A Decade of Innovation & Digital Transformation: A Look at the Buzzwords and Developments

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Over the past 10 years, the world has witnessed a rapid and transformative period of innovation and digital transformation. From groundbreaking technologies to disruptive business models, the last decade has brought forth a multitude of buzzwords and developments that have shaped industries across the globe. In this article, we will delve into some of the most significant advancements and highlight the key buzzwords that have emerged during this transformative period. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

No discussion on digital transformation is complete without mentioning AI and machine learning. These technologies have revolutionized various industries, enabling computers to mimic human intelligence and learn from data. From chatbots and virtual assistants to predictive analytics and autonomous vehicles, AI and machine learning have become essential tools for businesses seeking to gain a competitive edge. 

Internet of Things (IoT)

The IoT refers to the network of physical devices, vehicles, appliances, and other objects embedded with sensors and software that enable them to connect and exchange data. Not only has this interconnectedness paved the way for smart homes, smart cities, and industrial automation. IoT has also played a crucial role in data collection, enabling businesses to gather valuable insights and optimize their operations. 

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has transformed the way businesses operate and store data. With the ability to access and store data remotely, companies can reduce costs and enhance scalability. Moreover, Cloud-based services offer flexibility, security, and collaboration opportunities, allowing businesses to streamline their operations and focus on their core competencies. 

Big Data and Analytics

The exponential growth of data has given rise to the need for advanced analytics tools and techniques. Big data analytics leverages large datasets to uncover patterns, correlations, and trends, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions. This has paved the way for personalized marketing, predictive maintenance, and enhanced customer experiences. 

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology burst onto the scene with the advent of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, its potential goes far beyond digital currencies. Blockchain offers a decentralized and transparent approach to record-keeping, enabling secure transactions, supply chain traceability, and smart contracts. Its impact spans industries such as finance, logistics, and healthcare. 

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) 

 AR and VR have transformed the way we interact with digital content and the physical world. AR overlays digital information onto the real world, enhancing experiences in fields like gaming, retail, and education. VR, on the other hand, immerses users in a virtual environment, revolutionizing areas such as training, entertainment, and healthcare. 

The past decade has been a whirlwind of innovation and digital transformation, reshaping industries and revolutionizing the way we live and work. From AI and machine learning to IoT and blockchain, these developments have ushered in a new era of possibilities. As we reflect on the incredible journey of the last 10 years, it’s clear that these buzzwords and advancements will continue to mold the future, presenting both challenges and opportunities for businesses worldwide. Embracing and harnessing these technologies will be crucial for organizations aiming to thrive in an increasingly digital world. 

Join Us at the World Venture Forum 2024 in Kitzbühel 

To celebrate this remarkable decade of progress, exploration, and transformation, we invite you to join us at the 10-year anniversary of the World Venture Forum in 2024, set against the breathtaking backdrop of Kitzbühel. At this prestigious event, thought leaders, innovators, and visionaries from around the globe will gather to dive deeper into these groundbreaking topics, explore emerging trends, and chart the course for the next wave of innovation. Stay tuned for an unforgettable experience that will shape the future of business and technology. See you in Kitzbühel! 

Samurai of Tech

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A brief historical digression

A Japanese samurai was once a loyal servant and protector, an imperial guard, a warrior with a strict code of honor. They lived according to the “Hagakure”, which contains about 1,300 lessons and dealt with both daily life and the relationship between lord and follower. The traditional warrior nobility of the samurai experienced its heyday in the 11th and 12th centuries A.D. The samurai, originally in the service of the emperor and nobility, became the ruling class of society with the rise of the shogunate and the establishment of a military aristocracy. The demise of the samurai 150 years ago also represents the rise of modern Japan. However, the myth and fascination with these warriors still exists today far beyond the borders of their homeland.

Between past and future

Japan is a country of (supposed) contrasts, performing a daily balancing act between tradition and modernity. While moving between centuries-old shrines and the most modern high-rise architecture, between traditional teahouses and eccentric maid cafés, and yet, despite the apparent contradictions, you can easily find a way between the centuries.

