Investing Into The Future
Our Venture Partner Peter Augustin and our Investment Director David Teufel in an interview at New Business about the first Austrian crypto fund “Tigris Web3”.
Crypto Trends 2023
As the year comes to an end Venionaire’s Investment Director David Teufel summarised the crypto trends for 2023.
EU Regulations: DAC7 Implementation and its implications for platform operators
The constant expansion of the digital economy leads automatically to legal changes and adjustments. The 6th Amendment to the EU Mutual Assistance Directive, also known as DAC7, is a significant development in the effort to improve tax transparency and compliance in the digital economy.
Tear down the borders – About european cross-border digital signature legislation
Professional investment vehicles’ management teams are confronted with the need to sign a variety of legal documents on at least a weekly (if not daily) basis. Knowing this administrative necessity ourselves (and knowing about all the different business models out there having to do the same), we took the time to dive into the current state of digitization of signatures – and ended up investing in one company tackling this vertical.
Web3 Expert Wordrap with Danku_R
Danku_R is a Web3 Enthusiast and Crypto Blogger/Youtuber and supports Venionaire as Expert Partner in different web3 and crypto topics.
First Austrian Crypto Fund – Tigris Web3
Our team at Venionaire Investment is proud to announce that we have received approval from the FMA (Finanzmarktaufsicht) for the first Austrian “crypto fund” – Tigris Web3.
Discount for Blockchain Summit Austria
We know how important it is to organize the agenda from the beginning of the year in order to don’t miss anything. Let’s start by saving the dates of the most important events. 2019 will be full of technological events that will revolutionize the spectrum. There are more and more players in the field, more things to learn, professionals to meet, projects to be developed, etc. That’s why we don’t want to miss any of them, do you?
BLOCKCHAIN SUMMIT AUSTRIA: We are looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd of April. It will be a full two-day conference that will focus on the real applications of blockchain in different areas. Also if you want to learn how to start your own blockchain project or how to effectively implement the blockchain in your existing company, this is your event!
Use our promotion code and save 15% on your tickets!
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Experienced speakers, enthusiastic investors and opinion leaders will examine the opportunities and threats of this emerging technology. Don’t miss this unique opportunity!
Follow us on our social networks to get more discounts like this and be informed about other events!
Hightech Venture Days 2018 – Meet Europe’s Best Hardware Scale-Ups
In order to the new high-tech European companies to develop and survive in an international context, they need smart investors who support young companies with knowledge, networks and of course capital. Hardware in particular is extremely difficult, but it is possible and there is a Hub for them: Dresden, Germany!
HIGHTECH VENTURE DAYS 2018 Europe’s leading investors’ conference in the high-tech sector, showcased some of the best hightech scale-ups we have seen in a long time. Berthold Baurek-Karlic, Founder and Managing Partner at Venionaire Capital enjoyed moderating the microtronics panel together with Dr. Ulrich Eisele, Osram Ventures.
The HIGHTECH VENTURE DAYS address the potential of European high-tech innovations and their capitalization as a two day match-making format for the decisive growth phase. Last 17th and 18th of October in Dresden, forty selected startups had the opportunity to present their projects to national and international investors, within the beautiful venue of Volkswagen Glaspalast.
The focus was on high-tech businesses from the areas of environmental & energy technology, ICT, micro- and nanotechnologies, life sciences, mechanical & plant engineering, materials science and transport & logisticst.
The exchange of different opinions and angles on the topic of innovation in various areas contributed to broadening perspectives of all those that took part. And that is exactly what a successful technology innovation event should be all about … we are looking forward to partner up with this great event again next year.
6 Trends in LegalTech
The new generation of lawyers has high expectations about what technology can do for them. With life cycles of innovation getting constantly shorter, we are surrounded by new disruptive technologies and this is not different in the legal world. According to research from Thomson Reuters Legal, 579 “lawtech” patents were filed worldwide in 2016, up from just 99 in 2012. The expansion in Legal-Startups and patent filings are driven by interest for quicker and less expensive approaches to legal services.
In honor of the Legal Tech Conference taking place in Vienna today, we are highlighting 6 legaltech trends, which could make a big impact in the work of lawyers as well as the experience of their clients.
#1 – Robotic Lawyers
The most interesting case of a robotic lawyer is ROSS, an artificially intelligent legal research assistant built on IBM’s Watson supercomputer. Capable of handling ‘natural language’ legal questions, for which ROSS will return cited legal answers and topical readings from legislation to case law and secondary sources instantly, many legal heavyweights in the US are already using it, such as Latham & Watkins LLP.
