Fed up with the low level of banking services in France, two entrepreneurs decided to have a crack at business banking. Since the launch in 2016, the Qonto team has grown from the founding duo to 80 people. They have attracted over 20,000 small businesses to their bank and closed two funding rounds, pocketing about €12m.

When they started, back in 2012, hardly anyone knew what insurtech was about. Neither were many people aware of the young German startup. Fast forward to 2018, Simplesurance, a German fintech company, is backed by both investor and e-commerce giants (Allianz and Rakuten, respectively), and has also partnered with OnePlus, Huawei, and Revolut.

From this interview, you will learn: How ad-hoc teams could work like companies, improving their workflow and collaboration standards. What the 7 things are that every team on a planet needs to have to operate efficiently. Why John Furneaux, CEO of Hive, doesn’t believe in big organisations as a smart way to achieve goals. What the most insane competitive advantage is that any company can gain if they reinvent themselves in terms of team collaboration

Inn Style was founded in 2011 by Adrian Melrose, Chris Waters and James Kindred. The property management system (PMS) streamlines an accommodation owner’s workload by automating many of the processes that they would otherwise be doing manually. Today Inn Style is used by over 1,000 accommodation owners, and more than 364,000 reservations have been made through the platform.

I believe there are various ways to tell the story of Raisin. But let me take a shortcut. Here are some numbers behind the Berlin-based company that aims to build a leading one-stop shop for savings and investments in Europe.

 

We’ve talked to Eddie Dubiel, a representative of Finstreet, about the future of one of their project, the difficulties of operating in the highly regulated German financial sector, and about bringing innovation into large fintech organisations. The insights we gathered shed light on doing business on this highly desirable and competitive market.

We’ve all been there. A usual Saturday at home, you’ve got your vacuuming done, and you’re in the middle of making pie crust now. With your hands covered in dough, you look around searching for a salt shaker. And then you hear the vibrant tone of an incoming call you’ve been waiting for the whole morning. A crazy race around the house commences. You’re running around spilling dough on the floor, looking for your phone in desperation. Your dog is running after you, making even more mess. Luckily you find the phone and pick it up. Then another ordeal starts – talking on the phone holding it between your arm and head with a dog tripping you up is never a good idea. What if we told you you could bring some peace into this chaotic scenario? Image a home robot that would answer the call for you and let you talk to people hands-free. Here comes the Israeli company, Roboteam, that used to make life saving robots for the defence. Now, it can save millions of domestic heroes during their home battles with their new product: temi, the personal robot.

A typical day at Netguru looks as follows: One team is building an app for one of the biggest banks in Europe. Another team is working with Volkswagen to help them create a unique customer experience for their first boutique store. Yet another team is sitting at one table with a group of designers and developers experienced in creating cutting-edge unmanned ground vehicles.

ClickMechanic brings a revolution to the car repair and automotive industries. People uncomfortable with their lack of knowledge when leaving their car at a garage no longer need to worry thanks to ClickMechanic’s vetting system for mechanics and a fixed price for repair services. Mechanics can sign up to the platform to get more work and save on the costs of customer service. The result? 18,000 mechanics already on board and prices 50% lower than those of franchise dealers. I had the chance to talk to Andrew Jervis, ClickMechanic’s founder, about what inspired him to create this project, what they offer to customers and mechanics, and how they stay competitive on this highly specialised market.