaten up by Tesco, tomorrow they probably get beaten up by Amazon and Ali Baba. Everything is moving online. And it gets even harder for them – their brands are getting cannibalised, competition is on price all of a sudden, the Chinese market is growing rapidly. It’s all e-commerce, it’s no longer in the shop. I’m in a very humble capacity trying the educate the board around direct-to-consumer capabilities, our sustainability mission, that 100pc of Gousto’s revenues are online, how you build data science into your business model, how you hire tech people at scale. I’m playing the tech advisory role, wearing my start-up hat.    In the past you’ve talked about the importance of growing yourself as a CEO within your business. What do you mean by that? Timo: I’m a massive believer in the power of learning and being curious. I’ve done an Executive MBA, so at weekends I’d go to Cambridge to upskill myself. I’m becoming a certified coach right now, so I’m on a one-year coaching diploma course in the evenings and on the weekend. I also joined other scale-up wards, so I massively believe in this philosophy that everyone should aspire to be the best version of themselves. For me, the question is: how can I be the best CEO possible? Seven years ago, I didn’t manage anyone, today we manage 500 people. Tomorrow, we’ll manage 1,200 people. I need to constantly upskill myself, leading by example, then role-modelling to the organisation that you’ve got to invest in yourself and you’ve got to take time off to think about your own development. I think that’s super important as the work is changing so fast. Plus it’s a lot of fun.     I think it’s hard for business owners, particularly small business owners, to really take the time for themselves. How would you suggest alleviating the guilt that they feel a lot of the time and leaving some of the work to the people that they’ve employed? Timo:  Yeah, I totally think that’s true. Lots of people feel like they have no time. I mean ultimately, if you want to be brutal, busyness is some form of laziness. We’re all way too busy, but as a leader you have to get yourself out of the minutiae and the day-to-day. I think you’ve got an enormous responsibility to lead by example and help people understand how important self-development is – reflection, reflection practice – so I think it matters, but it is really hard. Once a quarter, I try going off-site to only focus on my own development. And I probably spend 50pc answering my phone and another 20pc responding to emails so I’m not perfect. I’m trying really hard, but it is challenging. If you have the right people in the business and you surround yourself with amazing people, people are the key to success. The more incredible talent you have, the more structure you have, the more you can afford to get out. If you feel guilty you might not have the right people. You can’t be controlling. In my head it’s not about accountability, it’s about ownership. It’s about giving people autonomy and then cheerleading them. Your job as leader is to set the North Star and then to galvanise people – buy them cake, celebrate, collab. Do whatever you can to make them feel good, celebrating every step towards success. If they fail, build them up again. Focus them on the richness of learning from failure. But it’s not about the day to day and controlling every step. The food industry as a whole is facing quite a few problems – not problems, more challenges – as we go into the future. Particularly with sourcing enough food, changing temperatures, all sorts of things. What kind of challenges do you see in the food industry and what advice do you have for an entrepreneur looking to start a business in the food industry? Timo: The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity for entrepreneurs. I think grocery is a wonderful market for entrepreneurs to enter and to do good. If you look at the grocery market, you’ve got huge supermarkets that for the last 50 years have built a supply chain of 10,000 stores which after 50 years is no longer fit for purpose. Everyone wants to order food online, people pay a premium for