Growing cities need smarter transportation systems and Gogoro, a Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer may have the solution. The scooter gathers, analyzes, and shares rider data to help riders understand best practices for reducing energy consumption and optimizing performance. Vending machines called GoStations allow riders to swap out dead batteries with new ones, and are spread throughout the city for easy access. By 2025 the number of smart cities around the world is predicted to quadruple from 2013, from 21 to 88 hence Gogoro’s planned expansion plans.
The rise of non bank entities attracting billions of VC investment have big advantages over traditional banks. For instance, banks come with legacy issues such as extensive branch networks, large IT systems, and a lack of public trust thanks to the recent financial crisis. While the regulators, traditionally non-risk takers have embraced Fintech for the most part, banks have been slower to react and could pay the price
Boston and San Francisco are the leading U.S. cities in the the biotech sector, however the New York region (currently 7th) has the world’s largest concentration of academic medical centers and it graduates more life-science PhDs than any other area of the U.S. Increasingly, the city’s academic and public institutions are partnering to incubate new biotech companies, and capital is flowing into local start-ups. However the lack of management talent with industry experience which is hampering the city’s growth
The online retailer founded by a former Amazon executive has completed it’s 4th round of funding raising $500M. Fidelity Investments led the latest round which values the company at $1.5B. So far, they have raised $720M over 4 rounds. U.S. e-commerce sales in November & December are expected to increase almost 14% this year to $79.4B, this critical period will be a stern test for the retailer to prove their valuation
Could the famous fights for bargains on Black Friday be a thing of the past? According to analysis from IBM, once again, online sales increased this year to $4.5B in the US where mobile accounted for 40% of all online sale, a 23.8% rise on last year alone. In the UK, Black Friday sales rose to 32% to $1.07B while there was a 9.6% decrease in footfall for traditional retailers
The Malaysian government have unveiled a $6.3B plan to build a new smart city on reclaimed land to tackle the lack of space on the island nation. 30% of its 117 international companies would like to expand their presence but are unable due to the lack of space. A smart transport system is planned that will include monorails, trams and catamarans. To finance the project the planners will auction off parts of the lands before it’s built
Fintech Innovation Lab in association with Accenture have released their annual report this week on the state of Fintech. US investment in the emerging industry has had a 56.6% compound annual growth rate over the past 5 years. Payments is now the largest sector and traditional financial institutions have been slow to react to the disruptions in the industry
The FinTech Innovation Lab has begun accepting applications for the 2016 New York program; applications are due December 3, 2015. The FinTech Innovation Lab is an annual program run by the Partnership Fund for New York City and Accenture for early and growth stage companies that have developed cutting edge technology products targeted at financial services customers. Winners will get the chance to refine and beta test their financial technology products in New York City and receive mentorship from the Lab’s Entrepreneurs Network
The NYCEDC together with Lower Manhattan Headquarters (LMHQ), a Lower Manhattan co-working space, hosted a discussion called “NYC Gov-Tech Startups: Making It Work.” While we are well aware of NYC’s assembly of “hyphen-tech” industries, this is one we were not aware of: Government-Technology. We have been working with a number of governments and cities over the past few years, learning many lessons along the way so we are always interested in what we can learn from others
The new fund, Lerer Hippeau Ventures V LP, comes after the firm raised a $62 million Fund IV in early 2014. It arrives as investments in the New York metropolitan area soar. Venture investors unleashed $1.71 billion in capital in the third quarter. Lerer Hippeau have been the most active VC in NYC since 2009. The new funds will be used to make larger investments in early stage startups who focus on Consumer & SaaS products
As more and more connected devices continue to be used to improve urban transport, the consequences of being hacked become more and more serious. For instance what if a smarter online traffic light system was the subject of a cyber-attack? Motherboard take an interesting look at the threats and how cities can work to prevent such attacks. An interesting read for startups & established companies in the Smart-City space
As part of the Smart City Expo happening this week, well known Swedish company Ericsson predicted the impact 5G will have on urban transportation. The mobile conglomerate expect that full automation is possible for some services such as public buses whose largest variable cost are drivers. An interesting thought is that of vehicle platooning whereby trucks are driver by off-site operators who co-ordinate acceleration & braking meaning they can travel closer together and open more space up on the roads
The booming startup scene in New York is no secret. 2015 looks set to be a record high for both the amount of VC funding and number of unicorns in the city. One of the reasons New York has emerged as such an attractive location for startups is the talent available thanks to the number of top universities. Columbia, NYU & CUNY all now have their own incubator programs for their students encouraging entrepreneurship as compare by Observer Magazine. There have already been some promising results. For example, NYU’s Varick Street Engineering Incubator program has had 9 exists so far worth a combined $721M
Kick start your Friday (11/20) with a hot cup of coffee, breakfast, a NY-LON battle between the world’s fintech titans, and Q&A with two of the leading figures in fintech globally: Eileen Burbidge and Maria Gotsch. This discussion will make clear the challenges and differences in regulatory approaches, and dive deep into emerging fintech trends in London and New York. Register here for the free event organized by London Partners