"Guides" Archives - Learn More on Startups, Business & Tech - 91̽ /category/guides/ Startup News UK and Tech News UK Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:30:44 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 /wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cropped-techround-logo-alt-1-32x32.png "Guides" Archives - Learn More on Startups, Business & Tech - 91̽ /category/guides/ 32 32 The Best AI Medical Note-Taking Platforms Compared /guides/the-best-ai-medical-note-taking-platforms-compared/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:00:26 +0000 /?p=155641 Healthtech has emerged as an exciting sector in the UK AI startup market. While the consumer AI space has been...

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Healthtech has emerged as an exciting sector in the UK AI startup market. While the consumer AI space has been dominated by AI chatbots and coding assistants, a smaller, niche market, ambient AI scribes, have raised significant funding, secured NHS-scale partnerships and have excelled in an area many AI products do not: show tangible return in investment.

What Issues Are AI Medical Note-Taking Platforms Solving?

Writing and updating documents is one of the most time consuming aspects of a clinician’s job. General Practitioners (GPs) and even hospital clinicians spend a large amount of time during a meeting typing to complete a document rather than engaging with the patient in front of them. AI scribing solutions are able to listen to the meeting using the voice of a clinician, complete a digital transcription and automatically generate a formatted clinical note for review and submission. The more advanced platforms go further still, drafting referral letters, suggesting clinical codes and writing directly back into systems like EMIS and SystmOne.

How Fast Are AI Systems in Health-Tech Growing?

From a startup viewpoint, these developments represent a rapid land grab opportunity. Within a year or two, several companies have gone from pilots to deploying their systems in several thousand practices, helped by venture capital and NHS partnerships. This is one of the few AI industries where the claim of working AI systems is substantiated by results of real hospital trials, rather than by vendor marketing. Basically, in a short space of time, the ambient scribe category has grown from a few initial pilots to a well-funded, genuinely competitive market.

For those observing this sector from a startup or investment point of view, there are a few important trends can be identified:

NHS Guidance Offered

NHS England has effectively opened a rapid adoption route, in that its guidance on AI-enabled ambient scribing products and the DTAC compliance framework, provide a clear, if not easy, path to large enterprise adoption for startups. This is something that many AI focus areas do not have.

The Role of Accurx Scribe

Distribution is becoming as important as the underlying model. Backed by venture capital, the well-known software, Accurx Scribe, advantage isn’t necessarily technical superiority, but it’s that Accurx already sits inside roughly 98% of UK GP practices, turning a cold-start adoption problem into a feature toggle.

How Competitors Are Entering The Market

Major competitors are on the move. Epic has introduced its own version of ambient scribe technology by utilising Microsoft’s Dragon AI and Cosmos data Platform and athenahealth has introduced ambient AI for free in the US. This is the classic example of a successful startup-market trend. Once the startup has shown that a product category has value, the big platform companies, in this case the competitors, come in to monopolise it.

What to Look For in an AI Medical Scribe

Before assessing individual platforms, it is important to identify what differentiates a quality AI scribe from an average one. Some simple questions to use are as followed:

For Clinical Accuracy: Can the scribe accurately discern what information is pertinent and what information is not?

EHR Integration:Can the scribe write directly into EHR systems like EMIS, SystmOne, or Epic? Or does the scribe require copy and paste?

Regulatory Status:In the UK, this includes the scribe being MHRA registered, DTAC compliant and having a DCB0129/0160 clinical safety case.

Template Flexibility:Can the scribe adjust how clinical notes are formatted for different specialties?

Data Handling Process:Does the scribe process and then discard audio? What is the scribe’s data governance policy?

Cost and Deployment Model:Does the scribe offer a free subscription for individual use? Or is the scribe only available via large scale practice or trust contracts?

Top AI Medical Scribes in The Space

Taking all mentioned above into consideration, including clinical accuracy, regulatory status and data handling processes, below are the leading platforms in the space:

Accurx Scribe (powered by Tandem Health)

Accurx Scribe has a distribution advantage that’s hard for competitors to match: it’s built into the Accurx platform already used by the vast majority of UK GP practices for patient communication, meaning many practices may already have access without a separate procurement process.

  • Best for: Practices already using Accurx that want documentation added with minimal additional onboarding
  • Strengths: Direct EMIS and SystmOne write-back, links transcripts to the initial patient triage request, MHRA Class I registered and built for ephemeral audio processing
  • Considerations: As a newer, feature-within-a-platform offering, its scribe-specific functionality is less mature than dedicated tools like Heidi or TORTUS

Freed

Freed has built a reputation as a lightweight, affordable option, often highlighted for its accessibility to solo practitioners and small teams who want a straightforward scribe without complex configuration or enterprise procurement.

  • Best for: Solo practitioners and smaller practices wanting a simple, low-cost entry point
  • Strengths: Fast setup, browser-based EHR compatibility via a Chrome extension and a relatively simple pricing structure
  • Considerations: Lacks the depth of specialty-specific customisation and institutional governance features found in NHS-deployed tools

Nabla

Nabla is an ambient AI medical assistant known for fast note generation and broad multilingual support, making it a strong option for clinicians working with linguistically diverse patient populations.

  • Best for: Clinicians wanting quick note turnaround and multilingual consultation support
  • Strengths: Real-time transcription, automatic SOAP note generation tailored to a clinician’s writing style, direct EHR import and a HIPAA-compliant architecture
  • Considerations: Positioned more toward general clinical documentation than deep specialty-specific templating

Abridge, Nuance DAX Copilot and Enterprise US Platforms

For context, it’s worth noting the enterprise end of the market, even though UK adoption of these specific tools remains limited. Abridge and Nuance DAX Copilot are widely used across large US health systems with deep Epic integration, priced accordingly at the enterprise level. Neither currently offers the same depth of Epic-style integration within UK systems that TORTUS, Heidi and Accurx Scribe now offer for EMIS and SystmOne. So, it is important to understand that the ‘best’ platform often depends heavily on which healthcare system and EHR a clinician is actually working within.

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VoIP Is Brilliant For Some Businesses But Overkill For Others – Where Does Yours Fit? /guides/voip-is-brilliant-for-some-businesses-but-overkill-for-others-where-does-yours-fit/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:30:16 +0000 /?p=155607 Setting up a business phone system isn’t particularly thrilling, but it does have to be done. It’s one of those...

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Setting up a business phone system isn’t particularly thrilling, but it does have to be done. It’s one of those things that you usually don’t look back at once it’s going – until there’s a problem. Maybe a customer suddenly can’t get through to anyone. Or you get the monthly bill with a staggeringly high amount. Then it becomes the thing that everyone notices.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has been slowly replacing traditional phone lines for years. The impending 2027 landline switch-off has forced some businesses to make the switch sooner.

VoIP certainly has its benefits and there’s a reason why so many businesses have willingly moved over. For one thing, it’s much more affordable to make calls, especially long-distance ones. Then there’s the flexibility aspect. It can grow comfortably alongside your business, unlike landlines which required more money and hardware to do so.

