I'm a believer of unlocking innovation by encouraging large enterprises and early-stage startups to co-create new products and services. However, it's bedeviling to get these partnerships to work smoothly. I have personally gone through winding experiences of co-creation with two large enterprises, a multinational FMCG and an infrastructure giant, they both shall remain anonymous. I... Continue Reading →
The Big 5 Canadian banks have a testy relationship with startups despite their activity in supporting AI research, partnering with accelerators, and lending to tech companies. As major institutions, they should be playing a supportive role in supercharging innovation by investing in, buying services from, and striking partnerships with startups. But overall, the opposite has... Continue Reading →
[Disclaimer: the analysis and views expressed in this article are solely my own unless stated otherwise.] Last week, I published an article that analyzed 265 Toronto startups that made it through my angel investment pipeline. I want here to continue the analysis by looking at the cutting-edge technologies that those startups used and/or are offering to their... Continue Reading →
Last week, I attended the 2nd Annual Blockchain Conference in Toronto. Given recent cryptocurrency turmoils, I was hoping for an even-keeled event, but the name of the game was hype. Statements like "...everything will be tokenized...", "...blockchain will help solve child labour" or "...will eliminate inequality" were thrown around. To borrow terminology from Gartner's Hype Cycle I... Continue Reading →
Since I founded Circles, I've immersed myself in the world of Financial Inclusion in Emerging Markets. I quickly discovered that banks and Fintechs in Emerging Markets have been coming up with innovative solutions to serve the unbanked/underbanked masses. It's no surprise that banking markets in Africa and Asia are growing at a super fast rate as... Continue Reading →
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