The Irish Tech News Podcast

With five generations of customers using the banking system, whose needs are we truly serving and how can we best fill the gaps? In our first episode back from a short summer break, we welcome Cleve Mesidor, Executive Director of the Blockchain Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit leading an industry-wide crypto education campaign. Credit unions and community banks play a critical role in serving the diverse demographics of our society. How best can we support these institutions in a decentralized finance future? What policy changes do we need to support the workforce of the future, and ensure small business owners can thrive? And what is the story behind Butterscotch Media? Tune in to find out more!

Four years ago I interviewed John Clancy for the Irish Tech News podcast. John was the Founder and CEO of the AI startup Chatspace. Since I last spoke with John AI has changed so much, and Chatspace has rebranded as Galvia. I recently caught up with John to see what’s happened since we last spoke and how their AI product has changed. John spoke about what’s happened since we last spoke, Covid, AI, future plans, Apple AI, AI regulation and more. More about Galvia: Galvia began as a response to a client request to draw insights from various data sources to help organisations learn fast, detect problems early and deploy solutions before issues become widespread. Their clients have played an instrumental role in Galvia’s journey and they continue to shape who they are and what they do. Their clients trust Galvia with their data, and their platform empowers enterprises and higher level educational institutions to turn what is a hugely valuable asset into something that generates revenues, drives engagement and safeguards sustainable growth. Based in Galway, Ireland, Galvia is proud to be a High Performance Start Up (HPSU) with Enterprise Ireland.

Dogpatch Labs and The Fidelity Center for Applied Technology FCAT have selected three breakthrough startups to participate in “The FCAT Fellowship” programme, which will take place in Dogpatch Labs, Ireland’s leading innovation hub based in Dublin. The FCAT Fellowship programme, kicked off last month with Lip, DevA11y and gClinics taking part. David Atkinson the founder of Lip, Cormac Chisholm and Patrick Guiney the co-founders of DevA11y, recently met up to speak to Ronan. David, Cormac and Patrick, spoke about their backgrounds, what their startups do, the FCAT Fellowship and more. More about the FCAT Fellowship: Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) scans the future horizons to look for emerging technologies that will change our world. To advance and strengthen the innovation ecosystem, along with Dogpatch Labs, FCAT is sponsoring a new and exciting programme, The FCAT Fellowship programme which will strengthen the innovation ecosystem. By leveraging FCAT’s collective expertise, resources and global network, giving the opportunity to drive significant advancements for the startups involved. 

There is an inactivity epidemic which affects the health of 1.8B adults around the world and WeWard an app that has recently launched in Ireland aims to tackle it. WeWard will do this through gamifying and socialising the step count, allowing users to redeem their steps for rewards like cash, retail gifts, or charity donations. Ronan recently spoke to Yves Benchimol the CEO and founder of WeWard. Yves talks about his background, what WeWard does, their expansion into Ireland and 19 other countries, and their recent partnership with the French government to launch a global walking competition to get users excited for the Olympic Games.  More about WeWard: WeWard rewards users for their daily walking habits through allowing them to earn ‘Wards’, which can then be converted into cash, charity donations, or gift purchases. Users on the app have been shown to increase their walking time by nearly 25%. To date, WeWard has already distributed over $10M in cash to users, $1M in donations to charity partners, and boasts a network of over 1,500 brands, including household names like Netflix, L’Oreal, Nike, Converse, American Cancer Society, United Nations, and more.  To kick-off their expansion, the company has partnered up with the French government to launch a global walking competition to get users excited for the Olympic Games period. Registration for the competition is live, and the contest will begin on July 26.   

In this episode of One Vision, Theo chat with Alice Korngold, C-Suite and board advisor, speaker, and published author, on the value of collaboration between companies and nonprofits in finding innovative solutions to social challenges. Purpose and profits do and should co-exist; when we work together, we thrive — together. From hiring intentionally and creating inclusive social cohorts, to developing responsibly and ethically, let’s commit to staying motivated and changing the status quo for a better and brighter future. Take actions and make meaningful contributions to positive progress, not just for our sake, but for the sake of future generations. As Alice said, we each find our own path. And there is tremendous opportunity for every sector and every job to advance the world towards a more sustainable and inclusive path. Keep asking ‘why?’ and ‘what can I do?”. Don’t forget to check out Alice’s latest edition of A Better World, Inc.

