Are you curious about the future of decentralized finance? Here’s a little secret: The future is already here, but the change is not equally distributed. In our back-to-back episode featuring women in web3, we chat with Rita Martins, author of the brand new book titled “Web3 in Financial Services”, on the past, present, and future of blockchain technology, how the ecosystem can adapt to regulatory changes, and how traditional finance and DeFi can play nice together. While the progress may feel slow, change is definitely coming. Check out Rita’s new book here: https://a.co/d/93ClFuP  ** Our last conversation with Cleve Mesidor, The path to a more financially inclusive future, can be found here. https://shows.acast.com/one-vision/episodes/the-path-to-a-more-financially-inclusive-future  **

Earlier this year I attended the National Enterprise Awards in the Mansion House. This was the 24th year of the Local Enterprise Office initiative, which was won last year by Advanced Cosmetics. The Finalists competed for a prize fund of €50,000 and along with an overall National Enterprise of the Year winner there are categories for Best Start-Up, Best Export Business, an Innovation Award, a One-to-Watch Award, and a Sustainability Award. There is also an Outstanding Achievement award for a business that started with their Local Enterprise Office and has gone on to achieve international growth with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland.  I caught up with Matt Conlon the Co-Founder and CEO of one of the winners Cytidel. Matt talks about his background, what Cytidel does, AI, winning at the Local Enterprise Awards and more. More about Cytidel: Innovation Award winners, Cytidel, is a vulnerability intelligence platform that enables organisations to adopt an intelligence led approach to risk prioritisation that’s up to 95% more efficient than traditional methods. With a focus on actionable vulnerability intelligence, Cytidel is already trusted by leading global financial service providers to save analysts 10+ hours a week.

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.