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Indian insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar secures $77m
 The Funding Will Enable The Startup To Expand Its Reach In International Markets, Especially The Middle East

Online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised $77 Mn (INR 500 Cr) equity funding in a round led by global asset management firm, Wellington Management. The round also saw participation from IDG Ventures India and PE firm True North.

A clutch of existing backers, including Tiger Global Management, Singapore government-run Temasek and PremjiInvest, also joined in.

Commenting on the development, PolicyBazaar founder and CEO Yashish Dahiya said, “The latest funding round is a testimony of the trust that our stakeholders – be it investors, insurers or partners – have shown in our vision to empower the consumer with right knowledge to buy a relevant product for themselves. The funding only opens up avenues for us to further innovate, look at geographical expansion and rally strongly behind creating mass awareness for consumer-centric protection products – term (pure life insurance), health and disease-specific products. We would also continue to invest in technological solutions that ease the whole buying process for consumers which in turn enhances their experience. ”

Post the fundraise, the valuation of PolicyBazaar stands at $500 Mn, sources revealed. The financing, as per reports, will be spent on accelerating the Gurugram-based startup’s expansion across international markets, in particular, the Middle East, by the end of 2017.

The latest funding round comes three months after it was reported that Wellington Management, which previously backed companies like Airbnb and Pinterest, was in advanced talks to invest in the online insurance aggregator.

Headquartered in Boston, Wellington currently boasts more than $1 Tn worth of assets under management. Interestingly, this would be the firm’s maiden investment in an Indian privately-held technology company.

PolicyBazaar: From Its Inception In 2008 To Breaking Even In FY17

Owned and operated by Gurugram-based eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd, PolicyBazaar was started in 2008 by IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alumni Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar. ETechAces also runs PaisaBazaar, which is a marketplace for loans and credit cards.

As its name suggests, PolicyBazaar serves as an online portal for life insurance and general insurance comparison. It features products from all major insurance companies in India, helping users zero in the insurance policy that best suits their needs. The company also facilitates online purchase of insurance policy for those who are seeking both life insurance and non-life insurance.

As per a recent report by ET, Dahiya claimed that the company had broken even during FY17, after chalking a total revenue of $33.8 Mn (INR 220 Cr) in the said period.

How The Online Insurance Aggregator Raised $154 Mn To Reach $500 Mn Valuation

So far, the online insurance policy aggregator has raised over $154 Mn (INR 1,000 Cr) across multiple rounds. The company raised $20 Mn Series C funding in a round led by Tiger Global in May 2014. Earlier, it had secured $5 Mn in Series B, $4.6 Mn in series A and an undisclosed amount in May 2011.

Later in December 2014, PolicyBazaar was reportedly looking to raise $61.6 Mn (INR 400 Cr) investment from Premji Invest, the investment arm of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, and San Francisco-based Iconiq Capital. The deal was expected to see participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Kanwal Rekhi-led Inventus Capital Partners.

A couple of months later, in March 2015, it was reported that PolicyBazaar was in talks to close a $46 Mn (INR 300 Cr) funding round led by PremjiInvest and the Steadview Capital. As per media reports, this round was to take place at a valuation of about $184.7 Mn (INR 1200 Cr).

In April of the same year, the online policy aggregating startup raised $40 Mn funding in its Series D round from PremjiInvest. The round also saw participation its existing investors Tiger Global and Ribbit Capital. Besides these, the round also attracted money from Steadview Capital and ABG Capital. At the time, it was reported that the funding would be used for upgrading the technology, marketing and building out the company’s recently launched platform PaisaBazaar.com.

In October 2015, Temasek Holdings was reportedly in advanced talks to invest in the online insurance policy aggregator by acquiring a stake indirectly from its existing shareholder, Info Edge. As part of the deal, Temasek, through its Singapore-based indirect wholly-owned subsidiary MacRitchie Investments Pte Ltd, agreed to acquire about 49.99% equity stake of MakeSense Technologies Ltd, for about $20.58 Mn( INR 134 Cr).

Most recently, in March 2017, reports surfaced that PolicyBazaar was preparing for an IPO by the end of 2018, which means that the latest fundraise could be a pre-IPO round. Email queries sent to the company, however, did not elicit a response till the time of publication.

What’s Been Happening In The Indian Online Insurance Sector

In the online insurance segment, PolicyBazaar currently competes against a bevy of promising players, including Coverfox, Easypolicy, Turtlemint, and BankBazaar, among others. In February 2017, Times Internet launched an online insurance distribution platform ETInsure.

In May, Acko General Insurance secured $30 Mn in a Seed round of funding. The investors included Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures; Venk Krishnan and Subba Rao of NuVentures; Kris Gopalakrishnan; Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock and Atul Nishar – founder & Chairman of Hexaware Technologies.

Later in June, Mumbai-based online insurance brokerage platform Coverfox reportedly raised about $15 Mn (INR 96 Cr) in Series C round of funding. The round was led by US insurer Transamerica, along with the participation of existing investors.

The Indian fintech market, currently standing at $1.2 Bn, is forecasted to touch $2.4 Bn by 2020. The latest funding from Wellington Management, IDG Ventures India and others will enable PolicyBazaar to thwart competition from a growing number of online insurance aggregators.

Output: India-based insurance comparison site PolicyBazaar has secured $77m in a financing round led by Wellington Management Company. PolicyBazaar will use the funds to focus on international expansion, particularly in the Middle East, and plans to move into new markets by year-end. Reports earlier this year suggested that the firm is preparing to launch an IPO at some stage during 2018.


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Udacity VP Shen condemns MOOCs as 'failed product'
 Udacity helped popularize the idea of offering college-level courses online to anyone for free, a format known as MOOCs (for Massive Open Online Courses). But this week a Udacity official called MOOCs “dead,” leading to questions about what that means for one of the company’s offerings (which still include free MOOCs).

It was Udacity vice president Clarissa Shen who this week said “they are dead,” when talking about MOOCs in an interview with The Economic Times in India. “MOOCs are a failed product, at least for the goals we had set for ourselves,” she told the newspaper. “Our mission is to bring relevant education which advances people in careers and socio-economic activities, and MOOCs aren't the way.”

Udacity’s co-founder, Sebastian Thrun, famously announced a “pivot” away from MOOCs back in 2013, and since then the company has focused its energies on paid sequences of courses called “nanodegrees” that it produces in cooperation with large tech employers. But it has continued to offer free versions of its course videos for those who don’t want or need a certificate of completion.

In an e-mail interview with EdSurge this week, Shen said that her statement was not meant as an announcement of a new strategy for Udacity. “It’s not a comment on our business model, but on what we aim for as success metrics with our students,” she said. “As you can see on our site, free content is still available.”

Focus on Projects

Shen stressed that the problem with the old MOOC model is a focus on video libraries for teaching. She said the strength of the nanodegree program is that students are required to complete projects. “We care about completion rates, projects student build, and ultimately career readiness,” she said. “MOOCs have been too content-only focused and not a model that engages our students deeply. They are an improvement on pure content libraries when done well, but as a product not what we felt achieved success for our students and industry partners.”

Asked whether the company might phase out free courses, she said that the company’s latest programs continue to include free versions. “There is no change there,” she added.

Dhawal Shah, co-founder of Class Central, which tracks MOOCs, says that “it’s plausible” that the company would move away from making new courses free at some point. “Free courses are a marketing channel to feed learners into the paid programs,” he said in an e-mail interview. “But Udacity is able to generate huge amounts of press at a regular basis by launching nanodegrees like the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree or the recently announced Flying Car nanodegree. So the free courses might not provide the same returns as they did early on.”

Shah argues that Udacity and other providers of large-scale online course have gradually created more and more paid services, and made it harder for students to find their free offerings.

The declaration that free online courses can’t solve education’s problems comes as no surprise to many traditional educators. “The roots of Udacity’s failure are in the word ‘product’ and their belief that an educational ‘product’ could possibly transform education,” argued John Warner, a blogger for Inside Higher Education, in a post this week.

Meanwhile, Udacity's pivot to professional education has brought the company commercial success. "Whatever Udacity is doing, it seems to be working,” wrote Shah in a blog post on ClassCentral earlier this month. "There are now over 18,000 Nanodegree graduates. Udacity is also on track to double its revenues."

Output: Massive online open courses (MOOCs) have failed as a product, according to edtech firm Udacity's VP Clarissa Shen, who dubbed the free-education programmes "dead". In a later clarifying statement to EdSurge, Shen said: "It’s not a comment on our business model, but on what we aim for as success metrics with our students." Udacity has no plans to get rid of its own MOOCs but has spent recent years focusing on paid nanodegree programmes, which one expert said had set the company on track to double its revenue.


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FDA to approve first gene therapy for hereditary blindness
 Second Sight

Today, a panel will advise the US Food and Drug Administration whether Luxturna, a gene therapy treatment developed by Spark Therapeutics, should be approved for general usage. The treatment has already been used to improve the eyesight of more than two dozen people with retinal disorders.