From acting as a silent back office partner to being an enabler of banking services and new business models, technology has transformed not only the partnership between the CIO, CTO, and lines of business, but also the customer experience. What is the next big opportunity when it comes to the future of banking? What role will technology such as artificial intelligence play? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with Vanja Tokic, expert retail strategy transformation manager at Raiffeisen Bank International AG on digitalizing the financial world and preserving the human touch. How will banking services being a commodity impact the future of financial services and banking business models? What role should banks play in society and an increasingly connected world, and how can we meet customers where they are? Tune in to find out! 

The NIS 2 Directive is due to come into effect later this year, and while we await full clarity on what the Directive will entail, what can we do to prepare for it? Two people who can answer that are Paul Casey, and Fergal Meehan from the cybersecurity service provider Paradyn. Paul is Paradyn’s Chief Operations Officer  and Fergal is Paradyn’s Chief Commercial Officer and Ronan recently caught up with them.  Paul and Fergal talk about their backgrounds, what Paradyn does, the NIS 2 Directive, attack surface areas, AI and more. More about Paradyn: Paradyn provide their customers with managed connectivity right through to desktop support. They build, pro-actively monitor, support and maintain their entire infrastructure. They also build, monitor and support their internet connectivity and wide area network; as well as supplying, supporting and maintain their firewalls, network switches, servers and desktops. All of this under one managed service contract with one single supplier, something they can’t get from any other Managed Service Provider in Ireland.

Just as the pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of digital payments in retail for consumers, it has sped up similar changes in the financial operations of organizations, enabling improved compliance and spending controls while reducing complexities. In this episode of One Vision, Theo chats with Chris Juneau, SVP, Head of SAP Concur Product Marketing, on the future of payments and expense reporting, powered by AI and mobile connectivity. We cannot create more time, but we can streamline processes so that we can spend more time focusing on what matters — at moments that matter. 

Ireland is a tech hub because it is an English-speaking beacon in the EU. But others are not so fortunate: only one billionth of the content created worldwide gets translated  leaving millions of people out in the linguistic cold. With 87% of site visitors preferring their own language when surfing the web, companies should prioritise localised content or face disastrous consequences. One person who knows this all too well is Bryan Murphy, the CEO of Smartling, a cloud-based translation technology and language services company headquartered in New York. Ronan recently caught up with Bryan Murphy. Bryan talks about his background, what Smartling does, Gen AI, translation localisation, existing and new tech stacks, quantum computing and more. More about Bryan Murphy: As the CEO of Smartling, Bryan leads a team of passionate and innovative professionals who are transforming the way content is created, managed, and delivered across the world. With over 20 years of experience in e-commerce and SaaS, he has a proven track record of building and scaling successful businesses that leverage cutting-edge technology and customer-centric solutions. Prior to joining Smartling, Bryan held various leadership roles at eBay, where he was responsible for driving growth and profitability for key verticals in North America. He also co-founded and led WHI Solutions, the largest automotive e-commerce platform in North America, which was acquired by eBay in 2012. Bryan has received several awards and recognitions, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Technology Fast 500 Award, and the a16z Marketplace 100. His mission is to empower businesses to reach new markets and audiences with Smartling's LanguageAI Platform, the #1 rated translation management system by users on G2.  

While AI is not new, the excitement has skyrocketed in the past 2 years. As organizations embark on the AI journey, what do they need to keep in mind? What does responsible AI really mean? Are we being overly critical when we are biased and imperfect human beings? And how do we even stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of AI and risk management? In this episode of One Vision — FinTech Fuse! Theo chat with the brilliant Nicole Königstein, Chief AI Officer and Head of AI & Quant Research at Quantmate, on the current AI hype cycle and what the future holds. And don’t forget to check out Nicole’s latest book: Transformers: The Definitive Guide.