Tech Talks Central

Alain Falys and Michael Rolph are two of the Co-founders of yoyowallet, a mobile wallet that enables brands and retailers to answer the big three questions: Who are my customers; how do I engage with them in a more personal way; and how to sell more. Alain reveals how they have increased their users and developed their community by focusing in large closed environments. Michael highlights what is their key differentiator to other competitors and how they focus to providing one solution with the best user experience. They both believe that the data and insights they have, from all those transactions, enables them to better understand their users’ behaviour and how they will be scaling their business. A really insightful interview regarding mobile payments from a startup that has raised 24 million dollars up to now. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central.

Who hasn't thought of creating a game at one stage of his or her life?! Peter Symons, Managing Director at OJOO, wants to gamify the world with ‘the Wordpress for mobile experiences’. He explains how easy it is for non-technical people to design, create a game and instantly an iOS and Android App. They have discovered that gamification can be applied to many different industries and they are now focusing on partnerships in order to scale their business and grow. As a serial entrepreneur he talks about his experience and lessons learned from the past. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

We caught up with Tim Carter, Health Innovation Technologist at Equinix, after his presentation and panel discussion at ECHAlliance Digital Health & Wellness Summit hosted by Mobile World Congress. Tim talked about the new wave of eHealth being IoT or Io-Everything as they prefer it at Equinix. He predicts how devices connect to each other is where healthcare is going, quickly transforming the industry and taking people by surprise. Tim talks about the rapidly growing healthcare economy and explains the real question is not health digitization but rather health and healthcare outcomes. He explains Equinix's part in "connecting the dots" for fragmented ecosystems and how part of the ECHAlliance summit was answering: how do you connect the dots and how can you help others connect the dots in a better more efficient way that is going to work for better healthcare outcomes.

We talk about the phenomenal amount of innovation and ideas and how regardless of the various stages of funding, companies in this industry are conquering the world. While discussing the questions posed during the summit around privacy, electronic health records, personal data, Tim explained how the eHealth sector is developing so fast it will take the market by storm. He says a lot of people still don't "get it" and haven't invested in research, "these things are going crazy, everyone is predicting that if you take the EHR and the privacy issues and the naysayers and the pro camp, actually, in 5-10 years they're just going to be laughing at us, calling us dinosaurs", he says, "they'll forget we were even having these conversations." Interviewed by Venetia Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.

Online freedom means protecting your privacy and security and at the same time enjoying a free and open internet. That’s what Keezel is all about according to Friso Schmid, Co-Founder & COO of keezel. Their initial funding target on Indiegogo -August 2015- was 60.000US dollars and up to now they have raised more than 700.000! They are working on developing their product and shipping their first 3.000 devices, by June. Friso points out where their focus is right now; where they’re looking for partnerships; and what their plans are for the future. Last but not least, he mentions some privacy and security threats happening as we speak and how their device can offer cyber security in a very user-friendly way and with no technical skills. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Have you ever tried to verify your identification through the internet, in order to do business? A nightmare in some cases. Forget all about it, as Authenteq is an automatic Identity Verification service for online marketplaces and it only takes 60 seconds. Yeah just 60 seconds by comparing a photo of yours and your passport. Kari Thor Runarsson, CEO & Co-founder at Authenteq, discusses with us about their proprietary and patent pending technology; the Authenteq’s team expertise; their plans, and how their service can benefit customers and users. He also highlights how important security and data privacy are for their company; mentions some of their achievements and where they will focus, geographically, in the upcoming months. Interviewed by Sakis Triantafyllakis for Tech Talks Central

Pepe Borrell, Managing Director at CrowdCube Spain, a subsidiary of CrowdCube UK explains how their crowdfunding service works and how the opportunity, for a department in Spain, appeared. He mentions the platform tools available for investors and what kind of startups have access to their service. He does mention investment figures and specific amounts, to give us an indication how crowdfunding investors receive the same deal as large VCs. Interviewed just a few days after the end of Mobile World Congress 2016 by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Ever dreamed of looking through walls or your own skin with the use of supervision? Well it’s here and very soon the technology can be incorporated in every mobile device. Raviv Melamed, CEO and co-founder of Vayyar discusses with us their breakthrough technology, that involves several intellectual patents and has attracted serious funding. While he did show us on the spot how a mobile device can look through a wall and see the pipes going through it, he emphasized on more serious applications, like checking for breast cancer. Vayyar’s technology is a low cost alternative, to the expensive and large mammograms, meaning that cash-strapped clinics or hospitals in remote areas of India or Africa will be able to offer a basic type of examination for all women. In the future examining our own breasts with our mobiles suddenly doesn’t seem so utopic. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Chris Wright, VP Chief Technologist at RedHat explains how the Internet of Things is being built on an infrastructure with core source components based on open source software, the main domain expertise of RedHat. He mentions several IoT components that fit well with their technology, part of the middleware stack, and goes on to respond several more questions on of which is on security issues that will arise with the expanding use of connected devices. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

Helen Keegan, organiser of Swedish Beers and Mobile Advertising Expert, Troy Norcross, Startup Adviser and Digital Strategy Expert, Ilicco Elia, Head of Mobile at DigitasLBi and Rafe Blandford, Mobile Strategist at DigitasLBi discuss with us all about mobile trends and what they expect to see anew, at this year’s Mobile World Congress. In a beautiful down-town Barcelona apartment we got together on a Sunday morning, just before MWC16 hit off, and talked about mobile advertising, adblocking, educating users, virtual reality and much more. On the microphone for Tech Talks Central is Vicki Kolovou, while the rest of the TTC team Sakis Triantafyllakis, Yannis Rizopoulos and Venetia Kyritsi made sure to capture the whole conversation on image and tweet about it.

Vkansee produces miniaturized high resolution fingerprint sensors with a resolution of 2000 ppi which is 4 times higher than what is being used today -in our mobile phones that use fingerprint recognition- enabling higher security. Jason Chaikin, President at Vkansee, talks about how the company is focusing on commercial markets that require biometric security, mainly mobiles and IoT, while he does mention key generators for mobile payments and cross border authentication systems. Although still in development stage they have spoken with all main mobile manufacturers and they will be announcing new collaborations within the year. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.