It really is a worthwhile piece of technology but the truth is, it’s not equally brilliant for everyone. So, how do you know if it’s right for your business?

First Things First, What Does VoIP Do?

While traditional phone systems use copper wiring, VoIP uses an Internet connection to make voice and video calls. And that’s pretty much the whole concept really.

What makes it interesting though, isn’t the technology itself, but what it’s capable of doing. It’s not just a physical object bolted to a wall anymore or tied to your desk. It goes with you, the numbers become real data to use and adding a new line takes roughly the same effort as adding someone to a WhatsApp group chat.

Keep those things in mind, because it explains why certain businesses will benefit more than others.

Which Businesses Are Better Suited To VoIP?

It’s not to say that VoIP should only be reserved for certain types of businesses or that not everyone can use it. From an affordability perspective, almost every business and even residential households can benefit from using it.

However, there are specific businesses that can get the most value out of their VoIP systems while others may not necessarily need all of its features and capabilities.

It’s A Winner For Remote And Hybrid Teams

If your team is working across kitchen tables, co-working spaces and maybe the occasional airport lounge, VoIP is literally the glue to hold your communications together.

When you have a traditional setup, a phone number belongs to a desk. With VoIP, it belongs to a person – and goes with them, wherever that may be. Even if you’re three time zones away from your team, everyone answers the same company number and you can pick up from your phone, laptop, headset or whatever’s nearest.

Businesses Where The Phone Is The Business

If your team spends most of their working day on a call, VoIP becomes a huge operational upgrade. Call centres, customer support teams, estate agents, recruitment agencies, you name it.

And it’s purely because of the features that VoIP offers, and most come as part of the standard plans and you don’t need to pay extra for them. Set up call queuing so nobody has to listen to an engaged tone. Use call recording for training and compliance purposes. Integration with CRM tools so your team already know who’s calling and their history before they pick up the phone on their side.

This is really where VoIP stands out and where companies can get the most out of what they pay for.

Seasonal Businesses Operational For A Short Period

Some businesses, especially those in hospitality, tourism or events, don’t always have a steady headcount. And when it’s season, they end up drowning. It just doesn’t make sense to pay for a set number of lines on a traditional phone system when your numbers change so often.

With VoIP, you can add and take away users from your dashboard without any extra cost. In peak season, you can add as many as you need and then drop it back down afterwards.

Appointment-Heavy Services

Dental or medical practices, law firms and salons will be all too familiar with an enormous volume of short, repetitive calls about bookings happening throughout the day, sometimes simultaneously.

VoIP features like automated menus can help route callers to the right person to speak to and voicemail transcription sends an email or text straight to your receptionist to see what was missed.

Who Are The Businesses That Should Think Twice?

VoIP needs a stable Internet connection to work so if you’re in a rural area or have patchy coverage, it might end up being more of a headache than a saving grace. Electricity is another thing to think about because if you have power cuts often, your phone system goes down too.

If your business has a very low call volume, you may find the switch to VoIP rather underwhelming. A mobile might suit you just fine if you only have a handful of calls a week.

But for those who are working remotely, growing unpredictably or have so many calls that your coffee gets cold before you get to it, VoIP offers far more than just a phone system.

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What Is A SAFE Note? /guides/what-is-a-safe-note/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:49:38 +0000 /?p=155427 A lot of startup funding terms sound far more complicated than they actually are, and the term “SAFE note” isn’t...

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A lot of startup funding terms sound far more complicated than they actually are, and the term “SAFE note” isn’t any different.

If you’ve spent any time reading funding announcements, you’ve probably seen startups proudly announcing that they’ve raised X amount through a SAFE. For first-time founders, however, the term can be a little confusing. Is a SAFE a loan? Is it equity? Is it some kind of hybrid? What is it?

SAFE notes have become one of the most popular ways for early-stage startups to raise money, particularly before they’ve reached a stage where putting a clear valuation on the business makes sense.

What Is A SAFE Note?

SAFE stands for Simple Agreement for Future Equity. Basically,a SAFE allows investors to give a startup money today in exchange for the right to receive shares in the future.

Unlike a traditional investment round, where investors buy shares immediately, a SAFE delays that whole conversation until a later funding round, when the company is bigger and its valuation is easier to determine.

You can think of it as a placeholder agreement. The investor backs the company early, and their investment converts into equity when a future event triggers it, usually a larger fundraising round.

Why Were SAFE Notes Created?

SAFE notes were introduced by well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2013 as a simpler alternative to convertible notes.

Before SAFEs became popular, plenty of early-stage startups used convertible notes, which are basically loans that convert into shares later on. The problem was that loans come with extra complexity, including interest rates, repayment dates and additional legal paperwork.

SAFE notes, however, stripped much of that away. And forfounders trying to build a business rather than spend months negotiating legal documents, unsurprisingly, that simplicity proved attractive.

How Does A SAFE Work?

Imagine a startup raises £100,000 through a SAFE.An investor provides the cash, but they don’t receive shares straight away. Rather, they receive an agreement that states that when the company raises a future priced funding round, their investment will convert into equity.

The exact number of shares they’ll receive depends on the terms of the SAFE and the company’s valuation at the time.This allows founders to secure funding without having to answer one of the most difficult questions facing any early-stage business. Questions like,“how much is this company actually worth?”And at the idea stage, the answer is often little more than an educated guess.

What Are Valuation Caps And Discounts?

If you’ve looked into SAFE notes before, you’ve probably come across terms like valuation cap and discount rate, and these principles are actually quite straightforward.

Investors take on more risk by investing early, so SAFEs usually include terms that reward them for backing the company before everyone else.

Now, a valuation cap sets a maximum valuation at which their investment can convert into shares. And a discount gives them the ability to buy shares at a lower price than investors participating in the future funding round.

Both mechanisms are designed to ensure early supporters receive a benefit for taking that initial risk.

Why Do Founders Like SAFE Notes?

The biggest advantage of SAFE notes for founders is speed.Traditional funding rounds can involve lengthy, time-consuming negotiations, valuations, legal costs and significant amounts of paperwork. SAFE notes, on the other hand, tend to be quicker and more straightforward.

They also allow founders to focus on growing the business rather than getting bogged down in discussions about valuation before they’ve fully proven their concept.

For startups still testing products, finding customers or building traction, that flexibility can be incredibly valuable. Because if there’s one thing startup founders don’t have, it’s a lot of spare time.

Are There Any Downsides To Using SAFE Notes?

Like most things in startup life, there are always trade-offs.Because SAFEs convert into equity later, some founders underestimate how much ownership they’re giving away. Raising multiple SAFE rounds without careful planning can result in more dilution than expected when conversion eventually takes place.

Of course, the simplicity of a SAFE can also create a false sense of security. Just because the paperwork is shorter doesn’t mean founders shouldn’t fully understand what they’re agreeing to.

So many startup headaches have started with a founder signing funding documents they didn’t properly understand.