convenience, sustainability and health are so important. I think there’s a big opportunity around how we sell to customers, how we fit into their life. I also believe that there are lots of issues on the supplying side, for example urban farming. In perfect conditions, you can grow organic salads and organic tomatoes using a fraction of the water that traditional farming uses, with none of the nasty chemicals. None of this is mainstream today, but in the next ten, 20 years, it’ll become mainstream and all of us will eat through those new ways of growing food and to me that’s hugely exciting. Anna: The rise of hydroponics, growing food underground, things like that? Timo: Totally, yup. But it’s in an embryonic stage right now. Well, that’s it from me. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Timo: The one piece of advice I’d give to anyone starting a business is to really focus on managing yourself before you manage other people. I think that’s one of my biggest learnings in building Gousto. Having deep recognition of your own strengths and weaknesses, knowing how to handle your demons, solving your weaknesses, turning weaknesses into sources of energy and strength. You need to understand the ups and downs of the emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. I think that learning this and building up the self-awareness and appreciation then allows you to have the energy to talk to other people and build them up when they’re down and to lead other people. But that to me is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned.   To help our listeners, what would you say is your greatest strength and weakness? How did you go about realising that and managing it? Timo: My strengths are that I like people and I’m a people person. I’d say that I’m 99pc extroverted. I have huge levels of energy – I never run out of energy. From a weakness point, I’d say that I don’t pay much attention to process and how we get there. I’m more focused on the idea and empowering the right people and I think that can alienate certain people sometimes because they might be more interested than I am in the exact process of how we get there. Whereas I feel like if we’ve got the right people, I should cheerlead them and they figure it out. So over time, if you look at our team that’s surrounding me, they all pretty much play to my strengths, they offset some of my weaknesses, they are amazing at process and structure which I’m not the best at. I think that if you’ve built a system that plays to your strengths, you’re absolutely fine to apologise for your weaknesses every once in a while. Anna: That’s really good advice. Well, thank you for that Timo and thank you for coming on the podcast. Timo: Thanks so much and that was super fun. Thank you.      Anna: You can find out more about Gousto at gousto.co.uk. You can also visit smallbusiness.co.uk for more information on artificial intelligence and improving sustainability. Remember to like us on Facebook @SmallBusinessExperts and follow us on Twitter @smallbusinessuk, all lower case. Until next time, thank you for listening.   

I: Herzlich willkommen zum IT-Manager-Podcast. Heute geht es um das Thema „Ist jetzt eigentlich alles AI? Zwischen Hype, starker und schwacher AI“, und ich habe dazu als Gast Herrn Ulrich Kerzel von der IUBH Fernstudium im Interview. Herr Kerzel verantwortet die Professur für Data Science And Artificial Intelligence. Hallo Herr Kerzel, schön, dass Sie da sind.  B: Guten Morgen, hallo, ich freue mich sehr, dabei zu sein.  I: Lassen Sie die Hörer doch noch ein bisschen mehr über Ihre Person wissen.  