Let’s draw mental parallels and dare this balancing act for our business. Today, our “servants” are our digital or high-tech companions. From artificial intelligence, robots and drones to countless apps, that now make every facet of our daily lives easier. In Japan, you will find a large number of world leading corporations. They almost naturally have large powerful corporate venture vehicles. The few investment banks, some of which manage over 100 corporate venture funds, could be described as shoguns (rulers) in the ecosystem. Perfection is a social and cultural requirement, and this is achieved by specialists. Accordingly, these funds are often managed externally by specialists.

Behind the scenes

Japan’s technology giants are global players, but in Japan itself they like to keep to themselves. To this day, there are hardly any non-Japanese top managers, and the global subsidiaries’ leadership always contain Japanese managers. English as a foreign language is a matter of course for the educated Japanese, but they prefer to do business  in their mother tongue. It is therefore advisable for Western business people to be able to speak at least a few bars.

If we stick to our mental balancing act, these technology giants are the modern samurai of their industries. The innovative leadership of these “Samurai of Tech” goes far beyond Asia. They invest, develop spin-offs together with research institutes and have a strong presence in the international “super hubs” of the startup scene – for example in Israel, Silicon Valley or India. For the corporations, close ties with global startup hubs seem not only practicable, but actually extremely important in terms of their claim to long-term honourable cooperation with innovators. A good reputation ensures access to the best talent and thus the samurai’s superiority in the innovation race.

How to deal with crisis

Right now Europe is just learning to deal with the next and arguably most severe crisis in recent history. Japan has meanwhile perfected living in the crisis. Interest rates are still negative, inflation is not a major issue, the domestic market is strong and the country’s international position is excellent. Japanese are strategists, so it’s not surprising that the appetite for risk to increase activity in Europe – especially venture capital and Web3 – is growing strongly.

In Europe, however, Japanese corporations and corporate venture vehicles are currently hardly present. The European market is considered attractive, but unfortunately also very complex. Various hubs, regional cultural differences, many languages and different laws (depending on the region) in Europe are understandably deterrent. Those who want to be successful therefore ally themselves with strong partners – although this requires some patience. Strong partnerships are based on trust and building this trust does not work overnight.

Building Bridges between Japan and Austria

Venionaire Capital has very good experiences in working with Japanese co-investors and business partners. Attending the City Tech Tokyo Conference and speaking at an official Deloitte side event has greatly strengthened our bi-directional relationship. We are looking forward to a strong delegation from Japan attending the World Venture Forum in Kitzbühel.

You have questions regarding the Japanese market, or would like to find a strong partner for corporate venture funds (full service), or as a scale-up to enter the European market? Please contact our Advisory Team, led by our Managing Partner, Berthold Baurek-Karlic.

Hightech Venture Days 2018 – Meet Europe’s Best Hardware Scale-Ups

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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

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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.

Article Part 4: The Future of Artificial Intelligence – WALL-E or Terminator?

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In cooperation with Venionaire Capital, DerBrutkasten.com publishes a four-part article series on the subject of artificial intelligence. We are concentrating on the economic aspects of how AI works to the current research and the future of artificial intelligence.

The fourth and last article will concentrate on how the artificial intelligence will turn out in the future.

According to a quote from Stephen Hawking in The Guardian, Artificial Intelligence will be “either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity”. The growing computer performance and Big Data enable machines to become even smarter. In an open letter, therefore, numerous industry leaders, such as Elon Musk or Hawking, call for the prevention of artificial intelligence and the control of the systems.

Musk believes that AI could become an existential threat to people and emphasized the need for legal requirements. Other AI skeptics are worried about the labor market. AI, according to the apprehension, will at least provide a new wave of mass unemployment in the short to medium term.

Joe Lobo, “chief botmaster” at the Startup Inbenta, has a more positive idea of the future of work and artificial intelligence. In a Forbes podcast he explained how technologies create new jobs and people can use their skills for new opportunities. So far, the development showed that AI systems complement human workers more than replace them. AI skeptics and enthusiasts, however, agree that jobs will change and new forms of employment will arise.

Whether advocates or adversaries, it is certain, in AI will be further invested and researched. In the end it is in our hands whether we end up with a terminator or a Wall-E.

However, to an artificial superintelligence it is in any case still a long way, as we described it in the second part of our series. In the third part, we also showed that the research and development of artificial intelligence was not a linear process, but had to repeatedly record ascensions and declines. The economic impacts of AI, which we dealt with in the first part, are equally interesting for start-ups and early-stage investors.

For the whole article click here.