Are SAFE Notes Right For Every Startup?

Nothing in business is necessarily right for every startup, because every founding team and every business is different.

SAFE notes tend to work best for very early-stage companies that need funding but aren’t ready for a formal priced round. They’re particularly common in pre-seed and seed fundraising. As companies grow and attract larger investments, traditional equity rounds often become more appropriate.

That said, SAFE notes have become a standard part of the startup ecosystem these days. For many founders, they’re one of the first fundraising tools they’ll encounter. And despite the slightly intimidating name, the concept is refreshingly simple. That is, raise money now, and then work out the exact equity details later. For startups trying to move quickly, that’s often exactly what they need.

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Top Alternatives To Skyscanner /guides/top-alternatives-to-skyscanner/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:58:13 +0000 /?p=155392 The internet means it’s easier than ever to plan a holiday or business trip using travel comparison websites. One of...

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The internet means it’s easier than ever to plan a holiday or business trip using travel comparison websites. One of the most popular is Skyscanner, which helps millions of travellers compare flights, hotels and car rentals.

That said, while Skyscanner is a great place to start, it’s not always the only, or best, in town. Another platform might have better prices, features or flexibility, depending on your budget, travel style or preferred payment options.

What Is Skyscanner?

Skyscanner is a travel search engine that compares flights, hotels and car hire options from hundreds of airlines, online travel agencies and booking sites. Skyscanner is a comparison platform that helps users quickly find what’s available on the basis of price, travel time, airline, number of stops and other preferences, rather than selling travel itself.

Skyscanner’s biggest strength is its flexibility. Travellers can search for flights to “Everywhere”, compare prices over a whole month and set price alerts to track price changes. That makes it especially useful for those with flexible travel dates who want to lock in the lowest possible fares. Skyscanner is one of the most trusted travel search engines in the world as it pulls results from many providers.

Why Would I Need To Use An Alternative To Skyscanner?

Skyscanner is a great comparison tool, but it’s not always the best way to get the absolute best deal. Travel websites have different partnerships with airlines, hotels and booking agencies, so prices and availability can vary from one site to another.

Some alternatives specialise in finding complex flight combinations, others in discounted accommodation, package holidays or even cryptocurrency payments. Skyscanner lacks some of the more sophisticated price prediction tools, loyalty schemes or exclusive member discounts available on some other platforms.

Hence the reason why experienced travellers often shop around on various booking sites before making a purchase. It’s worth taking a few extra minutes to check multiple platforms to potentially save a lot of money or get better travel options.

Choosing The Best Skyscanner Alternative

The best travel booking platform for you is the one that meets your needs. Google Flights is a great option for the fastest flight searches. In the end there isn’t one platform that always offers the cheapest prices on every trip. You can compare multiple travel websites before you book to make sure you get the best deal, more flexibility and the travel experience that is best for you.

Google Flights

Google Flights is one of the fastest and most user friendly flight search tools out there. It employs Google’s powerful search technology to scan hundreds of airlines almost instantaneously and displays the results in a clean, easy-to-understand interface.

One of the most important features of the site is the interactive calendar showing the variation of ticket prices for various dates of travel. You can also monitor flight prices and receive notifications when prices change, up or down.

Google Flights is especially useful for flexible travellers wanting to compare destinations or find the cheapest days for flights. It often connects users directly to airline websites, making booking easier and easier to handle changes or cancellations.

Travala

Travala has become one of the leading travel booking platforms for cryptocurrency users while also supporting traditional payment methods. The platform allows travellers to book flights, hotels and activities using dozens of digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and many more.

Unlike many conventional travel booking sites, Travala offers a modern payment system and a broad selection of travel options worldwide. Users are also able to benefit from the platform’s AVA Smart loyalty programme that rewards them with exclusive discounts. Travala is perfect for digital nomads, crypto enthusiasts and anyone looking for more payment options without sacrificing access to international travel.

Kayak

Kayak is a full travel comparison site that searches flights, hotels, rental cars and holiday packages all at once. It’s more than just searching for airfare, it helps travellers plan an entire trip from one platform.

Its price forecasting tool estimates whether flight prices are going to go up or down, helping travellers make more informed booking decisions. Kayak also has detailed filtering options, so it’s easy to filter down to airlines, layovers, baggage allowances and travel times. For travel lovers who want to plan every aspect of their trip in one place, Kayak is a very handy solution.

Momondo

Momondo is known for finding bargain flight prices that you might not see on other travel search engines. It compares airlines and many online travel agencies, offering users access to a wide choice of booking options.

Its colourful fare calendar makes it easy to spot cheaper travel dates, while flexible search tools allow travellers to compare nearby airports and alternative routes. If you’re on a budget and open to trying out different travel combinations to save money, Momondo is particularly helpful.

Kiwi.com

Kiwi.com stands out with its unique virtual interlining technology. Instead of simply showing flights available via airline partnerships, Kiwi builds new travel itineraries by combining different airlines that typically don’t cooperate with each other.

This often means lower prices or more convenient routes that you can’t get from traditional booking sites. Many self-transfer trips on Kiwi also come with a booking guarantee, which adds even more peace of mind. Kiwi may be of significant value for those looking for multi-city adventures, international backpacking trips or strange flight combinations.

Hopper

Hopper uses AI to help travellers know when to book flights and hotels at the best price. It doesn’t just show the current price, but also looks at past fare data to predict whether prices are likely to rise or fall. They are told whether to book now or to wait for a better deal.

This predictive technology can help travellers save money and reduce the uncertainty of when to buy tickets.

Expedia

Expedia is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies and has much more to offer than just flights. Users can book flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, holiday packages and activities on the platform.

One of the biggest strengths of Expedia is the package deals. Booking flights and accommodation together can sometimes get you discounts not available if you buy them separately. Its loyalty programme also offers frequent travellers additional savings and travel perks over time.

Trip.com

Trip.com is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies and has rapidly expanded to provide complete global coverage of flights and hotels.

The platform is especially strong for travel within Asia, where it has many airline and hotel partnerships. But it also offers competitive international rates and regular promotions to worldwide destinations. Trip.com is a great option for international travellers, with multilingual customer support and a handy mobile app.

Booking.com

While Booking.com is mainly known for accommodation, it has grown into a full travel platform which now includes flights, car rentals, airport taxis and holiday packages.

Its massive hotel portfolio includes luxury resorts and boutique hotels as well as apartments, hostels and vacation homes. The great thing about Booking.com is that many of the places to stay have flexible cancellation policies, so if your plans change you are covered.



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How To Choose A Fintech Software Development Partner That Can Build, Secure And Scale Products /guides/how-choose-fintech-software-development-partner-build-secure-scale-products/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:31:17 +0000 /?p=155429 Money moves fast. Your software has to move faster without ever breaking the trust of the people using it. That’s...

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Money moves fast. Your software has to move faster without ever breaking the trust of the people using it. That’s the hard part. Everything else, the frameworks, the sprint boards, the design files, is just detail layered on top of that one requirement.