#2 – Intelligent Legal Research and Document Analysis
Legal research is very costly for law firms. Therefore, advanced analytics programs, some of which use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, are already proving to be invaluable for law firms, which handle and generate loads of documents. Most legaltech startups to date have focused on making this procedure and all this material more manageable.
Companies such as Justis and Ravel Law (which was acquired by Lexis Nexis) are already using advanced analytical algorithms to make the research task more manageable.
#3 – Big Data Analytics
Big data has already caused a big impact in various industries, and it is not different for the legal world. Many tools are already helping improve the search process and give lawyers data-driven tools to research through millions of documents. Using big data can also lead to a greater degree of efficiency and transparency, which everyone will benefit from. Reducing the time it takes for lawyers to complete research and casework, will lead to improved access to the justice system.
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#4 – Automated Legal Assistance
Many firms are already using packaged legal solutions instead of custom-tailored solutions for every client. For example, Wevorce users can have access for around USD 800 to a pre-packaged divorce plan that suits their needs together with pre-filled divorce forms. We can also find startups such as Bright Advise, where users only need to submit a question and a professional will be in touch with them shortly after.
#5 – Writing of Documents
Writing legal documents, together with legal research, are the tasks that most likely cause a strain on lawyer’s finances and time. Some startups are already automating those tasks using various programs or services. Many services like Ironclad may help create, fill, and manage contracts in an effective way.
#6 – New business models and payment methods for lawyers
The search for new business models or at least for the possibility of expanding their own business model will also play a greater role in the future for lawyers. An example would be to use data and smart algorithms to predict what a client might need and actively approach it.
All those trends, while impressive and likely to ease the workload and research of many lawyers, are still far from being an everyday reality. Legal advice is still a very personal job, clients often seek reassurance in face-to-face advice. The reality of an artificial intelligence lawyer might have to wait some decades but today the increasing presence of automated processes will start replacing associate-level lawyers and help firms save money and time managing documents and handling research.
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If you are interested in getting to know more about this topic and how we can help your firm be more efficient, please contact our Partner and Head of Legal Alexander Rapatz.
What Companies (and Start-ups) should know about WiEReG
On the 15th of January 2018, the Austrian law on Economic Ownership Register (wirtschaftliche Eigentümer Registergesetz – WiEReG) enters into force. The purpose of this register is to make ultimate beneficial owners transparent and verifiable and preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. The European Union ascertained a need to identify any natural person who exercises control over a legal entity. Europe argues that the need for up-to-date information on the beneficial owner is a key factor in tracing criminals who might otherwise hide their identity behind a corporate structure. WiEReG is implementing in Austria the European Directive 2015/849, also known as Fourth Money Laundering Directive. From the beginning of 2018, all direct or indirect ultimate beneficial owners with shares of more than 25% in an Austrian legal entity are to be entered into the new register.
What has to be registered?
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The beneficial owners of a legal entity are to be registered. This includes any natural person who directly or indirectly has sufficient shares to exercise control over the management of a company. In this case, a direct beneficial owner has to register if he has a 25% + 1 share of the shares or a holding of more than 25% shares in an Austrian company. An indirect beneficial owner (i.e. indirectly through a group of companies) shall register if they have more than 25% shares of a legal entity. If no natural person as an economic owner can be ascertained, the members of the highest management level of the legal entity (managing director, board member) shall be deemed to be economic owners.
The name, date of birth, nationality, place of residence as well as the nature and extent of the economic interest or the extent of the participation or function of the person concerned shall be indicated.
When?
The bodies with full powers of representation of all companies and legal entities must report the requested and relevant data by 1st June 2018. For newly founded companies from May 2018, generally, a 4-week deadline for the announcement of the economic ownership applies.
How to register?
Registering of legal entities can be made electronically on the website of the Austrian so-called Unternehmensserviceportal (USP). All registered legal entities have the right to access their data (free of charge) collected in USP. Tax and financial authorities are also entitled to have access to the data in the register, as well as interested parties for the purpose of prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Penalties
In order to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements, WiEReG provides for fines. If the legal entity omits the notification, makes unauthorized access or registers incorrect data, makes for a punishable offense, punished up to 200.000 € or imprisonment. We are happy to advise on and provide you with more detailed information about the WiEReG and the legal framework behind it. Therefore, feel free to reach out to our Partner Alexander Rapatz.
SOURCES:
- DIRECTIVE (EU) 2015/849 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012. https://bit.ly/2xKX8k4
- Legal Text- Wirtschaftliche Eigentümer Registergesetz https://bit.ly/2yaPDPh
- Unternehmensserviceportal, https://www.usp.gv.at/Portal.Node/usp/public
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Venionaire Capital exclusively invests through the European Super Angels Club, for more information and application please go to the website. We do not accept direct investment proposals via this website.