Tag Archives: services

Major Revelation: Amazon Web Services Outage Highlights UK Government’s £1.7 Billion Reliance on Tech Giant

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Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy wore a broad smile while meeting Keir Starmer in the gardens of Downing Street to announce a £40bn investment in the UK this past June. Starmer shared his enthusiasm, stating, “equally passionate”. He remarked, “This transaction demonstrates that our transformation strategy to attract investment, stimulate growth, and enhance people’s financial well-being is succeeding.”

However, just four months later, the company faced a massive global outage on Monday that halted thousands of businesses and underscored its reliance on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform utilized by the British government.

Data gathered for the Guardian indicates that the UK government is increasingly dependent on the services of U.S. tech giants. These companies have come under fire from trade unions and politicians for their working conditions in logistics and online retail.

Since 2016, AWS has secured 189 contracts with the UK government valued at £1.7bn and has billed approximately £1.4bn during this timeframe, according to data from public procurement intelligence firm Tassel.

The research group reported: “Currently, 35 public sector authorities utilize AWS services across 41 contracts totaling £1.1bn. The primary ministries involved include the Home Office, DWP, HMRC, the Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Office, and Defra.

Screenshot of the out-of-service HMRC website on Monday, October 20th. Photo: HMRC.gov.uk/PA

Tim Wright, a technology partner at law firm Floodgate, noted that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have consistently warned about the risks associated with concentrating cloud services for regulated enterprises.

“Recent efforts by the Treasury, the PRA, and the FCA to impose direct oversight on ‘significant third parties’ aim to mitigate the risk of outages like those faced by AWS,” he said. “However, until we see substantial diversification and the establishment of sovereign clouds, the UK government’s approach contradicts the resilience principles that regulators advocate for.”

The House of Commons Treasury Committee has reached out to Chancellor of the Exchequer Lucy Rigby to inquire why Amazon wasn’t classified as a “significant third party” within the UK financial services sector, a designation that would have subjected the tech giant to regulatory scrutiny.

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Committee Chair Meg Hillier noted that Amazon recently informed the committee that its financial services clients rely on AWS for “resilience” and that AWS offers “layers of protection.”

This week’s outage impacted over 2,000 businesses around the globe, leading to 8.1 million reports of issues, with 1.9 million in the U.S., 1 million in the UK, and 418,000 in Australia, according to internet outage tracker Downdetector.

Only HMRC confirmed it was affected by the outage, stating customers were “experiencing difficulties accessing our online services” and recommended they call back later due to busy phone lines.

While many websites restored their services after a few hours, some continued to experience problems throughout the day. By Monday evening, Amazon announced that all cloud services had “returned to normal operations.”

Trade unions have long questioned whether Amazon should be excluded from government contracts because of its reputation for subpar working conditions in its large warehouses.

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, stated: “Amazon has a dismal record regarding fair treatment of workers. Shocking conditions in their warehouses have resulted in emergency ambulance calls, with employees claiming they are treated like robots, forced to work until exhaustion, all while being compensated with poverty wages until they strike for six months.”

“In this context, wasting nearly £2 billion of public funds is deplorable.”

AWS has not provided a comment. A spokesperson from Amazon’s fulfillment centers stated that the “vast majority” of ambulance calls at their facilities are not “work-related.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Amazon Web Services Outage Disrupts Global Platforms, Shows “Signs of Recovery”

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A significant internet disruption has impacted numerous websites and applications globally, with users experiencing difficulties connecting to the internet due to issues with Amazon’s cloud computing service.

The affected services include Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, along with various Amazon-owned enterprises, including major retail platforms and the Ring doorbell company.

In the UK, Lloyds Bank and its associated brands, Halifax Bank and Bank of Scotland, were impacted, with HM Revenue & Customs also facing challenges accessing their website on Monday morning. Additionally, Ring users in the UK reported non-functioning doorbells on social media.