A fintech product isn’t an app with a “pay now” button stuck on it. It touches accounts, transactions, identity data, bank integrations, fraud signals, cards, loans, wallets, reports, and support tickets, often all at once, in the middle of the night when nobody’s awake to answer a page. One sloppy API endpoint or one reconciliation rule nobody thought through, and you’re looking at lost revenue, angry users, or a regulator asking questions you don’t have good answers for.

So picking a isn’t a “grab three quotes and pick the cheapest” decision. It’s closer to picking a technical co-founder, even if nobody frames it that way in the vendor deck. Get it right, and you launch something that holds up when real money starts flowing through it.

Get it wrong, and you end up with pretty screens sitting on logic that quietly falls apart the first time something unusual happens and you usually don’t find out until it’s already live.

What Does a Fintech Software Development Company Actually Do?

At the basic level, these companies build digital products for financial services: banking apps, payment platforms, lending portals, investing tools, wallets, insurance software and back-office systems nobody outside the company ever sees but that keep everything running.

Writing the code is really only half the job. The team also has to think through money movement, identity checks, security, compliance obligations, third-party providers, and how support staff will actually use the thing on a Tuesday afternoon when three customers call about the same bug.

The work usually spans product design (user flows, dashboards, transaction screens), frontend and backend development, integrations with banks, KYC providersand card issuers, security controls like authentication and encryption, compliance support for frameworks like PCI DSS or AML/KYC rules, rigorous QA and DevOps for cloud infrastructure and releases.

One thing worth saying plainly: no vendor can make your company “compliant” purely by writing good code. Compliance depends on your legal structure, internal policies, licensing and how your staff behaves day to day. Good software gives you the technical controls needed to meet those obligations; it’s a load-bearing piece of the puzzle, not the whole thing. Any vendor who tells you otherwise is either inexperienced or selling you something.

Why This Is Nothing Like Building a Regular App

A food delivery app can get away with a push notification that never arrives. A fintech app cannot get away with showing someone the wrong balance, even for thirty seconds. That difference reshapes how the product gets built, tested, and shipped.

Who’s allowed to see this account? Who approved this payment, and can you prove it later? What happens the instant a bank’s API drops mid-batch? If a customer disputes a charge three months from now, can you reconstruct exactly what happened and in what order? None of this is “phase two” work, it’s the actual product. A checkout button isn’t hard to build. A checkout button that behaves correctly when the payment processor times out halfway through, or when the same request gets submitted twice because a connection blipped, is the real engineering problem.

This is where fintech-specific experience earns its keep. Engineers need to understand authorisation flows most web developers never touch, how ledgers behave under the hood (double-entry accounting is load-bearing here, not trivia), and why “we’ll add audit logs later” should worry anyone who hears it.

APIs deserve a specific mention, since they’re a favorite attack target. OWASP’s rundown of top API security risks puts broken object-level authorisation and broken authentication near the very top and in fintech, APIs are often the only thing standing between an attacker and someone’s account. Security has to be part of the architecture from the first whiteboard session, not something tacked on the week before launch.

There’s a psychological angle too. Users of fintech products are anxious about their money in a way they’re not anxious about a food order. A slow-loading balance screen reads as “did something go wrong” rather than “the app is laggy today.” A good fintech team designs for that anxiety instead of ignoring it.

The Services a Fintech Vendor Should Actually Offer

Most projects sound simple at first “we just need an app” and then the scope grows quietly, usually around week three once compliance joins the meetings. Knowing which services a vendor genuinely covers, versus which ones they’ll figure out on your dime, saves a lot of budget later.

Digital banking software covers online portals, mobile apps, card controls and admin dashboards. The screens are easy; getting account logic and permissions right, then wiring it into banking infrastructure that often speaks a dialect of API design from decades ago, is where things get hard.

Plenty of legacy banking cores still run on overnight batch cycles rather than real time, and a vendor who doesn’t ask about this early will surprise you later with a feature that simply can’t work the way it was pitched.

Payment software includes gateways, payout systems, subscription billing, and cross-border payments.

Card data brings its own baggage: PCI DSS sets the bar for protecting payment info, and a decent vendor leans on tokenisation and trusted processors to keep your compliance scope small. Payment flows look simple in a wireframe and turn complicated fast once you account for partial refunds, disputed charges and the gap between “authorised” and “captured.” Cross-border payments add another layer of exchange rates that shift between initiation and settlement, correspondent banking delays and compliance screening that varies by corridor.

Lending software covers borrower onboarding, credit checks, scoring, e-signatures and repayment schedules. Speed matters for conversion, but explainability matters just as much if someone’s rejected for a loan, you may need to say exactly why, in language both a regulator and a customer understand. A black-box score with no rationale is a liability dressed up as a feature.

Wealthtech platforms need careful permission design, since a retail investor, an advisor, and a compliance officer all need very different windows into the same data. Market data licensing, feed outages during trading hours, and how you present performance without implying advice you’re not licensed to give round out the list of easy-to-miss details.

Regtech and compliance tools KYC, AML screening, case management, transaction monitoring cut down manual review by making every decision traceable. Building this well means designing for the compliance analyst’s actual workflow, not just the customer’s.

Embedded finance payments, loans or cards folded into a non-financial product lives or dies on clean APIs and real partner management, since a bank or licensed partner usually handles the regulated part while your software handles the experience layer.

What a Good Fintech Partner Should Bring To The Table

A vendor worth hiring will push back on some of your assumptions early. If a company agrees to everything on the first call without a single question, that’s not reassuring. It usually means they haven’t thought it through, or they have and would rather win the deal first and surface the hard truths later.

Watch for specific behaviors: do they ask about your target markets and licenses? Do they map out money flows early, define user roles up front, design audit logs from day one and plan for provider outages? Do they talk through data retention honestly and offer phased delivery instead of promising everything at once? A good partner thinks in systems, not just screens and that shows up in whether they ask “what happens if this fails” about every major flow or just start sketching wireframes.

A Buyer’s Checklist For Choosing a Fintech Vendor

You don’t need to be technical to evaluate a vendor properly, you just need to ask the right things and pay attention to answers that make you slightly uncomfortable.

Do they understand your business model? Payments, lending, banking, wealth and embedded finance each carry a different risk profile. Ask: “What are the top three risks in a product like this?” A vague answer (“security and scalability”) tells you a lot. A specific answer naming real failure modes tells you the opposite.

Can they explain the architecture in plain English? Ask for a simple diagram. You should be able to follow how data moves and where sensitive information sits without an engineering degree.

Have they built something like this before? Ask for real case studies of what the product was, what went wrong, and how they handled it. A vendor who can talk honestly about a problem is more trustworthy than one claiming a flawless record, because flawless records in this industry are rare.

How seriously do they take security? This should come up before you even ask. Listen for authentication, encryption, secrets management, dependency scanning and incident response. A good litmus test: “How exactly do you stop one user from seeing another user’s account data?” A confident, specific answer is a good sign; “industry-standard security practices” is not.

