New Florence. New Renaissance.

Everything you wanted to know about SPACs but were afraid to ask

Business Week about Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, also called Blank Check Companies

"SPACs raise money through an initial public offering that sells shares and warrants in a bundled unit usually at $10. SPACs usually have 24 months to identify and complete an acquisition. If investors of the SPAC dislike a planned purchase, they get to sell their shares but keep the warrants. That gives them the possibility of an upside even in transactions they opt out of, if a merger goes better than they expected. That combination is seen as making SPACs a safe bet especially during turbulent markets. Once the business combination is completed, the acquisition target becomes a public company."

another perspective from Yahoo Finance

No industry and geography untouched!

Over the last year I have been writing plenty about vertical and global applications. The recent COVID-19 crisis has resulted in acrobatics in various sectors, and also opened our eyes to massive changes in new concepts, new entrants, new regulations. A decade of change in two months and accelerating!

To capture the spirit of this unprecedented period of change in each sector, I have been running Zoom interviews with many CIOs, software executives, practitioners and investors to get their perspective on different industries and world regions. 

Each conversation below is in the form of a 20-30 minute Zoom interview. I also summarize their key points in each post if you don't want to spend as much time on the videos.

Aerospace - Jeff Robertson, Maxar Technologies

Agriculture - Sridhar Vembu, Zoho

Airlines - Rahul Samant, Delta Airlines

Auto - Dennis Hodges, Inteva

Auto - Paul Wright, Accuride

Auto - Evangelos Simoudis, Synapse Partners

Banking - Jack Barrett, First Citrus Bank

Banking - Sarvesh Mahesh, Tavant

Banking - Rob Enslin, Google

Banking - Mike Laven, Currency Cloud

Banking - Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, Salesforce

Banking - Charles Phillips, Recognize

Biotech - Lou Von Thaer, Battelle

eCommerce - Bob Stutz, SAP

Field Service - Darren Roos, IFS

Food, wellness - Ray Lane, GreatPoint Ventures

Grocery - Bob Stutz, SAP

Healthcare - Lou Von Thaer, Battelle

Healthcare - Mark Galloway, SmartPad

Healthcare - Brad Feld, Foundry Group

Healthcare - David Watson, AMA's Health2047

Healthcare - Bill Shea, Cognizant

Healthcare - Aneel Bhusri, Workday

Healthcare - Sanjay Poonen, VMware

Healthcare - Rod Johnson, Infor

Healthcare - Sridhar Vembu, Zoho

High Tech - Amit Shah, Excelitas Technologies

High Tech - Ray Wang, Constellation Research

Higher Education - Daniel Pullin, Neeley School of Business, TCU

Higher Education - Mike Ettling, Unit4

Higher Education - Eric Dirst, DeKonsultere, LLC

Industrie 4.0 - Marty Groover, C5MI

Life Sciences - Jason Blessing, Model N

Logistics - Tom Ryan, tkr Consulting Associates

Manufacturing - Bill Berutti/Jerry Foster, Plex Systems

Manufacturing - Tom Brennan/Dave Stephans, Rootstock Software

Manufacturing - Darren Roos, IFS

Mining - Brad Keywell, Uptake 

Oil and Gas, Phiroz Darukhanavala, formerly of BP

Private Equity - Tamas Hevizi, Automation Anywhere

Professional Services - Mike Ettling, Unit4

Professional Services - Sarvesh Mahesh, Tavant

Public Health - Lou Von Thaer, Battelle

Public Health - Doug Belden, Hillsborough County, FL

Public Health - David Watson, AMA's Health2047

Public Health - Ray Wang, Constellation Research

Public Health - Ed Abbo, C3.ai

Public Health - Peter Maier, SAP

Public Health - Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, Salesforce

Public Health - Tom Brennan/Dave Stephans, Rootstock Software

Public Health - Rob Enslin, Google

Railroads - Brad Keywell, Uptake

Real Estate - Sarvesh Mahesh, Tavant

Retail - Rod Johnson, Infor

Retail - Ben Pring, Cognizant

Research & Development - Lou Von Thaer, Battelle

Restaurants - Tara Gambill, MOD Pizza 

Sports - Max Mueller/Chris Nilson, Daimani

Sports - Paul Greenberg, The 56 Group and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials

State and Local Govt - Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Media

State and Local Govt - Doug Belden, Hillsborough County, FL

Supply Chains - Tom Ryan, tkr Consulting Associates

Telecoms - Jay Smith, TracFone Wireless

Transportation - Evangelos Simoudis, Synapse Partners

Travel - Joseph Rajadurai, Cognizant

Utilities - Andre Blumberg, CLP Power

Utilities - Ed Abbo, C3.ai

User Groups - Geoff Scott/Dave Wascom, ASUG

Venture Capital - Brad Feld, Foundry Group

Venture Capital - Ray Lane, Greatpoint Ventures

BTW, many of the guests touch on several other industries. Many also bring a global point of view about Europe and Asia/Pac and others touch on leadership and resilience in a crisis, future of work, workforce diversity and other topics

They include

Asia Pac - Andre Blumberg, CLP Power

Asia Pac - Sridhar Vembu, Zoho

Asia Pac - Rob Enslin, Google, 

Asia Pac - Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Media

Customer Centricity - Sue Fellows, Workfront

Diversity - Tony Prophet, Salesforce

Diversity - Charles Phillips, RECOGNIZE

EU - Mike Laven, Currency Cloud

EU - Mike Ettling, Unit4

EU - Peter Maier, SAP

EU - Darren Roos, IFS

Future of Work - Ben Pring 

HCM - Brian Sommer, TechVentive

HCM - Josh Bersin, Josh Bersin Academy

Leadership - Alex Shootman, Workfront

Leadership - Ray Lane, Greatpoint Ventures

Leadership - Daniel Pullin, Neeley School of Business, TCU

Leadership - Sanjay Poonen, VMware

Leadership - Sridhar Vembu, Zoho

Leadership - Rob Enslin, Google

Leadership - Charles Phillips, RECOGNIZE

Leadership - Ray Wang, Constellation Research

Planning - Grant Halloran, Planful

Startups - Ton Dobbe, Value Inspiration 

Startups - Eric Dirst, DeKonsultere

Third Party Support - Seth Ravin, Rimini Street

Several others coming ...

Nanostore

The future is in a Shell gas station in the sleepy Silicon Valley suburb of Campbell, Calif.

Customers who walk into the service station's adjacent convenience store to buy Kettle Chips and Arizona Ice Tees never deal with human cashiers. Instead, technology is the shopkeeper.

The store, owned by the chain Loop, officially opened in December after a few months of testing. AiFi, the startup that created the software for managing the store, is pitching its technology as a way to help retailers remain competitive by converting their brick-and-mortar shops into cashierless markets.

Fortune

 

 

The future of insurance claims

For many people, filing insurance claims means tedious paperwork and stressful phone calls. It doesn’t have to be that way—and, soon, it won’t. The Next Normal looks at how telematics and artificial intelligence will enable faster, easier claims.

McKinsey

ML and mining

The machine learning model, which Freeport developed with McKinsey, the consultancy, uses data from sensors around the mine and suggests new ways to improve the performance of its crushers and processing mills, according to the company.

The system found that the mine was producing seven distinct types of ore and that the processing method, which involves the use of large flotation tanks, could be adjusted to recover more copper by adjusting the PH level.

The machine-learning programme is one of three major initiatives Freeport says will boost copper production by 30 per cent.

FT

another perspective below about AI in mining

 

 

Digitizing India's $ trillion gold stash

Indians stockpile more of the precious metal than citizens of any other country, and their hoard is seven times the amount of gold mined globally in 2018. Now, Bangalore-based Rupeek is giving the centuries-old business of gold lending an internet-aided makeover to help Indians cash in on the 25,000 tons of the metal the World Gold Council estimates they’ve stashed away. Backed by two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture capital firms, Sequoia Capital and Accel, the startup allows people to borrow money against their hoard, often built up from wedding gifts or inherited from their families. “Indians have a mind-boggling $1 trillion worth of gold sitting in their homes, several times the gold in Fort Knox,” says Sumit Maniyar, Rupeek’s founder and chief executive officer.