Gene therapy typically uses an engineered virus to administer a patient with a faulty gene with a corrected version. Rather than simply responding to the symptoms of the condition in question, it attempts to make changes to the individual's genetic make-up in order to solve the problem at its root. Click to View Full Infographic

Luxturna fixes a mutation in a gene known as RPE65, which is responsible for telling the body how to produce a protein that's essential for normal eyesight. It introduces billions of engineered virus particles bearing a corrected version of the gene to the retinal cell, via a quick injection to the eyes.

The company estimates that 6,000 people around the world could benefit from Luxturna, including between 1,000 and 2,000 people in the US who suffer from diminished eyesight. The majority of these people would eventually lose their current level of vision entirely without treatment, and there are currently no drugs designed for people with an RPE65 mutation that are approved by the FDA.

However, Luxturna is not without its drawbacks. It's not an outright cure, and it doesn't give recipients full 20/20 vision. There's currently no data on how long its effects last, so there's a chance that patients' sight might begin to recede once again over time.

Cost is also a major factor in how accessible it is. Two of the treatment's biggest competitors, Strimvelis and Kymriah, cost around $700,000 and $475,000 respectively. Consequently it seems likely that Luxturna have to drop in price to be a feasible competitor. They might be losing ground, as Spark has announced plans to set up a program to help patients cover out-of-pocket costs like travel to Spark-proffering facilities.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy has the potential to make huge improvements to the quality of life of people suffering from various genetic diseases. This blossoming form of treatment could well be the wave of the future.

“This is what I believe medicine is going to be like for the next 20, 30, if not 50 years,” said Spark CEO Jeff Marrazzo, speaking to the MIT Technology Review. “I think this is the beginning of an age that is going to fundamentally change medicine.”

We've already seen projects that use gene therapy to tackle everything from brain diseases to broken bones. However, these treatments will all require FDA approval — so scientists working in this sphere will likely be watching today's decision regarding Luxturna very closely.

Output: The US Food and Drug Administration is set to decide whether Luxturna, a gene therapy developed by Spark Therapeutics for people with retinal disorders, should be granted approval. Dispensed via injection, the Luxturna therapy corrects the RPE65 gene, enabling the creation of a protein essential to eyesight. Spark said that more than two dozen people who have undergone the treatment experienced an improvement in their vision. However, Luxturna is not a complete cure, and faces competition from rival treatments costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.


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New game shows how great it is to be an AI that makes paperclips
 There’s a well-known thought experiment in the world of artificial intelligence that poses a simple, but potentially very scary, question: what if we asked a super-intelligent AI to make paperclips?

This may not sound terrifying at first, but as Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom (who first described the parable) explains, it all depends on how well we’ve trained the AI. If we’ve given it common sense, it might ask us: “How many paperclips do you want?” If it doesn’t know to ask, it might just make paperclips forever. And, if it’s a super-intelligent AI that we’ve accidentally forgotten to program with any human ethics or values, it might decide that the most efficient way to make paperclips is to wipe out humanity and terraform the planet into one giant paperclip-making factory.

Sound fun? Well good, because now there’s a game about it.

Designed by Frank Lantz, director of the New York University Game Center, Paperclips might not be the sort of title you’d expect about a rampaging AI. It’s free to play, it lives in your browser, and all you have to look at is numbers. (Though trust me, you’ll learn to love them.) It’s an idle clicker game — one that draws on humanity’s apparently bottomless desire to click buttons and watch numbers go up. Think Cookie Clicker or Egg Inc, but dedicated to paperclips.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Paperclips on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched paperclips glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.”

You’ll start off making them the old fashioned way: one clip for one click. But pretty soon you’ll be purchasing autoclippers to do the work for you while you turn your attentions to running an algorithmic hedge fund, then building a quantum computer, and then (much later) exploring the known Universe in search of new matter to turn into more and more paperclips. How to play is pretty self-explanatory, but here are some tips if you’re getting stuck:

Paperclips is essentially a game about balance and efficiency. You have to leave the game alone for long stretches of time, yes, but you also need to be sure you’re not wasting resources while you do so. Keep an eye on your supply chain to make sure there are no bottlenecks, and be on the lookout for any unused capacity that can be turned to your ultimate goal: making those sweet, sweet clips.

Play at least until you get hypnodrones. When you unlock these, the game really opens up onto a new level. You thought you were making paperclips before? Hoo buddy, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

At some point you will run into a wall that you can’t optimize your way past. You may think you’ve got to the end of the game (for example, when you’ve turned all available matter in the Universe into paperclips — a logical endpoint, sure) but there’s more to do. Unfortunately, getting past these barriers often requires patience, and sometimes you’ll have to leave the game for hours to get onto the next level.

Don’t start playing if you’ve got anything important to do today. Or tomorrow.

All in all, the game made me think that if the paperclip maximizer doomsday scenario does ever come to pass, it will, at least, be pleasingly ironic. We go to the trouble of creating super-intelligence and it responds by cauterizing the Universe in the name of office supplies. There have been worse metaphors for the human condition. Plus, if we teach the AI to enjoy making paperclips (and some say these sorts of human-analogous incentives will be necessary to create true thinking machines) then at least it’ll be having a fun time.

Output: Frank Lantz, the director of the New York University Game Center, has created a simple web game based on futurist Nick Bostrom's parable about the dangers of superintelligent AI. Bostrom's story asks what happens if we build a machine that's smarter than us, then ask it to make paperclips. If we have not trained it with human ethics or values, it might make paperclips for ever, paving the earth and eventually the universe with paperclips, wiping out all other life in the process. In Luntz's game, you are the AI. According to the Verge, it's a lot of fun.


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£17m London home only available with bitcoin
 B itcoin - the largest and best-known cryptocurrency - was born from a rising distrust of government and financial institutions after the global financial crisis of 2008.

Using Bitcoin, people could send money directly to someone without using intermediaries such as banks or Paypal.

In recent years, Bitcoin has been a roller-coaster ride for investors. It hit a record record-high of over £54,000 in November 2021 before plunging to lessthan £14,000 at the end of last year. Now it is trading around the £23,921 mark, although the number can change dramatically from one day to the next.

It can also be highly volatile over the short-term, with some intra-day high-low fluctuations of 20-40% over the last few years, according to data from Cointelegraph.

Each Bitcoin is ‘mined’ by the use of high-technology computer hardware to solve complex maths problems. However, Satoshi Nakamoto, often cited as the original creator of Bitcoin, put a cap of 21 million on the total number of Bitcoins to preserve their value by limiting supply.

Around 19 million Bitcoins have already been mined, with experts predicting the remaining two million may be mined by 2140.

Bitcoin remains the most-popular global crypto-currency and is becoming more widely accepted. El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, followed by ProShares’ launch of the first Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ticker: BITO).

Several major US retailers now accept payment in Bitcoin, including Microsoft, Home Depot and Starbucks, although, to date, few UK retailers have followed suit.

Investment giant Fidelity is reportedly planning to enable employees in the United States to include Bitcoin in their pension plans .

However, investing in Bitcoin is inherently risky. As with traditional so-called ‘fiat’ currencies (such as sterling), Bitcoin has no intrinsic value other than the trust of other parties in accepting it as a form of tender.

Invest with a crypto brand trusted by millions Buy and sell 70+ cryptoassets on a secure, easy-to-use platform Own Crypto

Cryptoassets are highly volatile and unregulated in the UK. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

Bitcoin’s price is therefore a function of supply and demand and, as such, could plummet if it’s no longer accepted as a means of payment. As a result, Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for its cars led to a 17% fall in the Bitcoin price in May 2021.

Here we look at the process of buying Bitcoin, together with alternative ways of investing in cryptocurrency.

Please note that investing in cryptocurrencies is a high-risk proposition and you may lose some or all of your money. There is no guarantee that you will make a profit.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s financial regulator, issues regular warnings about the risk associated with the crypto sector.

Crypto assets are unregulated. The FCA says those buying cryptocurrency are “very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong, so people should be prepared to lose all their money if they choose to invest in them”.

How to buy Bitcoin in 4 steps

1. Find an exchange or broker

The first step is to choose a broker or crypto exchange.

A cryptocurrency broker provides an online mechanism to facilitate your contact with a cryptocurrency exchange.

A cryptocurrency exchange is an online platform that brings together buyers and sellers in order to trade cryptocurrencies.

With some exchanges, you can buy crypto using normal currency, such as sterling. Others require you to use one form of crypto to buy another. Here, you’d need to find a second exchange to buy coins that your chosen exchange uses, before you could start trading.

With brokers, check the rules regarding moving your cryptocurrencies away from a given platform. Some brokers stop customers transferring crypto holdings away from their account. This could become an issue if you decided to lodge your cryptocurrencies in a crypto wallet.

The FCA has a UK list of registered crypto asset firms .

2. Decide on a payment option

Having chosen an exchange or broker, you’ll need to add funds to your account before you’re able to start trading. Depending on your chosen provider, you can add money from your current account, via an electronic transfer, payment service or from a cryptocurrency wallet.

Remember, taking on debt to purchase highly-volatile assets is not recommended.