B: Ja, ursprünglich bin ich von Hause aus Physiker und komme eigentlich aus der Teilchenphysik und war auch sehr lange an internationalen Großforschungseinrichtungen wie zum Beispiel dem Fermilab in der Nähe von Chicago und dem CERN bei Genf in der Schweiz. Ich sage mal, in meiner Diplomarbeit beschäftigte ich mich damit, aus Daten Erkenntnisse zu gewinne und dies mit künstlicher Intelligenz zu tun. Das mache ich jetzt seit knapp zwanzig Jahren, und damals gab es noch keine so großen Pakete wie man sie heute kennt, wie TensorFlow von Google oder PyTorch von Facebook. Damals mussten wir das alles selber programmieren, und auch Grafikkarten gab es im Wesentlichen eigentlich so nicht, sodass wir auf ganz anderen Voraussetzungen aufsetzten. Und dann nach vielen Jahren der Wissenschaft bin ich in die Wirtschaft gewechselt zu Blue Yonder, die heute ein Teil von JDA ist. Und Schwerpunkt meiner Arbeit war zum einen die Leitung des Teams zur Weiterentwicklung von Machine-Learning-Algorithmen, und so hat man die Betreuung von Kundenprojekten, zum Beispiel der Automatisierung von Warenwirtschaft im Handel mit künstlicher Intelligenz. Und jetzt seit Herbst 2018 bin ich als Professor für Data Science und künstliche Intelligenz bei der IUBH. I: Ja, super, das Wort „künstliche Intelligenz“ hätte es mir auch deutlicher vereinfacht, das natürlich auszusprechen anstatt den englischen Begriff „AI“ dazu. Und in dieser Folge haben wir uns ja genau diesem Thema AI, der künstlichen Intelligenz, angenommen, da man gefühlt mittlerweile ja überall damit auch konfrontiert wird. Und daher auch die Frage ja zu unserer heutigen Folge: Ist jetzt eigentlich alles AI? Zwischen Hype, starker und schwacher AI. Ich bin gespannt auf Ihren Input dazu.  B: Ja, vielen Dank. Also ich glaube, man sollte ein bisschen mal jenseits des Hypes schauen. Überall hört man ja von AI hier und künstlicher Intelligenz da, und auf der anderen Seite sieht man auch sehr spektakuläre Erfolge, die auch die Performanz von Menschen mindestens gleichziehen oder auch übertreffen. Da haben wir dann zum Beispiel vor einiger Zeit ein AlphaGo, bei dem eine Maschine auch den besten Go-Spieler geschlagen hat, und das war damals auch relativ überraschend, da Go sehr viel komplexer als Schach ist, wo man eigentlich damals nicht damit gerechnet hat, dass jetzt schon irgendwie menschliche Mitspieler von einer Maschine geschlagen werden können. Man hat schon gedacht, dass das irgendwann passiert, aber vielleicht nicht unbedingt jetzt schon. Und man hat auch festgestellt, dass in diesem Spiel die Maschine Spielzüge entwickelt hat, die traditionell Menschen so nicht gespielt haben. Und das Spiel gibt es ja schon seit mehreren Tausend Jahren. Und es gibt auch viele weitere große Erfolge von AI, zum Beispiel bei der Erkennung von Hautkrebs, wo die Leistung von dem System die Leistung von menschlichen Spitzendermatologen übertreffen. Auf der anderen Seite hört man jetzt aber auch so auf den Artificial Intelligence, AI, künstliche Intelligenz, dass sich ja schon irgendwo auch der Eindruck aufdrängt, dass das jetzt alles nur ein Hype ist. Es gibt sogar eine aktuelle Studie von den MMC Ventures, die haben sich ungefähr dreitausend AI-Start-ups in 13 europäischen Ländern mal genauer angeschaut, und die sind zu dem Schluss gekommen, dass vierzig Prozent gar keine AI da drinnen haben. Und dann ist natürlich die Frage: Was heißt das jetzt eigentlich alles? Und dann wird es schon ein bisschen schwammiger, weil wir eigentlich nicht so genau definiert haben, was AI eigentlich ist. I: Das kann ich sehr gut nachvollziehen. Wie kann man denn dieses besser definieren? B: Ja, wenn wir uns den Begriff der künstlichen Intelligenz einmal nähern wollen, ist das gar nicht so einfach zu sehen, was damit gemeint ist. Das hängt auch damit zusammen, dass wir uns selber schwer tun, den Begriff „Intelligenz“ zu definieren. Wir haben zwar eigentlich ein ganz gutes intuitives Verständnis davon, was intelligentes Verhalten ist oder was Intelligenz ist, aber bei der formellen Definition wird das dann schon schwieriger. Ich meine, wir können mal in den Duden schauen, und da steht drin, „Intelligenz ist die Fähigkeit des Menschen, abstrakt und vernünftig zu denken und daraus zweckvolles Handeln abzuleiten“. Das klingt jetzt alles ganz gut, aber so richtig konkret, was das heißen soll, daraus wird man nicht so ganz schlau. Aber man kann eines festhalten aus dieser Definition „zweckvolles Handeln abzuleiten“, das ist schon einmal ein sehr großes Merkmal. Und das heißt aber auch, dass dieses sinnvolle oder zweckvolle Handeln auf eine konkrete Situation bezogen ist. Wenn man sich jetzt den Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz anschaut, dann unterscheidet man zwischen starker und schwacher oder anders allgemeiner oder spezifischer Intelligenz, das sind jeweils zwei synonyme Begriffe. Unter der starken oder allgemeinen künstlichen Intelligenz versteht man Systeme, die ganz allgemein selbst denken, also hier wäre das Ziel, ein System zu entwickeln, das quasi wie ein künstliches Wesen in der Umwelt zurechtkäme und leben könnte im Sinne, dass es mit uns interagieren könnte. Es könnte zum Beispiel sich mit uns unterhalten oder sich verhalten wie mein Mensch das tun würde. Man sollte jetzt aber nicht in die Falle tappen zu sagen, „Das müsste dann sich verhalten wie Mensch“, denn warum sollte sich eine künstliche Intelligenz a priori so verhalten wie wir Menschen? Auf der anderen Seite steht dann die schwache oder spezifische Intelligenz. Das sind Systeme, die in einem ganz konkreten Bereich ähnlich gut wie ein Mensch Entscheidungen treffen oder auch besser als ein Mensch Entscheidungen treffen. Und das ist zum Beispiel das, was wir bei dem Spiel Go oder bei Erkennung von Hautkrebs oder anderen Systemen gesehen haben. Und hier schließt sich dann auch wieder der Kreis zur Definition der Intelligenz, und da sind wir wieder bei der Ableitung von zweckvollem Handeln. Und dann ist auch hier eigentlich genau die Grenze zum Hype. In der Definition steht ja nichts von spezifischen Algorithmen oder Machine Learning, und vom Gefühl her denken wir heutzutage immer bei künstlicher Intelligenz daraus an große Machine Cluster, wie sie vielleicht bei Google oder bei Amazon stehen mit ganz großen Machine-Learning-Systemen, und wir denken zum Beispiel nicht an mathematische Optimierung wie Operations Research, das es ja auch schon seit langer Zeit sehr erfolgreich gibt. Auf der anderen Seite lässt sich natürlich auch aus einer ganz einfachen linearen Regression ein natürliches oder zweckmäßiges Handeln ableiten. Aber das ist nicht unbedingt das, was wir jetzt unter dem Begriff „Künstliche Intelligenz“ zusammenfassen würden. Und diese Schwammigkeit der Definition des Begriffs „Intelligenz“, die erlaubt es dann halt ganz Vielen, da diesen Deckmantel zu packen. Und dann muss man in der Tat schon sehr genau schauen, was denn damit gemeint ist. Da hilft es, den Begriff im Hype etwas aufzublähen, weil gar nicht so genau festgelegt ist, was jetzt Intelligenz ist. Aber eines ist sicher: Die Systeme entwickeln sich rasant weiter und auch jenseits eines Hypes werden fast täglich neue Erfolge errungen, die sich erst durch die große Kombination aus riesigen Datenmengen und Machine Learning möglich wären. Hier stehen wir eigentlich erst am Anfang der ganzen Entwicklung. I: Das kann ich durchaus nachvollziehen, und in vielen Bereichen sollte man tatsächlich jetzt mehr hinterfragen, wenn jemand sagt, sie beschäftigen sich mit künstlicher Intelligenz oder haben Komponenten von künstlicher Intelligenz in ihre Systeme eingebaut, dass man tatsächlich mal hinterfragt, was bedeutet es denn konkret, und damit natürlich dann auch ein bisschen besseren Hintergrund darüber bekommt. Gibt es denn spezielle Tipps, ja, für unsere Zuhörer, was diese Dinge angeht, was sie dann in Zukunft besser machen sollten? B: (lachend) Ich glaube, wenn man jetzt bewertet, was andere Firmen oder Forscher tun mit künstlicher Intelligenz, lohnt es sich, eine gesunde Skepsis mitzubringen und einfach mal zu hinterfragen, was denn eigentlich genau gemacht wird. Wenn die nur schreiben, „Hier wird künstliche Intelligenz verwendet“, kann man durchaus mal nachfragen, „Und was heißt das jetzt? Und wo wird sie verwendet, und was soll diese AI jetzt tun? Oder was macht sie anders als man das beispielsweise mit einer mathematischen Optimierung machen würde?