How do they actually test financial logic? Fintech QA means testing balances, duplicate requests, failed payments and expired documents, not just clicking through buttons. If they can’t name sample test scenarios on the spot, they probably haven’t done this kind of work before.

What happens after launch? Ask about support hours, bug priority, monitoring, and rollback plans and ask explicitly, in writing, who owns the code.

Features Most Fintech Buyers End Up Needing

Every fintech product looks different on the surface, but most come back to the same building blocks. User onboarding needs to balance friction against fraud. Too many steps and people drop off, too few and fraud walks in the front door. KYC and KYB verify people or businesses through document checks and sanctions screening; sequencing these checks matters too, since front-loading every verification step before a user can do anything tends to tank conversion.

Account and transaction management needs clean balances and obvious status labels for users, and a full picture of retries and provider responses for internal teams. Payments and payouts need clear, distinct states, because pending and settled are not the same thing, and treating them as if they are created confusion that ripples into every support ticket about money movement.

The admin panel is where the real day-to-day work happens, and it’s routinely under-prioritised compared to the customer-facing app. A clunky admin panel turns a five-minute support resolution into a forty-minute one, multiplied across every ticket, every day.

Analytics and reporting should drive real decisions, not just look impressive on a dashboard nobody uses. Alerts and notifications need to route the right issue to the right team automatically. Audit logs need to be searchable and detailed enough to explain what happened months later, when memory has faded and the system’s record is the only source of truth.

The Development Process Start To Finish

A good process doesn’t have to be slow, it just has to be honest about what’s actually done versus “mostly done,” which in software often means not done at all.

Discovery is the stage most teams rush and it determines almost everything downstream. It means mapping every money flow end to end, identifying every user role and having an honest conversation about which regulations apply and what technical controls they actually require. Skipping this is the single most common cause of expensive mid-project pivots.

Architecture decisions made early are hard to unmake later. A good architecture phase produces a diagram you can actually follow showing how a payment moves from a user’s tap to final settlement, with every system it touches marked clearly.

MVP development is usually the longest phase, and scope discipline matters most here. The temptation to add “just one more feature” before launch is constant and it’s almost always a mistake. A narrower MVP that launches on time beats a bloated one chasing feature completeness nobody’s validated yet.

Testing needs to go beyond confirming buttons work. It means deliberately trying to break things: submitting the same payment twice, simulating a provider timeout mid-transaction, checking whether a support agent can access data they shouldn’t. This adversarial mindset is what separates fintech-experienced teams from ones applying general QA practices to a domain that doesn’t tolerate the same margin of error.

In fintech, MVP shouldn’t mean “cheap and half-finished.” It should mean the smallest version you can safely put in front of real users and “safely” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Build Buy Or Partner?

Not everyone needs a fully custom build. Off-the-shelf SaaS suits fast internal workflows and simple pilots but limits control. White-label platforms get you to market quickly with brand control, at the cost of vendor lock-in. Custom development suits a unique product with long-term ownership goals, at a higher upfront cost. Hybrid models combine a fast launch with custom modules, at the cost of extra integration complexity.

The right choice depends on your business model. If your product logic is genuinely your competitive edge, a novel underwriting model, a unique fee structure and custom development is usually worth the extra time, because you’re protecting something valuable. If speed matters more right now, a white-label or SaaS base might be the smarter first step.

On geography: offshore teams often offer real cost advantages, and plenty have deep fintech expertise; the assumption that offshore means lower quality is outdated. What matters far more is whether the team has actually shipped fintech products before and whether time zone overlap supports real collaboration.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign Anything

Ask whether they’ve built fintech products like yours, and push for specific examples rather than generic claims. Ask which risks they see in your specific product fraud, compliance, provider downtime, reconciliation. Ask how they’ll design permissions and audit logs, how they handle payment failures and what sensitive data you should avoid storing in the first place.

Ask who owns the source code, in writing and what happens if you switch vendors later. If the answers stay vague on more than a couple of these, keep looking, no matter how polished the rest of the pitch was.

Fixed-price contracts sound appealing but rarely fit a fintech project’s real scope, which isn’t fully known until discovery is complete. A vendor insisting on a fixed price before real discovery is either padding the estimate to cover their own risk, or planning to cut corners once reality diverges from the plan and in this kind of project, it always diverges. Time-and-materials or a hybrid where discovery is fixed and development is phased, tends to produce more honest outcomes.

Mistakes Buyers Keep Making

Going with the cheapest quote usually just means missing work security, QA, documentation and maintenance don’t disappear because nobody priced them in; they come back later as delays or surprise invoices. Treating compliance as a checkbox ignores that your legal obligations still need a lawyer’s eyes, not just clean code. Forgetting the admin side means pouring attention into the customer app while operations quietly drowns in manual work.

Underestimating integrations forgets that sandbox behavior rarely matches production exactly, a lesson every fintech team learns the hard way at least once. And skipping exit planning code ownership, documentation, data exports is a lot easier to prevent up front than to fix once you’re already trying to leave.

What Does Fintech Development Actually Cost?

There’s no honest, one-size-fits-all number and anyone who gives you one without asking questions first is guessing or anchoring you low to win the deal. Cost mostly comes down to product type, number of platforms, integrations, compliance needs, security level, data complexity, team size and timeline.

Ask any vendor to break their estimate down by phase discovery, design, development, integrations, testing, launch, maintenance. That alone makes comparing quotes far less confusing and it exposes vendors who’ve quietly left whole categories of work out of their number to look competitive on paper.

What Belongs In a Strong First Release

Your first release just needs to prove the product works, in the hands of real users doing real things with real money, however small the initial volume. It doesn’t need every feature you’ve imagined for version three. For most fintech products, that means secure onboarding, identity verification, the core transaction flow an admin panel, notifications, audit logs, basic analytics, monitoring and enough support tooling to cut down manual investigation time.

Ship the smallest version that’s safe, useful and something you can actually measure. Everything past that is a roadmap conversation, not a launch requirement.

Working With Your Vendor After The Contract Is Signed

Choosing well is only half of it. Set expectations early about communication cadence and who owns quick decisions on your side, because fintech projects generate a steady stream of small calls, a compliance edge case, a UX trade-off that stalls out without a clear owner.

Push for visibility into the actual product as it’s built, not just a monthly demo of curated highlights. And built in a genuine post-launch period, not a token support window, the first few weeks after launch are when real user behavior surfaces problems no amount of pre-launch testing could have caught.

Why The Right Partner Actually Pays Off

A well-built fintech product makes money movement feel obvious, almost boring, in the best possible way. It cuts support noise, lowers operational risk, and gives your team real control over what’s happening inside the system at any given moment. None of that happens by luck; it comes from careful product decisions, clean architecture, secure APIs, honest testing and a team that understands financial workflows, not just software in the abstract.

The right partner saves you from painful rewrites down the line and helps you make better calls before a single line of code is written, which is where the real cost savings live even though it’s the least visible part of the engagement.