3. Place an order

Once you’ve transferred money into your account, you’re able to buy Bitcoins. You should enter the currency’s ticker symbol (BTC), select the appropriate button on your trading menu and enter the amount that you wish to invest.

4. Choose a safe storage option

It’s important to note that cryptocurrency exchanges are not covered under regulatory protection such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK. Despite investment in cyber-security measures, providers remain at risk of theft or hacking.

You risk losing your Bitcoin investment if you mislay or forget the access codes to your account. It’s also vital to ensure that your Bitcoins are held in a secure storage place.

You may have little choice in the storage mechanism if you buy Bitcoins via a broker. However, if you’re using a crypto exchange and trading leading currencies, you will probably have access to an integrated wallet (or preferred partner) where you can securely hold your Bitcoins.

If you would rather not use the provider that your exchange is partnered with, you could transfer your Bitcoins from an exchange to a separate ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ wallet:

Hot wallets: crypto wallets stored online that work on internet-connected devices, such as tablets, computers and phones. They are convenient but may have a greater risk of theft due to their internet connection.

Cold wallets: external devices such as USBs or hard drives that aren’t connected to the internet and therefore potentially more secure. However, you will lose access to your Bitcoins if you lose or mislay the codes.

Transferring Bitcoins to a hot or cold wallet may incur a fee, depending on the exchange.

Alternative ways of buying cryptocurrency

If you would rather not buy Bitcoins via an exchange or broker, there are two indirect ways of gaining exposure to Bitcoin assets.

1) Investing in cryptocurrency-connected businesses

One option is to buy shares in companies that use, or own, Bitcoins and the blockchain that powers them. These may enable you to have some exposure to Bitcoins via tangible products or services that are subject to regulatory oversight.

Here are some indicative examples of companies, although these are not recommendations:

Nvidia (NVDA): a technology company that designs and sells processing units specifically for mining currency such as Bitcoin.

PayPal (PYPL): the global payments platform has expanded its offering to allow customers to buy and sell certain cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, with their PayPal and Venmo accounts.

Square (SQ): the payment services provider for small businesses which has bought millions of dollars of Bitcoin since October 2020.

You will need an online investing platform or trading app to purchase shares in publicly-listed companies. Please note that the usual warnings about investments apply and that there is no guarantee that stock market investments will make money.

2) Investing in crypto exchange-traded funds

Another option is to invest in funds based on holding cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are ‘passive’ investments that typically track traditional stock market indices such as the FTSE 100 or S&P 500.

Crypto ETFs are relatively new products that are currently available only in certain jurisdictions such as the US. They are not yet available in the UK.

Invest with a crypto brand trusted by millions Buy and sell 70+ cryptoassets on a secure, easy-to-use platform Own Crypto

Output: UK property investment company London Wall has put a £17m ($23m), six-storey mansion up for sale in London, but will only accept offers in bitcoin. It is thought to be the first time a cryptocurrency has been the sole method of purchasing a property. London Wall co-founder Lev Loginov believes it will make the process faster and more efficient. The potential sale still faces a hurdle regarding processing the £1.95m stamp duty bill, but Loginov said: "I have full faith in Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to figure out how to tax it”.


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City analysts issue 'sell' ratings for several estate agencies
 Post navigation

City analysts yesterday issued a ‘sell’ rating on Countrywide, saying that its digital offering has fallen flat.

In a note to investors, Hamburg-headquartered Berenberg – the second oldest bank in the world – also issued a ‘sell’ rating on Foxtons, a ‘hold’ for LSL and a ‘buy’ rating on Purplebricks.

The bank has initiated coverage on all four, saying it is “disliking” the stocks of both Countrywide and Foxtons.

It describes Purplebricks’ offering as ahead of the competition as its technology enables it to provide “a better service at a far lower price”.

It said of the UK’s largest agent: “Countrywide has been caught with high debt, having invested in acquisitions just as the house transaction cycle turns and competition intensifies as the industry faces intense disruption by hybrid agencies.

“Meanwhile we think its digital offering has fallen flat – mainly because it is competing with itself and other traditional estate agents rather than Purplebricks, in our view.”

Berenberg also said that after selling its stake in Zoopla last year for £48m and raising £37m in new equity this year, Countrywide could be running out of options to clear its debt.

It said that Countrywide faces the prospect of continuing restructuring and claimed the agent is losing market share.

Berenberg again cited pressure from Purplebricks in its analysis of Foxtons.

It said: “Foxtons is a premium supplier of estate agency services in London.

“We see its service as offering a good customer experience but its cost base remains high and fixed during a slowing of the London sales market, fee pressure from the success of Purplebricks in key areas and declining rents.

“We expect Foxtons’ fee of 2.5-3.0% to be indefensible when Purplebricks charges the equivalent of 0.2%.”

Berenberg gave Foxtons shares a target of 50p.

The bank’s analysts described LSL’s core business as being under pressure, but said the business is diversifying.

The bank said it suspects LSL brands, including Your Move, Reeds Rains and Marsh & Parsons, are losing market share to Purplebricks.

LSL bought a 17% stake in online agent Yopa last month for £20m.

Berenberg said: “YOPA can argue to be the second largest hybrid agency after Purplebricks, and one of the few estate agents which is showing growth.

“While a clear hedge for LSL, it somewhat undermines management’s statement that the future of estate agency is the traditional service delivered from high street offices.”

Of Purplebricks, recipient of the only ‘buy’ rating, the analysts said: “Since starting in April 2014, Purplebricks has rapidly grown to become a dominant name in the UK estate agent industry.

“It has doubled its net number of listings since the start of the year to 16,000 and has a near-monopoly on growth as the underlying market remains subdued, in our view.

“We expect its growth to be maintained.”

Berenberg said Purplebricks has “a monopoly on growth”.

It went on: “All the large traditional agents that we track have shown flat to declining business and the other hybrids and onlines have generally seen no growth, demonstrating the specific appeal of the Purplebricks offering.”

It said that a successful launch in the US would be “transformational for the scale of the group’s earnings”.

Yesterday, Countrywide shares began the day at 112p and finished at 114p; Foxtons’ shares fell 2% to finish at 65p; LSL shares were stable at 232p.

Purplebricks shares piled on over 5% to finish at 366p – although a long way short of their July peak of 513p.

Output: Berenberg, the world's second-oldest bank, has issued sell ratings to estate agents Countrywide and Foxtons. The Hamburg-based bank said: "Countrywide has been caught with high debt, having invested in acquisitions just as the house transaction cycle turns and competition intensifies". It also criticised Foxtons for its "indefensible" fees. In contrast, Berenberg offered a buy rating for online operator PurpleBricks, which it said had a "monopoly on growth".


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Researchers concerned over drug-resistant malaria in Mekong area
 Som Aun contracted malaria after moving to the Thma Baing district of Cambodia's Koh Kong province in 2002. Four years later, two of his children contracted the disease.

For five years, his son, An, now 19, and daughter, Sreyna, now 12, remained infected because no effective treatment was available, he told VOA Khmer.

"Sometimes the disease is healed for one month, but it would come back in the next two months," he said, adding they both exhibited high fevers and chills.

His children, who work in banana plantations, were in and out of clinics, and "after they took medicines, they would be fine for a period of time, then they would have to go to the hospital if they were in serious condition," Aun said. The family resorted to hospitals infrequently, because transportation cost 200,000 riel to 300,000 riel (or about $50 to $75).

Researchers are increasingly alarmed by the emergence of a strain of drug-resistant malaria in Cambodia, a so-called "superbug" that stares down the most commonly used anti-malaria drugs.

The superbug, first identified in 2008 in Cambodia, has spread into parts of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. Last month, scientists from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) published a letter in The Lancet saying the superbug's spread throughout the Mekong area was a serious threat to malaria control and eradication.

"A single mutant strain of very drug resistant malaria has now spread from western Cambodia to north-eastern Thailand, southern Laos and into southern Vietnam and caused a large increase in treatment failure of patients with malaria," says letter co-author Arjen Dondorp, and Oxford professor, in a MORU release. MORU is a collaborative effort involving Thailand's Mahidol University, Oxford University and the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust.

"We are losing a dangerous race," Nicholas White, one of the letter's co-authors, said in the release. "The spread of this malaria 'superbug' has caused an alarming rise in treatment failures forcing changes in drug policy and leaving few options for the future."

Local officials not concerned

Huy Rekol, director of Cambodia's National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control (CNM), said he was not worried by the drug-resistant malaria.

"In our country, we don't need to worry about matters of death or resistance because we have efficient drugs to use every day," he said.

Malaria in Cambodia is caused by two types of viruses transmitted by female mosquitoes, according to the CNM. It identified several factors leading to a rise in malaria infections in 2015, including increasing mobility of people living in malaria-affected areas.

Rekol said that about 10,000 infections were detected in 2017, but all those identified as contracting malaria were treated. He said that any resistance was "manageable," adding that more should be done to prevent transmission in the first place.

Nguyen Thi Khe, a former official at the government Institute of Public Hygiene, told VOA Vietnamese that malaria was "not a serious issue in Vietnam right now," a sentiment that was repeated by other officials.

