perhaps just around the corner, when the
idea of data being sucked up for free and
with no legal obligations comes to an end.
Current practices may seem absurd in the
not too distant future.
T he i de a o f d ata be i n g s u c k ed
u p f o r f ree a nd w i th n o l e g a l
o b l i g at i o ns m ay s o o n seem a bs u rd
N e w - f o u n d d y na m i s m
disrupt, and the need to survive. The
third element is the hardest to replicate
in an R&D or innovation department.”
But Virginia Tech’s Dr Jonathan
Giuliano, who’s raised more than $900m
for start-ups and SMEs in the US, Europe,
and Asia, says traditional corporate
models can outpace start-ups. “Excellent
corporate innovators have developed
processes that rival, and can surpass,
the capabilities of start-ups,” he says.
Ri s k v s . R e t u r n
In 2015, Toyota, the world’s biggest car
maker, announced it was investing $1bn
in an artificial intelligence and robotics
unit, based around the notion of ‘hedging’
(acting like VCs by placing lots of bets
rather than just one big bet).
While there’s no sense of how the
market for self-driving cars will develop,
Toyota can’t run the risk of losing a
leadership position in the space, but
the technology has a wider application,
bringing extra mobility to the home. This
is key to the Japanese market, where the
number of over-65s is expected to rise
from 25% to 40% in the next 30 years.
Smart investors are bringing the age-
old risk-vs.-return formula to the new
technology landscape. It’s just a matter of
understanding who the winners will be. ■
W i n t e r 2 0 17 | U K S PA b r e ak t h r o u g h | 7 7
But the investment community is also
aware that it’s not completely game-over
for traditional companies, as the Internet
of Things might just provide them with
a new-found dynamism. After all, the
prospect of intelligent fridges, cars, and
even the shirt on our back scooping up
vast amounts of intel, could be a powerful
boon to companies.
Eric Van der Kleij, Special Advisor
for Fintech at Kickstart Accelerator,
one of Europe’s largest multi-corporate
technology accelerators, says: “The
hardest thing for any giant company to
authentically curate are the three key
ingredients that start-ups automatically
have: agility to operate, freedom to