A motorcycle-borne loan agent from the startup arrived within the hour. He used a computer vision-aided testing kit to appraise the metal’s purity. A team 600 miles away crunched data to complete the background check and process the loan electronically. About 30 minutes later, 200,000 rupees ($2,800) had been deposited in Mhatre’s bank account by one of Rupeek’s partners, an Indian private lender called Federal Bank. The startup’s 24/7 control room turned on the risk-monitoring system to track the agent, ensuring he securely deposited the jewelry at the bank’s nearest vault.

BusinessWeek

Gold testing has become increasingly portable as the video below shows

 

 

AI in the oil patch

While Aker BP got the help it needed from a small Austin, Texas-based AI software firm, SparkCognition, some bigger oil-and-gas companies are working with giants in the tech industry. Exxon Mobil Corp. in February started a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to deploy AI programs to optimize its operations in the Permian, or West Texas Basin. The oil giant also recently installed an AI program to gain insights from data coming from millions of sensors that monitor its global refineries. Total SA, meanwhile, is linking up with Google Inc. to better interpret seismic data, and is set to increase its investment in AI to squeeze more hydrocarbons from existing assets.

WSJ

A talk by Amir Husain, CEO of SparkCognition

 

 

Anatomy of a cashierless store

The WSJ has broken down some of the technology several retailers are trying out in response to the Amazon Go concept - see my blog post in Jan 2018 

How many are experimenting?

"A global survey of about 400 retailers conducted in June by research and advisory firm International Data Corp. found that 28% are testing or piloting cashierless systems, said Leslie Hand, vice president of IDC’s Retail Insights division."

 

 

Ping An: Redefining Insurance

In 2017, Ping An, China’s second-largest insurer and its biggest non-state-owned company by revenue, rolled out a “Superfast Onsite Investigation” system—enabling policyholders to submit claims by simply opening a smartphone app and answering a few questions. But the app’s niftiest feature offers the option to not even wait for an inspector. Instead, customers can snap photos of a damaged vehicle and send them to a Ping An computer, which can respond with a repair estimate in three minutes or less. If the customer accepts the estimate, then wancheng! (“Done!”) Ping An can transfer funds immediately.

Last year, Ping An’s customers used this feature to settle 7.3 million claims, or 62% of the total. The service saves the company more than $750 million each year by reducing bogus claims and human error. But its simplicity belies the extraordinary sophistication of the artificial intelligence and data-processing operations that make it possible.

Fortune

 

It's not just auto insurance Ping An is rethinking

 

 

China Fintech

Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat have changed the way many people live their financial lives. They are one-stop shops that enable half a billion Chinese to access a dizzying array of services, from payments, loans, investments, and credit scores to taxi rides, travel bookings, and social media.Because so much is sold via these apps, Alibaba and Tencent know the health (or lack thereof) of many small businesses across China. As a result, they can lend to companies that banks might consider too risky. Likewise, people with no traditional credit score can get cheap loans because Ant Financial has their payment and purchase history.

MIT Technology Review

Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat have changed the way many people live their financial lives. They are one-stop shops that enable half a billion Chinese to access a dizzying array of services, from payments, loans, investments, and credit scores to taxi rides, travel bookings, and social media.Because so much is sold via these apps, Alibaba and Tencent know the health (or lack thereof) of many small businesses across China. As a result, they can lend to companies that banks might consider too risky. Likewise, people with no traditional credit score can get cheap loans because Ant Financial has their payment and purchase history.

MIT Technology Review

Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat have changed the way many people live their financial lives. They are one-stop shops that enable half a billion Chinese to access a dizzying array of services, from payments, loans, investments, and credit scores to taxi rides, travel bookings, and social media.Because so much is sold via these apps, Alibaba and Tencent know the health (or lack thereof) of many small businesses across China. As a result, they can lend to companies that banks might consider too risky. Likewise, people with no traditional credit score can get cheap loans because Ant Financial has their payment and purchase history.

MIT Technology Review