Dondorp said it was worrying that Cambodian malaria officials appeared to be unconcerned by the reports of drug resistance, which he said could undo the gains of recent years. "In northeastern Thailand, Srisaket province is affected, almost all of Cambodia is affected, as well as southern Laos, and South Vietnam," Dondorp said in an email to VOA.

In an email, he said, "The evolution and subsequent transnational spread of this single fit multidrug-resistant malaria parasite lineage is of international concern."

A risk to Africa?

Globally, an estimated 3.2 billion people in 95 countries and territories are at risk of being infected with malaria, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the deaths occur in Africa, and there, children age 5 and younger account for more than two-thirds of the deaths, according to WHO.

The big worry is that the new strain of malaria may spread from the Mekong area to Africa.

Dr. David Sullivan, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is affiliated with its Malaria Research Institute, said health officials in Africa have been monitoring the situation for several years and that the new bug has yet to appear there.

But, Sullivan added, "in the age of global travel" he could not say there is "zero possibility" of it making the jump. However, "even if it does jump, it's not that super of a bug that it's going to leave us defenseless, as if we have no drugs at all for malaria."

An analysis conducted at the request of the Malaria Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC), WHO's top advisory committee for malaria, found that while "the risk of drug-resistant malaria spreading to India and Africa cannot be discounted, the broad consensus was that drug-resistant parasites were more likely to emerge independently in other parts of the world than to spread directly from" the Mekong region consisting of Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, according to Dr. Pedro Alonso, director of the Global Malaria Programme, in a Q&A published late last month on the committee's site.

Alonso said that WHO experts do not "at this time" consider "the threat of antimalarial drug resistance a public health emergency of international concern."

That drug-resistant malaria would emerge in Cambodia is not a surprise. "In the past 50 or 60 years, this is the fifth or sixth time this has happened," Sullivan said. "This is not new."

The new strain "is able to be tackled and held in check," he said. "I understand the concern and the alarm, but I would not put a superbug label on it, although I can see why people have."

"Treatment options for the new strain exist," Sullivan said, by either adding a drug to those usually prescribed, or extending the treatment duration of the current treatment.

Substandard drugs

Cambodia adopted one treatment, to which resistance has apparently grown, but has since switched to another. The resistance was identified in the western Cambodian region of Pailin, later spreading to northeastern Thailand and southern Laos, according to the letter published by The Lancet.

Dondorp, deputy director of MORU, said in an email to VOA that resistance may have been encouraged by the use of substandard drugs to treat malaria.

"Malaria is a disease of the poor and disenfranchised. These are often populations living in border areas and in or near to the forest," he said.

Output: A strain of antibiotic-resistant malaria said to be spreading rapidly across the Mekong region has raised concern among researchers from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU). Writing in the Lancet. the researchers said the spread is a serious threat to malaria control and eradication. "We are losing a dangerous race. The spread of this malaria 'superbug' has caused an alarming rise in treatment failures forcing changes in drug policy and leaving few options for the future", warned co-author Nicholas White. However, malaria officials in Cambodia, among others, said they would not label it a "superbug".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Bitcoin Lightning software released for public testing
 by Olaoluwa Osuntokun

Today, we’re thrilled to be releasing a new cross-platform demo Desktop App for lnd. The release of this new demo wallet kicks-off a two-week “testing blitz” during which we hope Lightning users with a technical inclination can start testing the wallet, giving feedback, filing bugs, etc.

You can download the Lightning Desktop App from our official release on Github!

The Lightning Protocol specifications are nearly complete, however a breaking change may land before the specs are finalized. As a result, we’ll only be maintaining compatibility with the desktop application for approximately the next two weeks before switching to a regular release cycle once the specifications have been frozen and we’ve achieved cross-implementation compatibility.

Powered by Neutrino

The Lightning Desktop App is powered by neutrino , our new open source, light client operating mode for Bitcoin. Neutrino light clients don’t rely on bloom filters (BIP 37) as most light clients currently do. Instead, neutrino relies on client side filtering which has numerous benefits including: increased privacy, less active load on full nodes, and a more flexible application model which is particularly useful for lightweight Lightning nodes. The full technical details for neutrino can be found in our soon to be finalized BIP draft.

With this new backend for lnd in place, users will be able to run Lightning applications without having a synced full node, reducing the barrier to entry for Lightning users.

Once you’ve unzipped and launched the Desktop App, neutrino will commence its initial sync of Bitcoin’s testnet blockchain. Since the current testnet chain has over 1.2 million blocks (over twice as many as Bitcoin mainnet), the initial sync will take 10-15 minutes. A blue “Syncing to Chain” icon will flash in the lower left corner until lnd has finished syncing the testnet chain.

Segwit Enabled

The Desktop App is fully segwit enabled, capable of sending funds to and receiving funds from native segwit addresses, which look like:

tb1q62cgd0u7h654rpu4fm9y4fe47x5khesyd9k2q9

Note that in the Desktop App, for incoming payments, we currently display nested P2SH addresses. This format is used so that non-segwit enabled services (such as faucets) can send funds to the wallet. For outgoing funds, the wallet will only send to segwit outputs in order to prevent new channels from being subject to transaction malleability. Before proceeding, you’ll need to get your hands on some testnet coins! Testnet coins are available at faucets here and here.

Plug and Play Lightning

At a glance, the wallet may look very simple, but the bulk of the complexity has been pushed into the backend in order to ensure a seamless user experience when interacting with Lightning. Once lnd is fully synced, p2p connection bootstrapping combined with lnd’s autopilot will kick into action, automatically making the wallet truly plug-and-play.

P2P Connection Bootstrapping

Once lnd has fully synced, it will attempt to automatically establish connections to existing peers on the network in order to sync the latest channel graph state. After a sufficient number of connections has been established, the next phase of the wallet’s network initialization will kick off. Users will know the wallet is fully synced to the chain, as the “Syncing to Chain” icon will disappear, replaced with the public key of your new Lightning node.

autopilot : Self-Driving Lightning

The latest build of lnd comes equipped with a new experimental option for any planned flavors of automatic channel management, meaning users won’t necessarily need to manually establish channels. We call this new operating node autopilot as it will automatically manage the opening of channels within the network.

autopilot is essentially a closed-loop control system: it takes inputs such as the number of channels opened, time when channels are closed, and changes to the wallet’s balance. Once those signals are received, it consults a set of heuristic to decide if it needs more channels, and if so, to whom those channels should be opened. The Agent then carries out the recommendations of its heuristics.

Once your wallet is loaded with testnet coins, you’ll start to see autopilot at work on the Channels page. The autopilot agent will begin opening channels driven by its heuristics. This process also helps drive the network graph toward a scale-free topology.

Channels are shown in two statuses: PENDING-OPEN, and ACTIVE. The PENDING-OPEN stage indicates that the funding transaction has been broadcast, but is still awaiting confirmation on the blockchain. The ACTIVE status indicates that a channel is fully open and ready to send and receive payments.

Interacting With Live Network Applications

For sending/receiving funds over Lightning, the wallet implements BOLT-11 which defines an extensible invoicing protocol for Lightning payments. Using this encoding, a standard payment request to receive funds over Lightning looks like:

lntb4200n1pvaue4ypp5k86jth0zefkje0u88ftmp37rvy64p8fl5el7jla0cgn3av6nhmpsd8s0v3xzun5d93kce2ld9jzyw3zxy6nsefev93kyttp8psnwtf5xycrwttpxu6nyttz8p3rvv3jxpsnyerzxg3zcgnyv4ekxunfwp6xjmmwygazy5n9v9jzqstjw35kxmr98gs9y3f6yp28yctwwdskxarfdah8xgrpdejzq5mrwf5hqarn8gsyg42sypyyz56gxymrqgpw9chzq32324q5c4j92fy5vkfqgdyy2s6t2dy5wgnayhq8y6pw5957tqn374jczramqyzjr8f7vt7v3m2shtqgcnp9u538fv27zp2egju5uljscyuvul5n86kg0670zf68q4a09kcnzcyjgyqprd5d5p

This particular request is from the ln-articles Lightning app (Lapp) created by Alex Bosworth which implements an article publishing site with a micropayment paywall. If we go to the command line to decode the payment request, we’ll see that we’re about to pay for a hosted article.