Fintech buyers don’t need a team that only knows how to build screens. They need a partner that understands money, risk, data, users and operations as one connected thing, not five separate problems handed between departments that barely talk to each other.

A good partner asks hard questions early, explains trade-offs honestly even when the honest answer costs them part of the deal, designs for security from the start, and tests the ugly edge cases everybody’s grateful someone thought of. That’s what lets you launch something that can survive real users, real transactions and eventually a real audit without falling apart under the weight of its own success.

So when you’re comparing vendors, don’t just look at the pitch deck. Ask how the product could fail and ask what they’d actually do about it. That’s usually where you find out who’s worth hiring, and who’s just good at selling.

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What Does A Hedge Fund Analyst Do? /guides/what-does-a-hedge-fund-analyst-do/ Fri, 17 Jul 2026 08:50:53 +0000 /?p=155284 Before the hedge fund manager, we get the analyst. The person who does all the research before th hedge fund...

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Before the hedge fund manager, we get the analyst. The person who does all the research before th hedge fund manager even steps in.

While hedge fund managers are responsible for deciding how money is invested, hedge fund analysts are the people gathering the information, testing investment ideas and helping determine whether an opportunity is even worth pursuing in the first place. According to Investopedia, hedge fund analysts typically work on the buy side of the market, and in that capacity, they conduct proprietary research to support investment decisions within their own firm.

In many ways, they’re the engine room of a hedge fund.

Finding Opportunities Before Everyone Else

The main goal for a hedge fund analyst is quite simple. That is, find investments that could make money, and do that before everybody else does. But, actually doing that is anything but simple.

Analysts spend a lot of their time studying companies, industries and market trends to identify opportunities before competitors do. They evaluate factors like risk, volatility, potential returns and broader market conditions when assessing investments.

Depending on the hedge fund’s strategy, this could mean researching technology companies, analysing commodities markets, investigating economic trends or looking for opportunities created by major events such as mergers and acquisitions.

But the biggest challenge is that everyone else is looking at the same markets. Thus, the analyst’s job is to spot something that others have missed.

Digging Into The Data

A typical day might involve reviewing company earnings, reading industry reports, analysing financial statements or building financial models.

Analysts often have to examine huge amounts of information to determine whether an investment looks attractive. Hedge fund analysts conduct market research and develop investment proposals that are ultimately presented to portfolio managers. But having said all of this, it’s not all spreadsheets.

Research can also involve speaking to industry experts, tracking competitors, monitoring economic developments and following news that could affect a company’s future performance.

In some cases, analysts become highly specialised. One analyst might focus completely on technology stocks, while another covers healthcare, energy or financial services. In some ways, this is the best way to get really good at something and know as much as possible about the industry in question.

They’re Making Recommendations, Not Decisions

One of the biggest misconceptions about hedge fund analysts is that they’re the people buying and selling assets all day, but usually, that’s not the case. Analysts typically present their findings to portfolio managers, and then they’re the ones who then decide whether to act on those recommendations.

You can think of it this way: the analyst builds the case, and the fund manager makes the final call. A hedge fund manager is ultimately responsible for the performance of the fund, and the analyst’s role is to provide the information and insights needed to support those decisions.

Why Technology Is Changing The Job

Like most areas of finance (and pretty much most industries, at this stage), hedge funds are becoming increasingly reliant on technology. The modern analyst has access to far more data than previous generations ever did. Artificial intelligence, alternative datasets and advanced analytics tools are changing how investment research is conducted.

According to recent industry reporting, many hedge funds are now searching for unique sources of information as traditional advantages become harder to maintain. Some firms are even building specialised programmes designed to capture investment ideas from a wider range of sources, and this certainly has the potential to change the game quite significantly.

This means analysts are spending less time gathering information and more time interpreting it. So, the real value increasingly comes from understanding what the data actually means.

Skills That Matter

Strong numerical skills are a given (obviously, it’s a good idea to be good at math in this industry), but successful hedge fund analysts need a lot more than that.

One thing they also really neeed is curiosity. Markets are influenced by everything from politics and technology to consumer behaviour and global events. Good analysts are constantly asking questions, challenging assumptions and looking for patterns that others might overlook.

Communication is another thing that’s crucial. An analyst could uncover the best investment idea in the world, but if they can’t explain it clearly to decision-makers, it may never get funded.

Little Bit of Detective, Little Bit of Trader

Perhaps the easiest (and most fun) way to think about a hedge fund analyst is as an investment detective. Their job isn’t necessarily to execute trades or manage portfolios. Rather, it’s to investigate opportunities, gather evidence and build convincing cases for or against potential investments.

While hedge fund managers often receive the attention, analysts play a critical role behind the scenes. In an industry where information is everywhere, their value comes from figuring out which information actually matters.

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Here’s How VoIP Can Give Your Marketing A Real Edge /guides/heres-how-voip-can-give-your-marketing-a-real-edge/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:30:11 +0000 /?p=155047 If you had to mention your phone system in your next marketing strategy meeting, you might get a funny look...

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If you had to mention your phone system in your next marketing strategy meeting, you might get a funny look or two. It doesn’t really sound like it fits, does it? Social ads, email campaigns, maybe a shiny new landing page, sure. But a humble business phone? It doesn’t really scream “star of the show.”

More often than not, it’s something that you set up and never really think about again. Which is a bit of a shame because with that mindset, you’re missing out on a marketing tool sitting right there on your desk. With VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), your phone system suddenly offers data, reach and personalisation that doesn’t cost you more than what you’re already spending.

First Things First, What Is VoIP?

It sounds like quite a fancy acronym but simply put, VoIP enables you to make phone calls over the Internet rather than down traditional copper phone lines. Same calls, same conversations, they just travel through your broadband connection and that’s really all it is. With the 2027 landline switch-off looming, more businesses and residents have made the switch to VoIP.

While it just seems like a minor technical tweak, it’s precisely why VoIP can play such a big role in your marketing strategy. The fact that your calls are now digital means they can communicate with other software and be tracked and measured – none of which your landline phone system could ever dream of doing.

Every Call Comes With A Side Of Data

With VoIP, one of the gifts that keeps on giving is the information that it hands marketers on a silver platter. Very much unlike traditional phone systems where after the call has ended, you’ve learned almost nothing that you can actually use.

Fortunately, VoIP turns every call into a source of insight that you can actually act on.

Find Out Which Campaigns Make The Phone Ring

Have you ever run multiple marketing campaigns at once and didn’t know which one was pulling its weight? Call tracking can tell you pretty quickly. Give each campaign a dedicated phone number and VoIP will tell you which numbers are ringing – the Instagram ads, the billboard or email blast.

From there, you know where to put more of your budget into what’s actually working instead of just hoping for the results you want.

Learn What Customers Really Want

With the right permissions, call recording is a bit like a focus group that you didn’t have to pay for. If you take the time to listen back on the conversations with customers, you’ll start to see some patterns. If multiple people are asking you the same question, your message might not be clear enough.