 





	The top 15 AI Deals in Europe				
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The marketplace for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is thriving. Beyond the hype and the intensive media attention, the numerous start-ups and internet companies racing to acquire them, we can observe that private companies are increasing their investment and adoption to these technologies.


To complement the article series on artificial intelligence we would like to outline the 15 biggest deals on artificial intelligence start-ups in Europe.


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1. Kreditech                                 




Location: Hamburg, Germany

Funding Amount: USD 162.590.000

Webpage: kreditech.com


Provider of a lending as a service (Laas) based credit-scoring platform designed to improve financial freedom for the under-banked by the use of technology. The company’s lending as a service (Laas) based credit-scoring platform identifies and scores individuals online, decides and instantly pays out loans, based on 15,000 data points, providing banking products (instalment loans, microloans, credit cards, electronic wallets) to customers in emerging markets.


 


2. BenevolentAI




Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding Amount: UDS 100.000.000

Webpage: benevolent.ai


Provider of artificial intelligence technology intended to transform the process of pharmaceutical research and development. The company’s self-learning artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities focuses on the disease areas of inflammation, neurodegeneration, orphan diseases and rare cancers as well as Judgment Augmented Cognition System (JACS), enabling human health, bio science and information technology sectors to analyse vast quantities of scientific information for the advancement of scientific discovery and applying it to real world problems.


 


3. Alteryx




Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Funding Amount: USD 85.000.000

Webpage: alteryx.com


Alteryx is the leader in self-service data analytics


 


 


4. Blue Yonder




Location: Karlsruhe, Germany

Funding Amount: USD 75.000.000

Webpage: blue-yonder.com


Provider of Big Data analytics and predictive applications. The company offers a cloud-based scalable platform with machine-learning algorithms. The enterprise’s platform automates decision-making in real time and supplies precise forecasts. It is also used in dynamic pricing and in customer analyses.


 


5. Darktrace




Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding Amount: USD 64.000.000

Webpage: darktrace.com


Provider of cyber threat defense systems designed to detect and respond to previously unidentified threats. The company’s cyber threat defense systems include detecting emerging cyber-threats and to proactively defend against in-progress cyber-attacks, enabling clients to defend against evolving threats that bypass all other systems.


 


6. Arago




Location: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Funding Amount: USD 55.000.000

Webpage: arago.co


Provider of information technology automation services. The company develops artificial intelligence software for banking and telecommunication sectors. Its products include AutoPilot, CloudPilot, DocMe, BuildMe and MARS-O-matic and its services include WebFarm and CloudFarm.


 


7. Blippar




Location: India, Turkey, United States, United Kingdom

Funding Amount: USD 54.000.000

Webpage: blippar.com


Provider of augmented reality software for smartphones. The company offers a platform that enables users to turn images into interactive Web experiences, through image-recognition technology.


 


8. Cambridge Quantum Computing




Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Funding Amount: USD 50.000.000

Webpage: cambridgequantum.com


Provider of tools for the commercialization of quantum computers. The company provides cryptography, financial, medicinal, biotech and big data services.


 


9. Quid




Location: San Francisco, United States of America

Funding Amount: USD 39.000.000

Webpage: quid.com


Provider of a visualization platform designed to offer text-based data analysis. The company’s visualization platform combines search, premium data and high-performance algorithms from news articles, blog posts, company profiles and patents to create visualizations of markets, trends and cultural phenomena, enabling businesses to analyze investment trends, gain competitive intelligence, map innovation as well as make decisions that matter.


 


10. Rapid Miner




Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Funding Amount: USD 36.000.000

Webpage: rapidminer.com


Provider of data science platform designed to offer predictive analytics built on an open stack. The company’s data science platform allows to build software for real data science, fast and simple, unifies data preperation, machine learning and model deployment, enabling companies to drive revenue, reduce costs and avoid risks.


 


11. Withings




Location: Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

Funding Amount: USD 33.830.000

Webpage: withings.com


Developer of digital health and wellness smart devices and applications. The company offers software and devices that enable people to monitor and track their personal health data.


 


12. Nanigans




Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Funding Amount: USD 32.850.000


Developer of an advertising automation software. The company’s online platform offers programmatic media buying, predictive revenue optimization and real-time business intelligence.