$ lncli decodepayreq --pay_req=lntb4200n1pvaue4ypp5k86jth0zefkje0u88ftmp37rvy64p8fl5el7jla0cgn3av6nhmpsd8s0v3xzun5d93kce2ld9jzyw3zxy6nsefev93kyttp8psnwtf5xycrwttpxu6nyttz8p3rvv3jxpsnyerzxg3zcgnyv4ekxunfwp6xjmmwygazy5n9v9jzqstjw35kxmr98gs9y3f6yp28yctwwdskxarfdah8xgrpdejzq5mrwf5hqarn8gsyg42sypyyz56gxymrqgpw9chzq32324q5c4j92fy5vkfqgdyy2s6t2dy5wgnayhq8y6pw5957tqn374jczramqyzjr8f7vt7v3m2shtqgcnp9u538fv27zp2egju5uljscyuvul5n86kg0670zf68q4a09kcnzcyjgyqprd5d5p { "destination": "028c620eb95c3907a779adf9c47612973b70c322e5b60a21886947867439ff63e6", "payment_hash": "b1f525dde2ca6d2cbf873a57b0c7c36135509d3fa67fe97fafc2271eb353bec3", "num_satoshis": "420", "timestamp": "1507747492", "expiry": "3600", "description": "{\"article_id\":\"158e9acb-a8a7-4107-a752-b8b6220a2db2\",\"description\":\"Read Article: RE: Transactions and Scripts: DUP HASH160 ... EQUALVERIFY CHECKSIG\"}", "description_hash": "", "fallback_addr": "" }

If you look closely, the payment request includes the target node, the payment hash, the amount of the payment, and a description for the user. These values all correspond to making a micropayment to view the remainder of the article on LN Articles:

Once we paste the payment request into the wallet, it’ll automatically parse the payment request and display the value of the invoice in the UI.

If we click send, the payment will be routed over the network to the Lightning node which backs the LN Articles paywall!

As this is a fully fledged wallet, it’s also possible to make regular on-chain payments using the same page. The wallet will automatically detect if it is presented with an on-chain Bitcoin address or a Lightning payment request.

Let the Testing Commence!

We encourage technical users to download the wallet for their target operating system and start experimenting with Lightning. Developers may be interested in the current gRPC and HTTP-REST API for lnd , and also our lnd Developer Resources which contains tutorials, example applications, and other resources for understanding the application model of Lightning development.

In addition to the LN Articles paywall, several other application/integration demos are live on testnet such as the Bitcoin Testnet Lightning Faucet, Custodial and Bitrefill’s top-off demo.

Any questions/comments can be directed at our active slack community.

The source code for the application is public on Github, and can be found here. Contributors welcome!

Finally, you can download the Lightning Desktop App from our official release on Github!

Output: Bitcoin Lightning has begun a two-week public test of demo wallet Desktop App for lnd. Powered by Neutrino, the Segwit-enabled Lightning Desktop App relies on client side filtering, resulting in less active load on full nodes and greater privacy, among other benefits. Once synced, Bitcoin Lightning said the app will automatically manage channel opening within the network, driven by heuristics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
China reports strong data amid shrinking trade with N. Korea
 Workers operate machinery on the assembly line at a Lyric Robert factory, operated by Guangdong Li Yuanheng Intelligent Automation Co., in Huizhou, Guangdong province, China, on Monday, April 18, 2016.

China reported strong trade data on Friday just days ahead of a major Communist Party Congress.

In September, China's exports were up 8.1 percent from a year ago in dollar terms, while imports were up 18.7 percent.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected an 8.8 percent rise in Chinese exports in September from a year ago in dollar terms. Dollar-denominated imports were forecast to jump 13.5 percent in the same period.

September's figures were an improvement from August when exports were up 5.5 percent from a year ago in dollar terms, while imports were up 13.3 percent in dollar terms.

Even though September exports missed the analyst forecast, they were still robust as a strengthening Chinese yuan would have an impact on the data, said Chi Lo, senior economist for Greater China at BNP Paribas Investment Partners.

"But it seems the global demand is still there to support the demand for Chinese exports," said Chi, who described Friday's trade data release as "pretty good."

China's September trade surplus was $28.47 billion — the lowest since March 2017.

China's August trade balance was $41.99 billion, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

China's economic data have been showing robust growth ahead of leadership changes set to happen at the upcoming Party Congress.

Huang Songping, spokesman for the Customs department told a press conference on Friday that trade for the first three quarters improved due to a recovery in overall global and domestic economic environment. There has been a return in global demand, he added.

Barring unforeseen events, China's will post double-digit growth in foreign trade this year, said Huang.

Many expect the mainland's economy to slow in the later part of the year due to a crackdown on debt and as the property market cools.

Huang also highlighted uncertainties, including politics, in the fourth quarter.

BNP Paribas' Chi told CNBC that the "Trump factor is a pretty big one," particularly as China's trade surplus with the U.S. remains elevated while its trade surplus with the rest of the world declines.

On Friday, China reported a record trade surplus with the U.S. at $28.08 billion in September, according to Reuters calculations.

"I am expecting trade frictions between the U.S. and China to hurt some Chinese exports," Chi said.

The yuan would also weigh on shipments out of the country if its strength is sustained, Chi added.

Output: China has reported strong trade figures for September with imports surprising on the upside, rising 18.7% YoY in dollar terms, against analysts' expected jump of 13.5%. Dollar-denominated exports fell slightly short of the 8.8% forecast, but remained robust, up 8.1%  YoY, improving on the August figure. The country's customs department also reported that imports from North Korea had fallen for a seventh consecutive month, down 37.9% YoY, and China's exports to the nation fell 6.7% in September.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Condé Nast and Time move towards group sales model
 Earlier this year, Condé Nast became the latest legacy publishing company to get rid of the publisher title and replace it with a group sales model. It follows moves by other multi-title publishers to catch up to the way ads are sold by native digital media companies, where sales tend to be centralized.

“The last few years have really been trying to respond to the enormous scale that Facebook has accumulated,” said Raju Narisetti, CEO of Gizmodo Media Group.

Case in point is Time Inc. Its transition was long and difficult, given its sheer size. During 2016, Time Inc. eliminated the publisher title at each of its 22 magazines and moved to selling around 11 ad categories, including pharma, food and automotive. Salespeople at the brand level and digital get involved depending on the client’s goals.

“We had 22 individual businesses that all had their own sales and marketing teams,” said Brad Elders, chief revenue officer at Time Inc. “If you’re going to call up P&G with 22 teams with one small part of what a solution can be, you don’t get the benefit of aggregating your traffic against some of the scale players.”

The shift involved migrating all the titles from 22 to two content management systems and standardizing ad formats and prices, then training salespeople in the new, solution-based approach. There were some bumps in the road. But Time is seeing the payoff in more bigger deals coming its way and some good feedback from clients, Elders said, “a leading indicator that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Another legacy publisher, Bonnier Corp., which publishes 24 enthusiast titles including Boating, Cycle World and Saveur, kept its group publishers because most of the revenue comes from endemic advertising, and its sales reps have deep knowledge of those categories. “We have people who are literally experts in food and travel,” said Sean Holzman, chief digital revenue officer at the company. If a non-endemic advertiser like a packaged goods company or an endemic advertiser wants to reach a wider audience, corporate national sales or programmatic sales teams get involved.

Pure digital companies, lacking those legacy issues, sell their sites as a network. Vox Media has a single sales team selling all eight of its sites, as does Gizmodo Media Group, which merged with Univision’s Fusion Media Group over the past year. Mike Hadgis, svp and global head of revenue and partnerships for Vox Media, said since the company is focused on getting brand dollars, its salespeople need to approach selling from the brand’s standpoint, “versus having to figure out what makes sense for Verge, Racked.” Each site has its own marketers to keep the sales staff informed about the site’s attributes and editorial coverage plans.

Selling based on scale has its limits because the bar keeps getting higher, and having a certain audience size is only the start of a negotiation, so publishers have to talk about attributes like engagement. Execs at those companies say that even though their sites’ content is different, commonalities exist in their audiences, like high engagement. Forty percent of the Gizmodo Media Group sites’ traffic comes from another Gizmodo site, and the average time spent per story is 49 seconds, for example, Narisetti said, which is high compared with the 30 seconds that Chartbeat reports on its publisher network.

From the buying perspective, a lot of ad spending is still tied to individual brands, so it’s still important to have salespeople who know specific titles’ audiences and editorial sensibilities, said John Wagner, group director of published media at Phd. The shift went a little too far at Time Inc., he added. “They were asking people to sell 26 brands. If you came from Cooking Light, you can’t sell People.”

Elders acknowledged that Time Inc.’s transition took a lot of staff retraining and getting clients used to having new points of contact, but he said the shift didn’t go too far. “Anytime you roll these things out, there are kinks. We just need to have a balance. Having a category structure combined with the brand and digital product teams is the right way to go.”

Output: Publishing company Condé Nast is beginning to see the benefits of moving to a group sales model, with increased numbers of "bigger deals coming its way and good feedback from clients", according to Brad Elders, CRO at Time. Earlier this year, the group switched its 22 publisher titles to two content management systems, standardised ad prices and formats, and focused on 11 core ad categories. However, industry insiders have warned of the importance of retaining experienced salespeople who understand a title's core audience and editorial requirements.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
German commercial financing company Compeon raises €12m
 Source: Compeon

COMPEON, German market leader among digital platforms for commercial financing, has received 12 million euro from its existing investors in a Series B financing.

This round was led by existing investors, Tengelmann Ventures. In addition to Tengelmann Ventures, btov Partners and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures also invested in COMPEON.