Mentioning a specific competitor? Or a feature that you didn’t think twice about? All of that information is gold and you can feed it straight back into your campaigns. It’s like your customers are telling you how to sell to them, you just need to listen.

It Makes Every Caller Feel Like A Regular

The trick with good marketing is that it feels personal and VoIP can help with that, even over the phone. If you’re already using other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, it integrates with it and suddenly, your interactions become a lot smarter and tailored.

Your Phone Knows The Customer Before You Do

As soon a customer calls in, your CRM will tell you who it is and any details that you need to know. If your CRM is up-to-date, you can see their full history including purchases or prior complaints.

Not only do you save time by not having to ask them to repeat themselves every time they call, but it’s a personal touch that builds true loyalty. And it’s the loyal customers who will come back time and time again – the kind of marketing that you can’t buy.

Smarter Routing Means Happier Callers

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as being placed on hold or transferred from one department to another, having to repeat yourself each time. Generally, your customer wants to put the phone down before they get the help they need – not really the ideal situation.

VoIP sends callers exactly to where they need to go automatically, whether it be to sales or customer support. Every customer having the impression that your brand has their act together does wonders for your reputation.

It’s Time To Give Your Phone System Some Credit

VoIP won’t replace your marketing team or your creative ideas – and it really shouldn’t. It’s meant to be seen as one of those brilliant behind-the-scenes tools that can help make everything else run better. It gives you data that you can use, adds a personal touch and helps you reach new customers.

Not bad for something that you thought was just for answering calls, right? It’s definitely worth considering at your next marketing strat meeting.

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How Female Founders Are Reshaping Healthcare Innovation /guides/how-female-founders-are-reshaping-healthcare-innovation/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:01:43 +0000 /?p=155094 The technology and healthcare integration is accelerating fast and female founders are spearheading this evolution. Women are making advances in...

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The technology and healthcare integration is accelerating fast and female founders are spearheading this evolution. Women are making advances in diagnostics, AI, reproductive health, maternal care and medtech.

A lot of work has been done, attracting venture capital and altering the digital health landscape. Women founders are strengthening the health tech sector and challenging the current state of women’s health as a niche healthcare concern.

Femtech is A $60 Billion Sector and Growing

The femtech industry reached an estimated value of $60 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $103 billion by 2030. The increasing valuation of this market indicates the interest and demand for tech-enabled health solutions within this space. These solutions are being developed by founders with a solid understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the field.

In October 2025, prominent women’s health investor Jessica Federer scaled up institutional support for the sector as managing director of The Women’s Health Fund, helping oversee the launch of WH1, a flagship fund-of-funds designed to activate major life sciences capital.

The AI Governance Moment and Who Is Shaping It

A 2026 benchmark study found that no large language model exceeded 75% accuracy on women’s health clinical scenarios.The same study found that models consistently failed most on what researchers called ‘missed urgency’, the moments when a woman’s situation was most dangerous and the AI’s response was least reliable.

This performance gap became the immediate catalyst for the Women’s Health AI Consortium’s establishment in May 2026, with female founders taking the lead in constructing the industry’s response before government regulators moved to mandate one.

Sarah O’Leary-Willow

As the CEO of Willow, which focuses on connected maternal health services and advanced breast pump technology, Sarah O’Leary has become an industry luminary in the intersection of healthcare, AI governance and product innovation. In May 2026, O’Leary co-founded the Women’s Health AI Consortium alongside Ema EQ, in an effort to initiate the first industry-wide benchmarks for assessment of clinical safety, AI bias and transparency in Women’s Health.

Amanda Ducac-Ema EQ

Amanda Ducach, co-founder of the Consortium with Willow and CEO of Ema EQ, has built one of the most capital-efficient AI platforms in the space.She secured $3 million in funding to create a proprietary hybrid language model integrated with clinical governance, bias monitoring and AI. Building something scalable with that funding, The Ema EQ case has become one of the most cited examples in the conversation about capital efficiency among female-founded technology companies.

Ridhi Tariyal-NextGen Jane

Ridhi Tariyal is the founder of NextGen Jane, a women’s health company developing a non-invasive test for the diagnosis of endometriosis, a disease that affects the health of women in the tens of millions. Because the current method of diagnosis is surgery, it is a pressing need. Having received a $2.2 million NIH grant in 2025,Tariyal’s work sits at the frontier of diagnostic innovation, applying molecular biology to a clinical problem that has remained largely unsolved for decades.

Iman Abuzeid-Incredible Health

As the CEO and co-founder of Incredible Health, Iman Abuzeid is the leader of an AI-powered career marketplace that helps hospitals recruit permanent healthcare professionals rather than relying on temporary staffing. The solution has been adopted by over 1,500 hospitals and healthcare organisations as well as over 1 million healthcare professionals across the United States. Abuzeid has successfully created a two-sided marketplace at a significant scale that addresses one of the most challenging operational gaps in the delivery of health services, while also creating a new category within enterprise health technology.

Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks-Ovum

Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks is the founder of Ovum, an Australian FemTech company aiming to create the first ever AI, longitudinal dataset on women’s health in Australia. The platform will have the capacity to collect and store a diverse range of women’s health records, including blood work, imaging and other medical data.

Anna Jeter-AOA Dx

Anna Jeter is co-founder of AOA Dx and lead author of the Follow the Exits report, which documented the true scale of women’s health exit activity. When you look up these companies in PitchBook, they’re all segmented under equipment or diagnostics. None of them are classified as women’s health,”Jeter noted, identifying a structural problem in investment database taxonomy that has materially affected capital allocation. AOA Dx is simultaneously building a diagnostic business and reshaping how the investment community understands and tracks the sector.

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What Does A Hedge Fund Manager Do? /guides/what-does-a-hedge-fund-manager-do/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:59:45 +0000 /?p=155052 For many people, the title “hedge fund manager” brings a few very specific images to mind – fast-talking financiers making...

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For many people, the title “hedge fund manager” brings a few very specific images to mind – fast-talking financiers making million-dollar trades from sleek offices in New York or London. Fancy-dressing men with professional drivers on their payroll and briefcases that cost more than your car.

Now, the reality is a little less dramatic (most of the time), but having said that, hedge fund managers do occupy one of the most influential positions in the investment world. So, in many senses, the image that comes to mind is not totally inaccurate.

Hedge fund managers are responsible for managing large pools of money, making investment decisions and, ultimately, trying to generate returns for their clients. But, even that explanation is conflated and confusing.

Much like the classic “Friends” episode, “The One Where Everyone Finds Out”, in which none of the famous sitcom’s gang of pals can explain what his job is, the question we’re really asking is, what does a hedge fund manager actually do on a day-to-day basis?

But First, What Is A Hedge Fund?

It goes without saying that if we want to understand what a hedge fund manager is, we must first have a clear understanding of what a hedge fund itself is.