In the UK alone, there were tens of thousands of reports concerning issues with individual applications across various platforms. Other affected services include Wordle, Coinbase, Slack, Pokémon Go, Epic Games, PlayStation Network, and Peloton.

By 10:30am UK time, Amazon indicated that the issues, which began around 8am, were being addressed, as AWS showed “significant signs of recovery.” At 11 a.m., they confirmed that global services linked to US-EAST-1 had also been restored.

Amazon reported that the problems originated from Amazon Web Services on the East Coast of the U.S. AWS, which is a division providing essential web infrastructure and renting out server space, is the largest cloud computing platform worldwide.

Shortly after midnight (8am BST) in the U.S., Amazon acknowledged “increased error rates and latencies” for its AWS services in the East Coast region. This issue seems to have caused a worldwide ripple effect, as the Downdetector site logged problems from multiple continents.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes service track internet outages reported a surge in problems on Monday morning, particularly in Virginia, where Amazon’s US-East-1 region is based, noting that AWS confirmed the start of the issues.

Leif Pilling, director of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm Sophos, stated that the outage seems to be an IT-related issue rather than a cyberattack. The AWS Online Health Dashboard identified problems with DynamoDB, a database system facilitating data access for websites.

“During events like this, it’s natural for concerns of a cyber incident to arise,” he noted. “Given AWS’s extensive and complex footprint, any issue can trigger considerable disruption. It appears that this incident originates from an IT problem on the database side, which AWS prioritizes resolving promptly.”

Dr. Colin Cass Speth, head of digital at human rights organization Article 19, pointed out that the outage underscores the risks of concentrating digital infrastructure in the hands of a few providers.

“There is an urgent need to diversify cloud computing. The infrastructure supporting democratic discourse, independent journalism, and secure communication should not rely solely on a handful of companies,” she stated.

The British government reported that it was in touch with Amazon concerning the internet disruption on Monday.

A spokesperson remarked: “We are aware of an incident affecting Amazon Web Services and several online services dependent on its infrastructure. Through our established incident response structure, we are in communication and working to restore services as quickly as possible.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Leveraging Palantir AI for Social Work, Submissions, and Children’s Services at Coventry Council

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Public sector employees are voicing “significant concerns” following Coventry City Council’s agreement with the US data technology firm Palantir, valued at £500,000 annually.

This contract marks the first collaboration between a UK local authority and a Denver-based organization, which also provides technology to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and aids Donald Trump’s initiatives against U.S. immigration policies.

The agreement emerges after the Council’s Children’s Services Division initiated a pilot program utilizing AI for transcribing case notes and summarizing records of social workers. The Council intends to broaden the Palantir system to assist children with special educational needs.

Julie Nugent, the Council’s chief executive, stated the objective is to “enhance internal data integration and service delivery” while “exploring transformative opportunities in artificial intelligence.”

Palantir has secured numerous public sector contracts in the UK, including the deployment of AI to combat organized crime in Leicestershire and assisting in developing a new NHS federated data platform. Keir Starmer visited the company’s Washington office in February, accompanied by CEO and co-founder Alex Karp. Palantir was co-founded by PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel, who supported Trump’s 2016 election campaign.




Keir Starmer touring Palantir in Washington, DC in February. Photo: Curl Coat/PA

Unions that represent teachers and other council staff have voiced that this deal raises “serious ethical questions,” with Independent Councillor Grace Lewis urging the council to terminate the contract immediately to “ensure that £500,000 benefits our community.”

“We cannot justify the Council signing a contract with a company that has a well-documented history in supplying arms and surveillance to the IDF and its involvement in NHS privatization while the Council reduces funding for public and voluntary sectors,” Lewis commented.

Coventry has recently started evaluating applications for household support funds through Palantir’s AI. During a councillor’s meeting, a senior official remarked, “To me, it sounds like my brother.”

In correspondence to Nugent, Nicky Downes, co-secretary of the Coventry branch of the National Education Union, pointed out the troubling implications of AI in Palantir’s surveillance and military systems, highlighting concerns about data collection and storage on citizens, especially related to predictive policing.

“There are considerable ethical concerns surrounding Palantir Foundry’s business practices, which is a subsidiary of Palantir,” Downes stated. “Questions also arise regarding the acquisition and utilization of personal data, particularly in relation to ethical considerations in the procurement process and the accompanying risk assessment.

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Nugent responded, “We have engaged Palantir for a year to investigate potential transformative solutions in artificial intelligence by applying concepts across numerous essential areas. This aims to establish a business case for further investments and a comprehensive strategy for AI. We acknowledge that the ethical implications of AI procurement hold paramount importance.

A representative from Palantir remarked, “We are enthusiastic about assisting Coventry City Council in enhancing the public services offered by AI. Technology opens up significant opportunities, such as decreasing the time social workers and experts in special education spend on administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on directly aiding vulnerable children.”

They also stated that Palantir is nonpartisan and has worked with various US governmental administrations since its collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security in 2010.

A council spokesperson confirmed that they are exploring ways AI can enhance and streamline services. “In this initiative, we are assessing a variety of AI solutions and technology partners, including Palantir, to support our AI objectives. Our top priority remains to evaluate AI’s value for future investments while maintaining rigorous data protection and governance standards.”

The contract was awarded following standard procurement protocols and met all “strict security and compliance requirements.”


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Question Block




Nintendo in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Asker Karimalin/Alamy

The well of questions is drying up, so please send them in. I dug through the email archives for this one. Luke:

“With all of this, with game industry layoffs, the state of console gaming, and late capitalism, where does Nintendo fit in? All this? Big Because 3 is primarily a games company and not a division of a large tech company, they have quietly continued to operate without any major hiring or firings. Is this a by-product of their business culture, or something else?

There are many reasons why Nintendo is particularly resilient: it has large cash reserves, sells consoles at a profit rather than at a loss on hardware to make money on games, and has very high staff retention, allowing for the transfer of organizational knowledge. The company’s much-missed former president, Satoru Iwata, made headlines during the Wii U era when he cut his own salary to protect staff from layoffs. But this is not unusual: Japanese companies generally do not hire and fire employees repeatedly due to employment laws.

This article Gaming Industry Let me explain the labor protections that Japanese developers enjoy. It’s nearly impossible to fire employees unless a company is on the brink of bankruptcy. And this is just one of the many reasons why Japanese companies are not affected by the current flurry of layoffs. Thanks to investment from China and the size and profitability of the mobile games market, the games industry is stable and actually growing in Japan.

If you have any questions for the Question Block or any other comments about the newsletter, Please email us at pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Ireland embraces tech giants while neglecting public services

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IIn 1956, a man
TK “Ken” WhitakerAn Irish civil servant by training as an economist, he was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in Dublin at the relatively young age of 39. From his vantage point as the head of the national treasury, the outlook was bleak. The Republic of Ireland was in deep economic and social crisis. It had no natural resources, little industry, and was in deep depression. Inflation and unemployment were high. Ireland’s main export was young people, who fled by the thousands each year in search of work and a better life. The proud dream of Irish independence produced an impoverished nation of priests on the verge of collapse.

Mr. Whitaker quickly assembled a team of young officials to critically analyze the country’s economic failures and devise a series of policies to remedy them. As a result, a report titled “First Plan for Economic Expansion” was published in November 1958, and subsequently
Sean Lemas He was elected Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959 and became Ireland’s survival strategy.

At its heart were several important proposals. Ireland will have to embrace the idea of free trade. That would mean boosting competition and ending the protectionism that had been a feature of Irish economic policy under Lemas’s predecessor Airmon de Valera (whose economic philosophy was once described as “non-British”). But most importantly, the strategy requires that Ireland must welcome foreign capital in the future, which essentially means being nice to national companies, giving multinationals generous tax breaks, giving them help finding land to build on, and generally being responsive to their needs.

Whittaker’s strategy was bold, but it worked. (Of course, joining the European Economic Community in 1973 didn’t hurt either.) The republic moved from a state of deep socio-economic problems to an apparent paradigm of neoliberal prosperity. I have transformed. Foreign companies (mainly American companies) flooded in. German crane manufacturer Liebherr was an early entrant. In 1980, he was followed by Apple, and then came pharmaceutical companies. (Perhaps Viagra is manufactured in Ireland, once the holy land of Catholicism.) Then along came the big technology companies, many of which now have their European headquarters in Dublin.

If any of these behemoths had any doubts about coming to the Emerald Isle, two things would have reassured them. The first is Brexit. These companies had to join the EU. The second was how the republican government rushed to the rescue of one of its compatriots, Apple. When the European Commission concluded in 2016 that the company had been unfairly granted €13 billion in tax exemptions by Irish authorities, Apple not only successfully appealed this decision in 2020 but also had a similar ruling in 2020. was lowered.
The republican government did it.. Think about it for a moment. A small country is refusing to accept her 13 billion euro payment. (Incidentally, the Commission has appealed this decision, and it appears Apple may still have to pay an additional €1.2 billion in interest. This money is currently held in an escrow fund with the Irish government.)

But the subconscious message to corporate bosses was: “If you run into trouble with the EU, we will support you.” This message may have reached Beijing as well. In any case, it is
interesting to learn It comes just as the US and EU are considering cracking down on TikTok (whose owner ByteDance, coincidentally, is based in Dublin), and the Irish government is considering cracking down on popular e-commerce app Temu and other companies. It says that it welcomes Chinese-funded companies. Shein, and tech company Huawei.

I might regret this for the rest of my life, but for now, isn’t that all the treble? Only up to a certain point. On the one hand, the influx of foreign capital into Ireland was transformative. Tax revenue from resident high-tech companies is, on paper, making the country richer. The government is paying out of its ear.

surplus

65.2 billion euros by 2027.



Meanwhile, Ireland faces some difficult problems. For example, corporate wealth has done to Dublin what Silicon Valley did to San Francisco, turning a once livable city into a highly unaffordable metropolis. There is a huge
lack of affordable housing. A related homelessness crisis: around 12,000 people are in emergency accommodation, with an average monthly rent of €1,468. Add to that a creaky public health service (along with lavish and expensive private health services).

And it is the only country in Europe.
Population explosion underway: Current demographic trends indicate that the Republic
The population in 2016 was 4.7 million
somewhere in the range of about $5.5 million.
6.7 million people by 2051 By the end of this century, there will be 10 million people living on the entire island of Ireland.

There is a paradox here. Mr. Whitaker’s strategy is to build enough affordable housing to build all the affordable housing the country needs, to fund a world-class public health system, and to build a mass transit system that frees up the nation’s capital. It brought in tax revenue and created a society that was clearly richer than his wildest dreams. Traffic congestion, electrification of everything, etc. Nevertheless, it is ruled by a coalition government that appears unable to look ahead to the next election. Perhaps it is true that we are getting the government we deserve.

what i was reading

A game with a frontier

A great essay by Bruce Schneier
How “Frontier” became the slogan for uncontrollable AI.

talking points

Salvo, Volume 5 Featuring a fascinating interview transcript by Gavin Jacobson.
new statesman With the famous French economist Thomas Piketty.

into the clouds

The incredible ecological impact of computing and the cloud Anthropologist Stephen Gonzalez Montserrat details what he learned while working in a giant data center.

Source: www.theguardian.com

British Library starts process of reinstating digital services following cyber attack

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After enduring a severe cyber attack, the British Library is now in the process of restoring its main catalog online. This is a significant milestone as the catalog contains 36 million records of printed and rare books, maps, magazines, and sheet music.

Despite this progress, access is currently limited to a “read-only” format, and it may take until the end of the year for the National Library’s services to be fully restored.

Sir Rory Keating, the library’s chief executive, confirmed that the full restoration of all services will be a gradual process. This has been particularly challenging for researchers who rely on the library’s collections for their work and livelihood.

The devastating cyber attack, which occurred on October 31st and was claimed by the ransomware group Rhysida, caused the main catalog to be inaccessible online and led to the theft of some employee data.

Upon restoring the online catalog, users will have the ability to search for materials. However, the process for checking inventory and ordering materials for use in the library reading room will differ from before. Users will also need to visit the library in person to view offline versions of the specialized catalog.

The library has also acknowledged the financial impact of the attack, stating that significant spending will be required to rebuild its digital services and complete the technological recovery. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the impact of the attack on payments to authors through the UK’s public lending rights system.

Despite the challenges ahead, the library is committed to restoring its services to their full capacity and continues to work with cybersecurity experts to address the aftermath of the attack.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Akron Energy secures $110 million investment to expand Bitcoin mining operations and launch AI cloud services in Norway

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Akron Energy data center infrastructure company has closed a $110 million private funding round to expand its business, CEO Josh Payne exclusively tells TechCrunch.

The round was led by Bluesky Capital Management with participation from Kestrel 0x1, Nural Capital, and Florence Capital.

The company was founded in 2021 and started with a 5-megawatt site in Australia. Since then, its output has grown to over 130 MW, and it has expanded to other countries and regions such as the United States and Europe.

“These sites are attractive to both Bitcoin miners and AI.” [or] It’s a machine learning client that requires very high-powered computing,” Payne said. By the way, statistics show that 1 megawatt can power 400 to 900 homes per year. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Approximately $80 million will be used to acquire an additional 200 megawatts of capacity across new data centers in Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas as part of the company’s plan to increase its total megawatt capacity by 130% by mid-2024. be exposed. This is in addition to an existing 100-megawatt facility in Ohio that Akron purchased in June, Payne noted.

“The United States is an attractive market for us in many ways, primarily due to huge domestic customer demand, a mature and robust energy industry with multiple flexible deregulated markets, and a strong political and・Regulatory stability and attractiveness to institutional investors,” Payne said. “The United States has a wealth of underutilized and stranded generation assets that are connected to some of the lowest-cost power sources in the world, many of which are renewable.”

Payne said the majority of the company’s U.S. data center portfolio is made up of institutional-grade Bitcoin mining companies. “We are essentially landlords who own the underlying infrastructure assets.”

Akron’s business model is focused on strategically acquiring distressed data center assets around the world. “The current and future demand for data center capacity of all types seen around the world, especially in the United States, is unprecedented and huge. We have energy-intensive platforms that require significant amounts of electrical infrastructure.”

The remaining $30 million will be used to develop an artificial intelligence cloud services project at Akron’s data center in Norway to help serve the generative AI and large-scale language model training markets. “Over the past year, we have seen a significant acceleration in market demand for generative AI and large-scale learning model applications,” he said.

However, there is a lack of specialized physical infrastructure to power computers and support most of these products. Akron aims to fill that gap by providing the underlying infrastructure layer that the AI ​​sector relies on.

Over the past year, with spot ETF approval looming, on top of Bitcoin’s potential growth and adoption in the mainstream institutional market, there has been a “meteorous rise in AI applications,” such as Akron’s Specialized data centers are “poised to continue to grow exponentially,” Payne said.

Source: techcrunch.com

Google Addressing Antitrust Concerns in Germany Regarding Bundled Car Services

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The move follows a competitive objection filed against Google in Germany this summer over the bundling of Google Maps and other services through its Android-based in-vehicle infotainment system software, known as Google Automotive Services (GAS). The tech giant will eliminate some service bundling and contractual restrictions that apply to automakers to resolve regulatory intervention.

Google’s proposed remedies will be applied to the automaker in a market test by Germany’s competition regulator, which will then determine whether it resolves the problems it has identified.

Back in June, this country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) sends statement of objection He spoke to tech giants about how to operate GAS, specifically referring to the Google Maps, Google Play, and Google Assistant bundles that Google offers automakers.

The statement also highlighted Google’s practice of giving a portion of its advertising revenue to automakers only if they refrain from pre-installing other voice assistants next to their voice AI. Another concern raised by the FCO is that Google requires GAS license holders to set bundled services as default or prominently display them. It also took issue with Google’s refusal to restrict or allow interoperability of services included in GAS with third-party services.

At the time, the FCO said its preliminary view of Google’s practices around GAS was that they did not comply with German competition rules for large digital companies. This would give the FCO greater freedom to intervene where it suspects competition is being undermined.

“In particular, we are critical of Google’s ability to offer its services for infotainment systems only as a bundle. This reduces the opportunity for competitors to sell competing services as individual services. body,” the FCO said in the summer.

Regulators said they will now carefully consider Google’s proposal to determine whether an appropriate level of separation of its services from in-vehicle infotainment platforms would address competition concerns.

“We are particularly concerned about the forced bundling of the reach of services with significant market power with those with less power. “This is particularly problematic as a way to ‘infiltrate’ the market,” said FCO Chairman Andreas Mundt. press release Google is expected to announce its proposal on Wednesday. “It may reduce the opportunity for our competitors to sell competing services. We will now look very closely at whether Google’s proposal can effectively eliminate the practices that raised our concerns.” ”

Google’s proposed remedy to address the FCO’s competition concerns provides three products separately in addition to the GAS product bundle: Google Maps OEM Software Development Kit, Google Play Store, and Cloud Custom Assistant. This means that automakers will be able to: Develop mapping and navigation services with functionality comparable to Google Maps.

The addition of Google Play Store also allows end users to download a wider selection of third-party apps, alleviating concerns that they will be steered toward using Google’s own apps. Cloud Custom Assistant is described as a “proprietary AI voice assistant solution” for use in vehicles to enable automakers to offer competitive assistants.

The tech giant is also proposing to remove contractual clauses it imposes on advertising revenue sharing provided its proprietary Google Assistant voice AI is exclusively pre-installed on the GAS infotainment platform. .

“Google is also prepared to remove contractual provisions relating to setting Google services as a default application or displaying them prominently on infotainment platforms,” ​​the FCO said. “Finally, Google stands ready to enable licensees to combine the Google Assistant service with other mapping and navigation services and provide the technical prerequisites to create the necessary interoperability.”

“Based on the results of market testing, federal cartel ramt [FCO] It will be determined whether Google’s proposal generally addresses concerns that have been addressed to date. The question of whether Google’s proposal amounts to a bundled offering of Google’s services in the automotive sector will become decisive in this context.”

Google was asked for comment on the proposal.

The technology giant’s business was placed under Germany’s Special Competition Abuse Regulation Regime in January 2022. Since then, the FCO has extracted a number of concessions from the company over how it operates, including securing an agreement on Google’s data reform this autumn. Under the terms, users will be able to gives you more choice in how you can use your information. Last year, Google also proposed limiting how news content it licenses from third-party publishers appears in search results to address regulators’ concerns about self-preference.

Germany’s digital competition restart applies only to designated high-tech giants within the market, but companies may choose to apply product changes globally to manage operational complexity (For example, by launching a new account center, as Meta did this summer, users are opting out of cross-site tracking after the FCO intervened, and the company plans to roll this out globally.) announced).

The European Union has also recently implemented its own pre-competition reforms in the form of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) targeting so-called internet gatekeepers. The FCO’s enforcement against Big Tech therefore raises the possibility of what action will be taken across the bloc next year, when compliance deadlines for the six targeted his DMA gatekeepers and their 22 core platform services begin next year. You can get a glimpse of what’s going on. This list includes Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Ads, Google Chrome, Google Android, Google Search, and YouTube, the Google-owned video sharing platform.

Notably, the EU has not designated GAS as a core platform service. This may partly explain the FCO’s focus on GAS here, as competition regulators across the region seek to avoid duplication of intervention. (Germany’s status as a major automaker may also facilitate scrutiny of Google’s automotive software and services.)

The FCO also began proceedings on Google Maps in June 2022, some time before the DMA was approved by the bloc’s co-members.

On the other hand, the pan-EU regulation began to be applied in May 2023. However, the deadline for DMA gatekeepers to comply is March 2, 2024, so a full restart of Big Tech competition across the EU will not occur until then. next year. This may be enough reason for the FCO to continue monitoring Google Maps for some time. (In this regard, the German regulatory authorities also Said The EU will continue to “cooperate closely” with EU competition authorities on regulating the digital economy.

As of June 2023, the FCO has announced that it will continue to investigate Google’s terms of use for the Google Maps Platform (GMP), and in a preliminary assessment, the tech giant will end restrictions on combining its own GMP mapping services. Use a third party map service that you mentioned you need to type.

“These restrictions could hinder competition between applications relating to mapping services used by, for example, logistics, transport and delivery service providers,” the FCO said at the time. “It could also negatively impact competition among services for vehicle infotainment systems by making it more difficult for map service providers to develop effective alternatives to Google Maps.”

Ex-ante competition law reforms in Germany and across the EU are aimed at curbing fraudulent practices by digital giants that could further consolidate their vast market power, and European regulators are looking to move ahead with these more aggressive reforms. We hope that such interventions will have a better effect on correcting the imbalances in the digital economy. The implementation of a classic competition could be achieved. (A related example of classic enforcement is the 123 million fine that Italy’s competition watchdog imposed on Google in May 2021 over restrictions it applied to third-party app makers via its Android Auto in-car software.) There is a dollar fine.)

Source: techcrunch.com

Franks secures more capital to enhance automation of wealth services in Europe

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side has secured $8 million in Series A capital to build an API for automated wealth management services and democratize access to wealth management across Europe.

Earlybird Venture Capital led the round, with participation from existing investors JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital. Scalapay co-founder Raffaele Terrone and Upvest co-founder and CEO Martin Kassing supported the round as angel investors.

The Barcelona-based company was founded in 2019 by software engineers Joaquín de la Cruz and Sergi Rao, and private banking executive Alvaro Morales. Their vision is to digitize global asset data across custodians and bring it under one API so that customers can get a complete picture of their investment portfolios in real time and make more intelligent investment decisions. was to be collected.

Franks, whose clients range from major financial institutions to family offices and independent financial advisors, is taking advantage of ongoing regulatory changes in Europe, especially around open banking. Additionally, recently proposed legislation includes Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID III) focuses on open finance, establishing rights and obligations governing access to financial data beyond payment accounts.

Dela Cruz explained that with open banking, there was previously no way to share financial data with third parties or for financial advisors to understand their clients’ global asset allocation. That’s why the company created its “Open Wealth” software.

“Open wealth refers to a movement in the industry that allows customers to share their data with third parties,” Delacruz told TechCrunch. “Financial advisors can connect their clients’ information with just two clicks on the platform, allowing them to get all their client’s financial information (360-degree view) in a single source of truth. It will be.”

Flanks operates in Spain, France and eight other countries. We connect with over 300 banks around the world and aggregate over 500,000 investment portfolios every month. Over the past year he has doubled the number of clients to 100, focusing on large clients that could potentially bring his Flanks to millions of end users.

Meanwhile, the company has grown its revenue more than 4x over the past 12 months.

The Series A funding will help the team continue to expand its footprint internationally and strengthen its product pipeline. Last year, Flanks created a product based on data. For example, a no-code process that allows financial advisors to use and analyze data. Another is that if a customer moves to a new bank, her financial advisor can change banks with her two clicks.

“This is the best opportunity for data in years because data can be combined with AI to create many vertical products,” Dela Cruz said. “We now want to continue building end-to-end use cases, using OpenAI to connect data so that financial advisors can actually manipulate the data and help their clients grow their portfolios. We are currently developing a use case for this.”

Source: techcrunch.com