COMPEON provides a full-service approach to commercial financing as a brokerage platform, independent of products and providers. Customers quickly and easily find financing solutions and transparency in terms, including interest rates, equity ratios and collateral from various providers via the digital platform. COMPEON works together with more than 220 established banks, savings banks and alternative financial partners. In addition to credit, loans and leasing, the platform offers factoring and alternative financing solutions including mezzanine capital, finetrading, project financing, and private debt.

In recent months, COMPEON has significantly grown its base of clients and financing partners. COMPEON has also entered into partnerships with development banks and international vendors. The funds from this financing round will be invested in future growth and the expansion of the COMPEON technology platform. The company will also continue to push sales financing forward.

“We cover all traditional financing instruments and connect our customers to relevant providers of financing in Germany. We are already the leading digital platform for commercial financing, a position we want to secure and we are delighted that our investors have shown such commitment”, said Dr. Frank Wüller, founder and Managing Director of COMPEON.

Christian Winter, CEO of Tengelmann Ventures said: “COMPEON is a leader in the shift to digitalisation of SME financing. The COMPEON team have demonstrated that the complex requirements of commercial financing can be successfully moved to a digital platform. We are looking forward to the future growth of the businesss.”

Output: Dusseldorf firm Compeon has raised €12m ($14m) in a series B funding round, led by existing investor Tengelmann Ventures and with participation from Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures and Btov Partners. Compeon, Germany's leading brokerage platform for full-service commercial financing, works with more than 220 financial institutions, offering credit, loans, leasing and financing options, including mezzanine capital and private debt. The company said the funds will be used to develop the platform's technology and for future investments. "The Compeon team have demonstrated the complex requirements of commercial financing can be successfully moved to a digital platform," said Christian Winter, the CEO of Tengelmann Ventures.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Regus Regus shortlisted in two categories at BCI Global Awards
 Shortlist announced for BCI Global Awards

Details Published: Friday, 13 October 2017 07:34

The Business Continuity Institute has published the shortlist of organizations and individuals that are in the running for its annual Global Awards. Taking place on 7th November during the BCI World conference and exhibition, the awards recognise excellence in the business continuity and resilience profession.

The short list is as follows:

Continuity and Resilience Consultant:

Asia: Noor Azlan Musa MBCI

Middle-East: Ahmed Riad Ali MBCI

Africa: Padma Naidoo MBCI

India: Sanjiv Agarwala MBCI

Europe: Petra Morrison MBCI

Australasia: Kenny Seow MBCI

Americas: Dustin Mackie MBCI

Continuity and Resilience Professional (Private Sector)

Asia: Yuichiro Matsui AMBCI

Middle-East: Abdus Salam CBCI

Africa: Jaun Harmse AMBCI

India: Dr KJ Devasia

Europe: Rob van den Eijnden AMBCI

Australasia: Phil Carter FBCI

Americas: Melanie Lucht MBCI

Continuity and Resilience Professional (Public Sector)

Middle-East: Jamila Suliman Khanji

Africa: Eric Theron AMBCI

Europe: Russ Parramore MBCI

Australasia: Esther Newman MBCI

Continuity and Resilience Newcomer

Asia: Lee Chai Erl AMBCI

Middle-East: Sultan Saeed Alzaidi

Africa: Semakaleng Mokonyane AMBCI

India: Tilak De Silva

Europe: Timothy Dalby-Welsh AMBCI

Australasia: Amy Dance CBCI

Americas: Adrian Fuentes Flores

Continuity and Resilience Team

Asia: Arvato Global BC Team

Middle-East: Amdocs Business Continuity Management Team

Africa: ContinuitySA's Global Centre of Excellence

India: Cognizant Corporate BCM Team

Europe: The Chief Fire Officers Association Business Continuity Management Team

Australasia: nbn Business Continuity & Resilience Team

Americas: Humana Enterprise Resiliency Office

Continuity and Resilience Provider (Service/Product)

Asia: ezBCM by BC Connex Pte Ltd

Middle-East: IBM Resiliency Services Framework

India: Dynamic Workplace Recovery by Regus

Europe: ClearView Continuity

Australasia: Zettagrid for SecondSite

Americas: Fusion Framework® Continuity Risk Management System

Continuity and Resilience Innovation

Middle-East: Protiviti for Crisis Management Simulation

Africa: Barclays Africa Resilience Programme

India: Accenture India BC Team for BC Awareness and Training initiative

Europe: The Everbridge Platform

Australasia: Regus Dynamic Workplace Recovery

North America: OnSolve

Most Effective Recovery

Middle-East: Dubai Airports Corporation

Africa: Barclays Africa Retail and Business Bank

India: HSBC GSCs and HT Contingency Risk Team

Europe: BPER Banca

Australasia: Inland Revenue (NZ)

Americas: TELUS Communications Company

Industry Personality

Africa: Jeremy Capell MBCI

India: Vikrant Varshney MBCI CBCP

Europe: Gianna Detoni FBCI

Australasia: Tim Rippon MBCI

Americas: Tracey Forbes Rice

More information.

Output: Workplace provider Regus has been nominated in two categories in the forthcoming Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Global Awards. Regus is in the running for the continuity and resilience provider (service/product) and continuity and resilience innovation prizes for its dynamic workplace recovery schemes in India and Australia. The winners will be announced on 7 November during the BCI World conference and exhibition in London.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Cybersecurity scarier to baby boomers than millennials: FirstData
 Date Title and Summary View

May 30, 2023 Jean Johnson of Fiserv Recognized as a Strategic Leader with WeQual Award BROOKFIELD, Wis., May 30, 2023 – Jean Johnson of Fiserv, Inc. , a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, has been named the winner of the Strategy category of the WeQual Awards, The Americas 2023 . Johnson was awarded following an assessment that evaluated her General HTML

May 25, 2023 Fiserv to Transfer Listing to New York Stock Exchange New Ticker Signals Company’s Commitment to Leading Fintech Innovation BROOKFIELD, Wis. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2023-- Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, today announced that it is transferring the listing of its common General HTML

May 15, 2023 Fiserv to Present at Upcoming Investor Conferences BROOKFIELD, Wis. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2023-- Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, today announced its participation in multiple upcoming investor conferences. Frank Bisignano , Chairman, President, and Chief Executive General HTML

May 12, 2023 Local Veteran Small Business Owner Receives $10,000 Back2Business Grant from Fiserv Grant presented during Opening Day festivities at Clover Stadium as part of Fiserv Back2Business program Pomona, NY – May 12, 2023 - Knights Bridge Resources, a certified Service Disabled Veteran-Owned small business in Wyckoff, New Jersey, was awarded a $10,000 Back2Business grant from Fiserv General HTML

Apr 25, 2023 Fiserv Reports First Quarter 2023 Results GAAP revenue growth of 10% and organic revenue growth of 13%; GAAP EPS decreased 13% and adjusted EPS increased 13%; Company raises 2023 organic revenue growth outlook to 8% to 9% and adjusted EPS outlook to $7.30 to $7.40 BROOKFIELD, Wis. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 25, 2023-- Fiserv, Inc. Earnings HTML

Output: Millennials may be more tech savvy than baby boomers, but the latter group is more aware of cybersecurity risks, according to a study by First Data. It found 63% of older internet users believed social media sites were vulnerable to hackers, compared to fewer than half of millennial respondents, while more than a third of baby boomers considered whether or not their online actions could pose a cybersecurity risk at work, against 21% of younger employees. The survey was based on 800 US respondents. The results contradict commonly held beliefs about baby boomers and their relationship with technology.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Calls to protect area in Antarctica after mass penguin starvation
 A colony of about 40,000 Adélie penguins in Antarctica has suffered a “catastrophic breeding event” – all but two chicks have died of starvation this year. It is the second time in just four years that such devastation – not previously seen in more than 50 years of observation – has been wrought on the population.

The finding has prompted urgent calls for the establishment of a marine protected area in East Antarctica, at next week’s meeting of 24 nations and the European Union at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Hobart.

In the colony of about 18,000 breeding penguin pairs on Petrels Island, French scientists discovered just two surviving chicks at the start of the year. Thousands of starved chicks and unhatched eggs were found across the island in the region called Adélie Land (“Terre Adélie”).

The colony had experienced a similar event in 2013, when no chicks survived. In a paper about that event, a group of researchers, led by Yan Ropert-Coudert from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, said it had been caused by a record amount of summer sea ice and an “unprecedented rainy episode”.

The unusual extent of sea ice meant the penguins had to travel an extra 100km to forage for food. And the rainy weather left the chicks, which have poor waterproofing, wet and unable to keep warm.

This year’s event has also been attributed to an unusually large amount of sea ice. Overall, Antarctica has had a record low amount of summer sea ice, but the area around the colony has been an exception.

Ropert-Coudert said the region had been severely affected by the break-up of the Mertz glacier tongue in 2010, when a piece of ice almost the size of Luxembourg – about 80 km long and 40km wide – broke off. That event, which occurred about 250km from Petrels Island, had a big impact on ocean currents and ice formation in the region.