“ Abgesehen davon gibt es natürlich auch sehr grundlegende Forschungsarbeiten zur allgemeinen künstlichen Intelligenz. Ob und wann das passieren wird, das kann man jetzt, glaube ich, gar nicht absehen. Das heißt was wir in der Praxis sehen, ist die schwache oder spezifische künstliche Intelligenz, und da kann man auch genau fragen, wo denn diese Intelligenz stecken soll. I: Ja. Und haben Sie eine konkrete Empfehlung, wenn sich unsere Zuhörer ja deutlich detaillierter mit diesem Thema AI, also auch künstliche Intelligenz, im Prinzip beschäftigen wollen und da tiefer einsteigen wollen, weil sie das für ihre zukünftige Arbeit auch verwenden wollen? Was können die da am sinnvollsten machen? B: Also, wer da richtig tief einsteigen möchte, dem würde ich empfehlen, unsere Kurse im Fernstudium ab nächstem Frühjahr, ab nächstem Februar zu besuchen, da bieten wir auf Bachelor- und auf Master-Niveau jeweils Studiengänge in Data Science und Artificial Intelligence an. Das sind eigentlich ideale Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen, die jeder ergreifen kann, um sich tief in die Systeme einzuarbeiten, auch in dieses Feld einzusteigen. I: Und die gibt es dann im Bachelor- und Master-Niveau? Oder in welchen Bereichen gibt es die? B: Genau. Die fangen im Bachelor Data Science an, das ist die Grundlage für die späteren Master-Studiengänge. Im Bachelor bieten wir Data Science an als Grundlage für die beiden weiteren, und im Master kommen dann spezialisiert Master Data Science und Master Artificial Intelligence, je nachdem, in welche Richtung man jetzt gehen möchte. I: Super. Falls das für Sie als Zuhörer interessant sein sollte: Wir werden natürlich die Links zu diesen Studiengängen in die Shownotes mit einbringen, dann haben Sie es ein bisschen einfacher, da direkt drauf zuzugreifen. Was mich und auch sicherlich die Zuhörer noch interessieren würde: Haben Sie gute Buchempfehlungen zum Thema AI? B: Ja, da ändert sich natürlich gerade alles rasant, also fast jedes Buch, was man so sagen möchte, was jetzt rauskommt, hat ja mindestens zwei Jahre Vorlaufzeit und ist schon quasi gar nicht mehr dem aktuellen Markt hinterher. Ich glaube aber, was man empfehlen könnte, ist der Klassiker, sage ich mal, von Stuart Russell und Peter Norvig, der heißt Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach. Das ist ein Lehrbuch, das in sehr vielen Universitätsstudiengängen eingesetzt wird, und gibt einen großen Überblick über die Hintergründe von Artificial Intelligenz und künstlicher Intelligenz. Und ein anderes Buch, was eher nicht technisch ist, das finde ich auch sehr lesenswert, das ist von Sarah Wachter-Boettcher, das heißt Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threads of Toxic Tech. Das beschäftigt sich eigentlich sehr allgemeinpopulärwissenschaftlich mit der Frage, welchen Einfluss AI eigentlich auf unser Leben hat, und insbesondere dadurch, wie Algorithmen einen Bias entwickeln können, da es ja aus den Daten lernt, die wir einem solchen Algorithmus, einer solchen künstlichen Intelligenz geben und welchen Einfluss das auf unser Leben hat. Das ist eigentlich ganz spannend zu lesen, wie man abseits von rein technischen Fragestellungen dann sieht, welche Konsequenzen sich eigentlich daraus ergeben auf unser Leben. I: Da bin ich ja schon gespannt, welches der Bücher ich dann in meine Buchliste mit aufnehmen werde, vermutlich eher die nicht so technische Variante (lachend) für mich, aber ich glaube, es gibt genug Hörer, die tatsächlich dort auch so einen Deep Dive tatsächlich machen möchten, und je nachdem, ob Studiengang oder nicht, tatsächlich mal tiefer in das ganze Thema AI auch eintauchen wollen. Auch diese Buchempfehlung werden wir mit in die Shownotes mit reinnehmen. Und ich hatte mit Herrn Kerzel im Vorfeld gesprochen, auch die Kontaktdaten von ihm, seine E-Mail-Adresse, nehmen wir mit auf, sodass Sie natürlich jederzeit in der Lage sind, auch wenn Rückfragen hier gerade zu diesem Thema und  den Studiengängen ist, gerne an ihn diese Rückfragen zu richten. Ja, vielen Dank an Sie, Herr Kerzel, für dieses tolle Interview. B: Ja, herzlichen Dank, es hat mich sehr gefreut, bei Ihnen zu sein.  I: Und an Sie, liebe Zuhörer, ja, vielen Dank fürs Zuhören natürlich, und schalten Sie gerne wieder ein, wir freuen uns wieder auf Sie am nächsten Freitag, wenn unsere Episode wieder online geht. Vielen Dank fürs Zuhören und bis zum nächsten Mal, Ihr Ingo Lücker, tschüss! Kontakt: Ulrich Kerzel, u.kerzel@iubh-fernstudium.de Kontakt: Ingo Lücker, ingo.luecker@itleague.de 

