Running News Fintech - Feb 19th, 2018

Modeling Automation a paper on how automation is going to affect society.
Authors: Daron Acemoglu, Pascual Restrepo
This paper points out that modeling automation as factor-augmenting technological change has several unappealing implications. Instead, modeling it as the process of machines replacing tasks previously performed by labor is both descriptively realistic and leads to distinct and empirically plausible predictions. In contrast to factor-augmenting technological change, the substitution of machines for labor in additional tasks always reduces the labor share in national income and can reduce the equilibrium wage (for realistic parameter values). link

The Impact of Big Data on Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation
In academic and policy circles, there has been considerable interest in the impact of “big data” on firm performance. We examine the question of how the amount of data impacts the accuracy of Machine Learned models of weekly retail product forecasts using a proprietary data set obtained from Amazon.
We do find that the firm’s overall forecast performance, controlling for N and T effects across product lines, has improved over time, suggesting gradual improvements in forecasting from the introduction of new models and improved technology. link

Algorithmic Toolbox Coursera Course link

GV Summit - Mexico agenda Thursday and Friday link

LendIt Fintech Industry Awards Finalists across all categories link

French Startup Lydia Says It Wants To Take On PayPal
Lydia is now the mobile payment leader in France, where it began by offering new users free and instant transactions between friends. Now, it allows users to pay in store, online and more with their account. Customers can even use it to pay on Cdiscount, France’s second-largest eCommerce website behind Amazon.fr.
And for places that don’t accept Lydia, the company has launched a credit card connected to the user’s Lydia account. It allows customers to replenish their balance with their personal IBAN, activate or deactivate features in real time and more. There’s also the option to enable the card and add it to Apple Pay.
Lydia processes around 1 million transactions per month – €25 million in monthly volume. There are more than one million registered users, with more than 2,000 people signing each day.
The company recently launched in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Portugal. There are plans to expand even further, with Germany and Austria the next targets. The company also plans to hire more staff; there are currently around 40 employees; the startup wants to increase to 60 employees by the end of this year, and 90 by the end of 2019. link More Lydia details: link

NepFin Finds White Space In Middle-Market Lending link

Google Clud Summit link

Instructors for Startup Investor School
We recently announced our new, free course for seed investors called Startup Investor School. The course will kick off in Mountain View on Monday, March 5 and run through Thursday, March 8. The four-day class will have two lectures per day from 10am until 12pm and will be live-streamed for online viewing. link; registration at: link

7 Companies From the YC Winter 2018 Batch - link

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