Thousands of dead chicks and unhatched eggs were found across the region called Adélie Land. Photograph: Y Ropert-Coudert/CNRS/IPEV

“The Mertz glacier impact on the region sets the scene in 2010 and when unusual meteorological events, driven by large climatic variations, hit in some years this leads to massive failures,” Ropert-Coudert told the Guardian. “In other words, there may still be years when the breeding will be OK, or even good for this colony, but the scene is set for massive impacts to hit on a more or less regular basis.”

The link between climate change and the sea-ice extent around Antarctica is not very clear. Sea ice has been increasing in recent years, which could be attributed to a rise in the amount of freshwater in the ocean around the continent caused by climate change. However, over the long term, climate change is expected to cause the sea ice to shrink dramatically.

“For the moment, sea ice is increasing and this is a problem for this species as it pushes the feeding place – the sea ice edge – farther away from their nesting place,” Ropert-Coudert said. “If it shrinks it would help but if it shrinks too much then the food chain they rely on may be impacted. Basically, as a creature of the sea ice they need an optimum sea-ice cover to thrive.”

Elsewhere, human pressures including climate change have already been having a severe impact on the numbers of Adélie penguins. On the Antarctic Peninsula, which has been badly affected by climate change, populations have been decreasing, and some researchers suggest they may become extinct there.

Ropert-Coudert said there were more anthropogenic threats on the horizon – fishing and possibly tourism – that the penguins needed protection from.

He has called for a marine protected area (MPA) to be established there.

“An MPA will not remedy these changes but it could prevent further impacts that direct anthropogenic pressures, such as tourism and proposed fisheries, could bring,” he said.

Next week, 24 countries and the European Union will meet at the CCAMLR in Hobart to discuss the potential creation of more MPAs around Antarctica.

At last year’s meeting, after years of failed negotiations, the members agreed to create the world’s largest MPA in the Ross Sea, and many expect the group to agree on East Antarctica next.

This has also been proposed by Australia and has been on the table at the CCAMLR for eight years.

The head of polar programs at WWF, Rod Downie, said: “Adélie penguins are one of the hardiest and most amazing animals on our planet. This devastating event contrasts with the image that many people might have of penguins. It’s more like ‘Tarantino does Happy Feet’, with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adélie Land.

“The risk of opening up this area to exploratory krill fisheries, which would compete with the Adélie penguins for food as they recover from two catastrophic breeding failures in four years, is unthinkable. So CCAMLR needs to act now by adopting a new Marine Protected Area for the waters off East Antarctica, to protect the home of the penguins.”

Ropert-Coudert and his colleagues are in the process of completing a scientific paper on the breeding failure and plan to submit it to a journal in the coming weeks.

Output: An Antarctic Adélie penguin colony has experienced a “catastrophic breeding event” this year, resulting in the starvation of all but two chicks and prompting calls for a marine protected area in East Antarctica. The disaster - the second in just four years - has been attributed to the presence of an unusual amount of sea ice, resulting from the break-up of the Mertz glacier in 2010. Climate change is expected to cause sea ice to shrink, which could help the penguins in the short-term, though In the long term too much shrinkage could affect the birds’ food chain.


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Tencent secures license for app-based insurance sales
 Wemin Insurance Agency Co. Ltd., whose majority owner is Tencent Holdings Ltd., has been granted a license that allows it to sell insurance products, collect premiums and settle claims as an agent. Photo: Visual China

Competition in China’s fast-growing online insurance industry is intensifying, as tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. recently secured a new license to sell insurance products on its popular messaging apps WeChat and QQ.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said Wednesday it granted an operating license to Wemin Insurance Agency Co. Ltd., a new insurer in which Tencent owns a 57.8% controlling stake. Other shareholders of Weimin include Taiwan-based Fubon Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and a Chinese private equity fund.

Technology companies are flocking to the internet insurance industry in China in recent years. They are riding on a fintech wave, as well as the country’s opening of its financial services sector once dominated by state companies. The hype remains unabated, as shown by the massive oversubscription in the initial public offering of ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance Co. Ltd., China’s first online-only insurer, in Hong Kong two weeks ago.

In China, about 65% of new insurance policies were sold through the internet last year, according to management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, which projects that China’s technology-based insurance industry will grow to 1.41 trillion yuan ($214.1 billion) by 2021, up from 363 billion yuan in 2016.

Weimin, established in October 2016, has registered capital of 200 million yuan. The license now allows it to sell insurance products, collecting premiums and settle claims as an agent, the CIRC said.

WeChat, China’s most-used messaging app that also has online payment capabilities, has more than 960 million users. Such a massive platform will likely immediately boost the company’s internet finance portfolio.

Some market watchers believe companies are likely to prioritize sales for platforms in which they have a higher stake. This means Tencent may focus more on Weimin than ZhongAn, challenging the growth of the latter. ZhongAn is also owned by Ant Financial Services Group and Ping An Insurance.

Tencent holds a 20% stake of the Hong Kong unit of U.K.-based insurance group Aviva, and a 15% stake of China’s Hetai Life Insurance Co. Both insurers are eye on expanding their presence in digital insurance.

Ant Financial acquired a controlling 51% stake in Taiwan’s Cathay Century Insurance Co. in 2016. Since then, Cathay Century prioritizes technology as a key business driver, effectively competing head-on against other bigger players like ZhongAn.

Contact reporter Leng Cheng (chengleng@caixin.com)

Output: Chinese technology firm Tencent has received regulatory approval to offer insurance products through its chat applications WeChat and QQ. China's insurance regulator has granted the license to Wemin Insurance Agency, in which Tencent holds the controlling stake. Combined, the two messaging platforms have approximately 900 million users. China's internet insurance industry is growing significantly, accounting for 65% of policies purchased in the country last year, according to Oliver Wyman. The marketplace is predicted to more than triple over the next four years, representing a $214bn industry by 2021.


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ZhongAn partners with Sinolink for loan-based JV
 Hong Kong-listed online insurer’s chairman Ou Yaping has stakes in both parties involved in the agreement to set up a company in Chongqing

Output: China's first online-only insurer ZhongAn has launched a joint venture (JV) with Hong Kong-based Sinolink Worldwide. The venture will involve the two firms offering loans, notes, equity investments and fund transfer services. Despite ZhongAn's shares rising on the news of the JV, some analysts commented that it may move the insurer away from its core business operations. ZhongAn listed in Hong Kong on 22 September, and saw its shares rise 60% in its first week of trading, but expects to post a loss this year, partly driven by changes to its product mix.


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UK’s national living wage sees numbers of low-paid workers fall
 This is our seventh annual report on the prevalence of low pay in Britain. It uses the latest data available (April 2016) to map out the scale of low pay and the groups that are most affected.

Output: The UK has experienced its largest fall in low-paid workers since the 1970s, after the introduction last year of the national living wage (NLW) of £7.50 per hour for employees aged 25 and above, according to think-tank the Resolution Foundation. Over 300,000 people on low incomes have had their pay boosted by the NLW. Around 19% of workers, or 5.1 million individuals, are currently low-paid, down from 21% (5.4 million) last year. For the first time since the 1980s, low-paid workers constitute less than one in five of the total. Of such workers, 61% are women.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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UK’s national living wage sees numbers of low-paid workers fall
 More than 300,000 people on low incomes were given a pay boost by the government’s new “national living wage”, dispelling fears that the move to raise minimum salary levels would trigger widespread job losses.

The Resolution Foundation said Britain had experienced its biggest fall in low-paid workers since the 1970s following the introduction of the national living wage (NLW), which imposes a floor of £7.50 an hour for employees aged 25 and over. The thinktank found that 5.1 million or 19% of workers were low-paid, down from 5.4 million, or just under 21%, last year, bringing the share of employees who are low-paid below one in five for the first time since the 1980s.

Women make up the majority of low-paid workers, at 61% of the total, which the foundation said had changed little over the last few years. The proportion of men reflects their more recent shift into low-paid work previously dominated by women.But the foundation argued that Britain remains too reliant on low-paid work because more than five million employees earn less than two thirds of the median hourly wage of £8.25.

The thinktank said the number of people earning below the voluntary living wage reached a record high, rising from 6 million to 6.2 million. Calculated by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the voluntary living wage is the amount needed to achieve an acceptable standard of living, pegged at £17,900 per year for single people and £20,400 each for couples with two children

The former chancellor George Osborne introduced the NLW in April 2016. At the time, business leaders in the retail and hospitality sectors accused the government of introducing a tax on jobs that would result in thousands of employees being made redundant.

However, since the NLW took effect, employment has risen and unemployment has fallen to its lowest level for 40 years.

Conor D’Arcy, the Resolution Foundation’s senior policy analyst, said: “Many people warned that the national living wage would be a jobs-killing disaster. It’s early days still but the result so far has been the biggest fall in low pay for four decades, in an economy where employment is at a record high.

“While it’s important to celebrate the national living wage as a bold, positive policy action, we shouldn’t get complacent. As well as the challenges it presents to some employers, more than four million workers are still expected to be in low pay by 2020, and the old problems of women and part-time workers being far more likely to be low paid than men remain,” he said.