Current Health (formerly snap40) is the most accurate, all-in-one wireless wearable currently approved in the U.S. and EU. The company’s proprietary algorithms continuously analyze data, along with relevant contextual patient information, to offer actionable and proactive insights into the wearer’s health. Current’s FDA-cleared wearable monitors the human body with ICU-level accuracy across more vital signs than any other all-in-one device on the market. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, with an office in New York, Current is venture backed by investors ADV, MMC Ventures and others. Faced with an aging population and strained healthcare systems worldwide, U.S. and U.K. healthcare providers are deploying Current to change their patient delivery models from reactive to proactive care to produce better patient outcomes. Current’s approach will help health organizations reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions for patients whose conditions deteriorate after treatment — an expensive and cumbersome clinical burden that costs U.S. hospitals more than $40 billion annually. Built using the world’s largest real-time physiological data set, Current is the most accurate, all-in-one wireless wearable currently approved for use in the EU and U.S. The company’s proprietary algorithms continuously analyze data, along with relevant contextual patient information, to offer actionable and proactive insights into the wearer’s health. “At Current, we’re a small team of individuals committed to changing the world through proactive healthcare,” said Christopher McCann, CEO of Current. “Our team worked hard to get here, and it’s just the first step toward monitoring the health of every human being to identify sickness earlier with the goal of saving lives. Today, we’re in the hospital, tomorrow the home, and in the near future, we’ll be everywhere. We are just getting started.” Current Health CEO Christopher McCann has been on the podcast before, but I invited him back on the show to discuss the advancements in healthcare AI and IoT, and how they are already helping improve patient care.        

snap40 is an AI-enabled healthcare company with the mission to protect the health of every human being. The company recently announced that it has secured $8 million in seed financing led by ADV, with participation from MMC Ventures. This latest investment round takes them to $10 million, which is the largest seed financing round for a digital healthcare company in the UK.  What makes it special? snap40 monitors the human body in real-time using its wearable device, with accuracy equivalent to ICU monitoring. Using this real-time data, the company’s proprietary algorithms identify those whose health is at risk and proactively bring healthcare to them. Initially, snap40 is deploying this with top healthcare providers in the U.K. and the U.S. The startup offers a complete, automated picture of human health. Using a wearable device, the company monitors individuals during and after hospital admissions, as well as for chronic health conditions and in clinical trials. According to initial clinical trials, snap40’s proprietary AI algorithms provide awareness of acute or chronic patient deterioration earlier than standard care. In addition, snap40’s continuous and automated approach provides insights to doctors and nurses about health behaviors that might go unnoticed in today’s healthcare environments, offering improved workflows, reduced stress and better systems of care for everyone. Christopher McCann, snap40 CEO, and co-founder said, “As a medical student, I witnessed patients live with a long-term disability or die as a result of late recognition of their deteriorating health. This is where technology can make a difference. It’s a moral imperative to use all of our knowledge in science and technology to improve healthcare. I invited Christopher McCann onto the show to learn more about how they are using AI to recognize illness earlier and enable earlier treatment that can save lives, and it can prepare our healthcare system for the future.