We’ll keep it simple. A hedge fund is a private investment fund that pools money from wealthy individuals, family offices and institutional investors. Where it differs from traditional investment funds is that hedge funds tend to have greater flexibility in how they invest. They can buy and sell stocks, trade currencies, invest in commodities, use derivatives and even bet against companies they believe will fall in value.

And the goal is normally quite straightforward. That is, to generate strong returns regardless of whether markets are rising or falling.

That freedom gives hedge fund managers plenty of opportunities, but as one may expect, it also comes with significant responsibility.

Managing Investments And Finding Opportunities

At its core, a hedge fund manager’s job is to decide where the fund’s money should go, which is the trickiest part.

This means constantly researching markets, analysing companies, tracking economic trends and identifying investment opportunities before others do. A manager might decide to invest heavily in artificial intelligence companies, short a struggling retail business or take positions based on interest rate changes.

Indeed, unlike traditional fund managers who may follow a specific index or sector, hedge fund managers often have much more freedom to pursue different strategies. Their success depends on their ability to spot opportunities and manage risk effectively.

In many ways, they are part investor, part strategist and part risk manager. And because they have more flexibility to make different decisions, it’s also quite a risky job.

Risk Management Is Just As Important

Unsurprisingly, pop culture tends to focus on the big bets hedge fund managers make – the large, flashy bets that carry the potential for both high risk and high reward. But, the reality is that a huge portion of the role revolves around controlling risk.

The thing is, every investment carries the possibility of losses. Hedge fund managers need to ensure that one bad trade doesn’t wipe out an entire portfolio. They monitor market conditions, diversify investments and use various techniques to reduce exposure when necessary.

This balancing act is often what separates successful managers from unsuccessful ones. Because, generating returns is important, but protecting investors’ capital is equally critical (if not more critical).

Leading A Team

The stereotype of the lone financial genius making every decision is very much outdated. These days, hedge fund managers often lead teams of analysts, traders, data scientists and researchers too. As a team, they’ll gather information, build financial models and provide insights that help shape investment decisions.

As technology becomes increasingly important in finance, plenty of hedge funds are also relying on AI tools, quantitative models and alternative data sources to gain an edge in the business. Some managers spend as much time reviewing data and overseeing research processes as they do placing trades. After all, the more information they have, the more informed decisions can be made.

Talking To Investors

Another misconception about hedge fund managers is that it’s all about dealing with capital and investments. But in reality, managing money is only one part of the job. Hedge fund managers must also maintain relationships with investors who have entrusted them with their capital. This means explaining investment strategies to them, discussing the performance of investments and reassuring clients during periods of market volatility.

After all, even the best investment strategy can face difficult periods. Investors want to understand why certain decisions were made and what the long-term plan is.

For managers running their own funds, fundraising can become a major part of the role. That is, they need to attract new investors while retaining existing ones.

Why Do Hedge Fund Managers Earn So Much?

In many ways, outside perceptions are accurate – hedge fund managers generally make very good money and are among the highest-paid professionals in finance.

Traditionally, many funds have operated on a “2 and 20” model, charging a management fee of around 2% of assets under management and taking 20% of any profits generated. While fee structures are evolving, not always the same for everybody, performance-based compensation remains a defining feature of the industry. And that’s a big part of why hedge fund managers earn the big bucks.

The logic is straightforward: if a manager can generate exceptional returns on billions of pounds worth of assets, the rewards can be enormous.

But, it goes without saying that the pressure is equally high. Poor performance, on the other hand, can quickly lead investors to take their money elsewhere.

Is It Still A Glamorous Career?

The image of hedge fund managers as financial rockstars has softened a little over the years. Today’s industry is increasingly driven by data, technology and rigorous risk controls rather than mere gut instinct alone.

That said, it remains one of the most competitive careers in finance. Successful hedge fund managers need strong analytical skills, deep market knowledge and the ability to make decisions under pressure. In fact, many begin their careers as analysts or traders before working their way up.

And for those who make it, the role offers the chance to shape investment strategies, manage significant sums of money and influence financial markets on a global scale.

So, while they may not all resemble the Hollywood version of the iconic image, hedge fund managers still sit at the centre of some of the biggest decisions in modern finance, and as a result, they make decent money in the process.

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What Is Multi-Modal AI? /guides/what-is-multi-modal-ai/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 08:01:28 +0000 /?p=154949 Artificial intelligence has come a long way from simple chatbots that could only process text. Today, some of the most...

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Artificial intelligence has come a long way from simple chatbots that could only process text. Today, some of the most advanced AI systems can understand and work with multiple types of information at the same time, including text, images, audio, video and even code. This is known as multi-modal AI.

In the most basic sense, multi-modal AI is AI that can process more than one type of data, or “modality”. Instead of only reading text or just analysing images, a multi-modal model can combine different inputs to build a richer understanding of a task. Basically, it can do all these things at once.

How Does Multi-Modal AI Work?

Traditional AI systems are often designed for a single purpose. For example, a chatbot might only understand text, while an image-recognition tool only processes pictures.

Multi-modal AI combines these capabilities into one neat package. It can analyse information from different sources, identify connections between them and generate responses using one or more formats. For example, a user could upload a photo, ask a question about it and receive a written explanation in response.

A multi-modal model can:

  • Analyse an image and describe what it contains
  • Listen to an audio recording and produce a transcript
  • Watch a video and create a summary
  • Read a chart or screenshot and answer questions about it
  • Combine text, images and audio to provide more accurate responses

Why Is Multi-Modal AI Important?

Humans naturally process information through multiple senses. We read text, look at images, listen to conversations and use context from different sources to understand the world around us, and we combine all these things to form one consolidated understanding.

Multi-modal AI aims to do something similar. By combining different forms of information, these systems can often provide more context-aware and accurate outputs than models limited to a single type of data.

This can make AI tools more useful in real-world situations where information rarely exists in just one format.

Where Is Multi-Modal AI Being Used?

Of course, multi-modal AI can be used in plenty of different contexts, and it’s already being used across a wide range of industries.

In healthcare, it can help analyse medical images alongside patient records. In customer support, it can interpret screenshots and photos submitted by customers. In autonomous vehicles, it can combine information from cameras and sensors to better understand the surrounding environment.

Many popular AI platforms now include multi-modal capabilities, allowing users to interact with AI through voice, images and video as well as text.

What’s The Difference Between Generative AI And Multi-Modal AI?

It’s a good question, because the two terms are often used together, but they’re not the same thing.

Generative AI refers to AI systems that create new content like text, images, music or video. Multi-modal AI refers to systems that can understand and process multiple types of input and output. A model can be both generative and multi-modal, creating content while also understanding information across different formats.

Is the Future Of Multi-Modal AI Bright?

Many experts see multi-modal AI as the next major step in the evolution of artificial intelligence. As models become better at understanding text, images, audio and video together, they are likely to become more useful across business, healthcare, education and everyday life.

Rather than treating information as separate streams, multi-modal AI brings them together, creating systems that can interact with the world in a way that feels much closer to how humans communicate and learn.

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