Young people have seen a boost to their pay, despite the NLW only legally applying to those aged 25 and over. The analysis finds evidence of a “domino effect” on those aged 16 to 20, with a 3% fall in their low-pay risk since last year, though three quarters of this group are low paid.

While progress has been made across the country, sizeable gaps remain across nations, regions and cities. Yorkshire and the Humber, and the East Midlands are the regions with the highest share of low-paid employees, with 24% of employees falling below the low-pay threshold in each. At the other end of the spectrum, just one in 10 employees in London is low paid. Among city regions, Sheffield (24%), Nottingham, Liverpool and Newcastle (all 23%) are at the top of the low-pay table.

Output: The UK has experienced its largest fall in low-paid workers since the 1970s, after the introduction last year of the national living wage (NLW) of £7.50 per hour for employees aged 25 and above, according to think-tank the Resolution Foundation. Over 300,000 people on low incomes have had their pay boosted by the NLW. Around 19% of workers, or 5.1 million individuals, are currently low-paid, down from 21% (5.4 million) last year. For the first time since the 1980s, low-paid workers constitute less than one in five of the total. Of such workers, 61% are women.


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Airbnb teams up with developer for apartment scheme in Florida
 Airbnb is introducing its first branded apartment complex in Florida, a state where strict regulations threaten its growth and restrict its supply of available rooms. The partnership with Miami-based Newgard Development Group marks the first step by Airbnb to design accommodations from the ground up for home-sharing, further challenging the traditional hotel industry.

Under the brand "Niido Powered by Airbnb," the first complex in this project is a 324-unit building in Kissimmee, Florida. The apartments there will feature amenities like keyless entry systems, which make it easy for a tenant to check short-term guests in and out of their homes, remotely.

According to a joint statement from Newgard and Airbnb, tenants will sign annual leases be able to rent rooms or units for up to 180 nights per year, and will share revenues with the landlords who own the unit.

Jaja Jackson is Airbnb's director of global multifamily partnerships, and is taking the lead on this project. He told CNBC that if it works, "we hope that we'd roll this out across the US and internationally."

Newgard is paying to build and will own the buildings. But Airbnb helped design the units, buildings and services provided there.

The apartments in the complex will be connected to an Airbnb app that lets tenants order up services like an apartment cleaning, or a fresh set of linens for their guests. These services will be provided on premises by a MasterHost.

CEO of Newguard Development, Harvey Hernandez, says the partnership brings home sharing to the "mainstream." He told CNBC, "we're bringing the opportunity for all our tenants to monetize the asset they rent from us."

Hernandez says Newguard decided to approach Airbnb with this idea after it looked at the multifamily space and realized that tenants were struggling to afford home in the places they really wanted to live.

"How about if we create a homesharing based community that we can scale and be in every market in the US?" he asked himself. "Airbnb was the perfect partner for us so we pitched the idea and they loved it."

Both Jackson and Hernandez insist that "Niido Powered by Airbnb" is not a hotel. Hernandez says the project elevates his development and if anything, "we're complimentary."

Jackson says, "this is not a hotel format because the experience is individual. The host creates a personalized experience for each guest." He adds, "We're able to put Niido locations in cities and locations that aren't typically associated with tourism."

The idea is to empower Airbnb hosts to deliver a luxury travel experience to their guests, and for tenants and landlords to come to a clear agreement over short-term rentals.

The project expands Airbnb's "Friendly Buildings Program" which shares revenue generated from home sharing between hosts and landlords.

Jackson says the program has been a victory for cities, owners and hosts alike. And as regulations threaten to slow its growth, Jackson says it will help increase the number of hosts across the platform at large.

"The program has proven to, in most cases where it's rolled out, increase hosting by approximately 100 percent. And that means hosting that's now done in a legitimate way, with knowledge of the landlord, the property manager and the cities involved," he said.

Municipal and state laws vary significantly across the U.S. In some areas, local governments prohibit tenants from using the homes they've rented on a long-term basis as alternative lodgings.

Towns like Miami Beach, New York and San Francisco have steeply fined home owners when their long-term tenants have turned their properties into something resembling a youth hostel using Airbnb to book guests for short-term stays.

Output: Airbnb has partnered with Miami firm Newgard Development Group to launch its first branded apartment complex in Kissimmee, Florida, according to a joint statement. The 324-unit, home-based community, called Niido Powered by Airbnb, will be built and operated by Newgard, while Airbnb offered input on design. Tenants taking up a lease will be permitted to rent out their units for up to 180 nights per year. Jaja Jackson, Airbnb's director of global multifamily partnerships, said the complex was not a hotel but, if successful, the programme could be rolled out across the US.


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SecurityScorecard gets $27.5m for its threat-analysis platform
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Cybersecurity rating and risk-monitoring platform SecurityScorecard has raised $27.5 million in a series C round of funding led by Nokia’s global venture capital (VC) arm, Nokia Growth Partners (NGP).

Other notable participants in the round include GV (Google Ventures) — which led the company’s $20 million series B round last June — Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital, Moody’s Corporation, AXA Strategic Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, and Evolution Equity Partners.

Founded out of New York in 2013, SecurityScorecard helps organizations monitor key security risks around their cloud-based systems by identifying vulnerabilities from a hacker’s perspective. The platform also looks at third-party vendors a company is doing business with to find any weaknesses on their side. SecurityScorecard then assigns ratings from “A” to “F” to help security personnel address the most pressing vulnerabilities and evaluate partnerships.

If a company’s third-party vendor is given an “F” rating, for example, indicating it is more likely to be breached, the company may consider switching providers.

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“Our vision is to create a new language for how companies strategically address, collaborate on, and measure the cybersecurity posture of their entire ecosystem through security ratings,” noted SecurityScorecard founder and CEO Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy. “These ratings can be used to report back to the board of directors, continuously monitor third and fourth parties, and more intelligently underwrite cyber insurance policies.”

SecurityScorecard had raised around $35 million before now, and with its latest tranche of funding the company said it plans to “bring new solutions to the market” and expand its “position as the security ratings leader,” according to a statement.

With the massive Equifax data breach still fresh in everyone’s minds, and the global cybersecurity workforce estimated to be short by nearly 2 million people by 2022, it perhaps comes as little surprise that cybersecurity has emerged as a major focus of investment. Just yesterday, Attivo Networks announced a $21 million raise to help thwart cyberattacks using the art of deception, while Darktrace recently raised $75 million and SentinelOne nabbed $70 million.

SecurityScorecard, however, is tackling things from a slightly different perspective by focusing on factors usually outside a company’s direct control, namely, their partner organizations.

“As the world becomes increasingly reliant on the cloud, third-party service providers, and highly distributed infrastructure, enterprises have less visibility and control over mission-critical services, as well as their proprietary and customer data,” added NGP partner Upal Basu. “The SecurityScorecard platform is uniquely positioned to help enterprises gain visibility and control across their IT ecosystem.”

As a result of NGP’s investment in SecurityScorecard, Basu will also be joining the company’s board of directors.

Output: New York cybersecurity rating firm SecurityScorecard has raised $27.5m in a series C funding round led by Nokia Growth Partners, and featuring participation from Google Ventures and Sequoia Capital, among others. SecurityScorecard examines a company's cloud cyber security from a hacker's point of view, and also rates from A to F the strengths or weaknesses of firms a client deals with. SecurityScorecard said the latest funds would be used to expand its market position and develop new products.


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Hedge funds lose out on Puerto Rico bets
 At the moment, though, those investors are staring at hard-to-quantify red ink.

“We sustained a lot of damage, and we’re facing very significant losses,” said Brian Tenenbaum, regional director for the Morgan Reed Group, which owns or operates several office buildings, commercial buildings and residential complexes on the island.

Samuel Kirschner, chief operating officer with CPG Real Estate, which has been investing in commercial and residential properties in Puerto Rico for nearly 18 years, has struggled to get his properties open because of damage from the storm. After chartering a private plane from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with canned goods, diapers and batteries, CPG managed to partly open an outdoor shopping plaza in San Juan. The idea was to give residents a place to drink, eat and cool down.

“We’re going to lose a lot of money opening it now,” Mr. Kirschner said.

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company lists at least seven hotels closed with no clear reopening date. About two dozen expect to begin taking reservations before the end of October. Some resorts are said to have suffered little structural damage but severe damage to their beaches and grounds. Tourists might balk at returning to the island anytime soon.

“The turnaround was set back years,” said David Tawil of Maglan Capital, whose firm used to hold Puerto Rican debt.

Even before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s economy was ailing, with 45 percent of the population living in poverty. In May, Puerto Rico effectively filed the largest-ever federal bankruptcy proceeding by a local government, and much of Wall Street’s attention has focused on the creditors who hold some of Puerto Rico’s $74 billion in public debt.

Output: Hedge funds managed by the likes of Paulson & Company, Lone Star Funds and Blackstone may have lost out heavily in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The funds took positions in Puerto Rican investments and are now facing the impact of the hurricane on the island territory. Several funds have already spoken out about losses with a number of real estate investments, like shopping centres and hotels, unable to open for operation. Holders of Puerto Rican debt, an already heavily distressed asset, are also looking down the barrel of significant losses.