On Charge, we usually speak to people involved in startups. Speaking to Dom Sando from MMC Ventures, we got a new angle on Charge’s subject matter: the investor’s POV. MMC Ventures is a venture capital company investing in tech businesses and Dom is on the investment team. He has particular expertise in AI so in the first part of the interview we drilled down into the state of AI today and explored why the UK is a global leader in this sector. In the second half of the interview, we spoke more broadly about venture capital and its value offering to startups: why go to a VC instead of a bank? What would working with a VC company look like? What are the signals of future success that VCs look for when choosing startups to work with? How can businesses make themselves more attractive to VC investors? Find out all on this week’s episode of Charge! Find out more about MMC Ventures on their website: https://www.mmcventures.com/ Find Charge on The DVELP website: https://dvelp.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DVELP_team Contact the Charge team at charge@dvelp.co.uk

A second preview of “Beyond The Hype: Artificial Intelligence”, the new podcast series from MMC Ventures. David Kelnar, MMC Ventures Partner and Head of Research, talks with the world’s leading AI executives, entrepreneurs and technologists to discuss the reality of AI today, what is to come, and why it matters. Episode 1 launches 13th March 2018. Subscribe now.

Here’s a preview of what’s coming up on Beyond The Hype: AI, the new podcast series from MMC Ventures. In each episode host, David Kelnar, will be going ‘Beyond The Hype’ with the world’s leading AI executives, entrepreneurs and technologists to discuss the reality of Artificial Intelligence (AI) today, what is to come, and why it matters. Episode 1 launches 13th March 2018. Subscribe now.

We are joined by David Kelnar, investment director and head of research at MMC Ventures, a UK VC firm. He is also the author of the UK AI landscape that plots the nearly 300 AI start-ups in the UK, the market they are in and the problems they are trying to solve. As we were included in the map, we invited David to come to Ravelin HQ to talk more about about his findings.

Paul Townsend is currently Managing director at Vitesse PSP and a Non Executive Director with Saxo Bank, following over 20 years’ experience in mainstream banking with Warburgs and Bank of New York, plus 15 years in electronic payments with Earthport plc, Neteller, Envoy and Worldpay. Before co-founding Vitesse, Paul was Founder and COO of Envoy Services Ltd. He is also a prolific angel investor with investments in the likes of Kwanji, veridu, proxama and many more. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Paul make his entry into the world of angel investing? 2.) With such strong experience in banking, how does Paul view the seed stage Fintech environment? 3.) What are Paul’s thoughts on bitcoin and why are banks so skeptical to it’s mass adoption? 4.) With extensive experience in the mobile payments space, where does Paul see room for innovation in mobile payments? Is it a monopoly market with the likes of Square and Izettle? 5.) Paul is also an LP to MMC Ventures, so why are institutional investors in the UK more skeptical to fund allocation towards VC, than say the states? What can be done to improve this distortion? 6.) Paul reveals some war stories from his past investments and how they have altered his strategy to investing? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: FlyPay (http://flypay.it) , MMC Ventures(http://www.mmcventures.com), Veridu(https://veridu.com), Kwanji (https://kwanji.com), Gousto (https://www.gousto.co.uk) If you enjoyed the show today please do share the episode on Twitter by simply clicking this link: http://ctt.ec/gYXb1 As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com “Angel Insights would like to thank Plantronics, who kindly supply the Voyager Edge UD headsets that our investors use during interviews”

Simon Menashy is Investment Director at MMC Ventures where he is responsible for leading new and follow on investments as well as supporting existing MMC portfolio companies. He also sits on the board for WeDo, Boticca and Sky Futures and works closely with a number of other B2B and B2C businesses including Growth Intelligence, Mubi, Small World, Somo.  Prior to MMC Simon worked in European tech and media consulting, working with clients including the BBC, Virgin Media, BT, Thompson Reuters and Ofcom as part of the Deloitte Strategy team in London   Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Base79 Growth Intelligence In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Simon made his move from consulting into the world of VCs? 2.)Simon recently tweeted how not to pitch to VCs, so what should founders be doing when pitching? What are the fundamentals in terms of required documentation?  3.) Does Simon agree with Peter Thiel’s opinion that disruption is fundamentally bad for society? What industries does Simon feel will be next disrupted? 4.) With the increasing length of time it takes for venture backed companies to IPO, how does Simon feel the funding path is changing? 5.) How does Simon believe the tech eco system is going in London and what can be done to increase VC funding and engender a silicon valley esque feel to London? Today's episode finishes with a quick fire round where we hear Simon's thoughts on the apple watch, what the biggest red flags are when viewing a pitch and his most recent investment and why he said yes? You can follow Harry, Simon and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter.