Every new year technology brings new innovations, new start-ups and, inevitably, new buzzwords and acronyms. Technology continues to be a major focus of investment and we will hear much more of fintech, robo-advice, ad-tech, nanotechnology, connected and driverless cars, as well as wonder products such as quantum dots and graphene amongst many other developments and trends in 2017. The Cloud seems rather old hat in comparison – writes Reg Hoare.
My overall prediction is that this excitement and innovation will always both attract and need capital – capital that wants to find a faster growing home in a low growth world, and young companies that need capital to commercialise their cash-hungry products.
Brexit, and its impact on our currency and economy, clearly remains a constraint to all this; how will investors, especially overseas ones, feel about a post Article 50 Britain…will it encourage them to move early in the New Year to gobble up the cream of the crop before the environment becomes more uncertain – or will they take the long term view that Britain will be a great place to do business from as we seek wider global parameters (rather than narrow European ones)?