 


13. Graphcore




Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding Amount: USD 30.000.000

Webpage: graphcore.ai


Developer of a processor designed to accelerate machine intelligence learning. The company’s intelligence processing unit emphasizes massively parallel, low-precision floating-point computing and provides higher compute density than other solutions, and the C++ programming framework provides seamless interface to standard machine learning frameworks, with simple integration for existing applications written for Tensorflow, enabling researchers to explore machine intelligences across a much broader front than current solutions.


 


14. Pyramid Analytics




Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Funding Amount: USD 30.000.000

Webpage: pyramidanalytics.com


Provider of a business intelligence platform designed to simplify the access to information to help organizations optimize their business. The company’s business intelligence platform provides delivers intuitive enterprise level Business Intelligence through an integrated, scalable dashboard and analytic application for all types of business users, providing them with modules that can be accessed through a single, web-based interface.


 


15. Celonis




Location: New York, United States of America

Funding Amount: USD 27.500.000

Webpage: celonis.com


Celonis offers the most advanced Process Mining tool for analysing & visualizing business processes.


 


As we might have seen in this article, Europe has a fast growing Artificial Intelligence Industry most of them being in the data analytics market. AI is transforming every industry and process, and Europe is leading the way.


 


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	Article Part 3: The history of AI – From the “AI Winter” to the final breakthrough				
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In cooperation with Venionaire Capital, DerBrutkasten.com publishes a four-part article series on the subject of artificial intelligence. We are concentrating on the economic aspects of how AI works to the current research and the future of artificial intelligence.


In the first article we described “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” as the ability of a machine to learn and adapt from its own experience. The second article was about the basis concept of AI and in the third part, we will provide an overview of research, trends and leading companies in the field.


Artificial intelligence is often seen as a new world conquered just by brave pioneers from Silicon Valley. In reality, however, the subject had a lot of ups and downs. The breakthrough seemed only a matter of time, but the researchers underestimated the problem that words can have different meanings in different contexts. The US Government cancelled the financing and this this period was referred to as “AI Winter” in analogy to the concept of “nuclear winter”.


Historically, there have always been such drought periods. The result of financial incidences were fewer research activities. Over and over again there were deep and then high phases (“AI Sommer”).


After a difficult situation in the early 1990s, the AI industry was finally recovering in the 2000s. The upturn was supported not so much by governments but by tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft or the Chinese company Baidu.  The basis for the rapidly growing commercial interest are the computer systems that now enable the broad use of AI technologies for the first time.


The search engine giant Google is one of the leading companies when it comes to the topic of artificial intelligence. The main focus of their research (see research.google.com) is Machine Learning, Natural Language Understanding, the entire health care system, the perceptive abilities of machines, robotics and, interestingly, the creation of music and art. Thereby “deep learning” plays a very important role, for example Google’s Alpha Go, which clearly defeated the professional Go player Fan Hui and later Lee Sedol.


The question that is important to investors is, of course, whether the high phase is only a hype or sustainable. In contrast to the past, AI is already being used in everyday life.


 


For the whole article click here.


 


	Article Part 2: Comprehend, Sense, Act – The basis concept of AI				
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In cooperation with Venionaire Capital, DerBrutkasten.com publishes a four-part article series on the subject of artificial intelligence. We are concentrating on the economic aspects of how AI works to the current research and the future of artificial intelligence.


In the first article we described “Artificial Intelligence (AI)” as the ability of a machine to learn and adapt from its own experience. In this article we want to get deeper in the matter. AI consists of diverse technologies that are the result of a combination of three elements: comprehend, sense and act.


Language Processing and knowledge representation are important for comprehend.  Natural Language Processing (NLP) combines technologies that are able to understand and generate speech in spoken or written form. Knowledge representation helps to communicate knowledge and facilitate subsequent decision-making, for example digital assistants.


Sense includes machine vision, voice recognition and further processing in sensors. This makes it possible to capture, identify, analyze and process the input information from cameras, microphones or other sensors.


Once information is collected through comprehending and sense, the logical third step is action. This is mainly used in industrial robotics, as Amazons show impressively.


These are the three pillars of the artificial intelligence According to Stuart Russel and Peter Norvig machines must also have specific abilities to act as a human being. Known in this context is the Turing Test from 1950, where a human questioner talkes with two unknown conversation partners. One of them is a person, the other one is a machine. If the questioner does not suceed in telling which of them is the machine, the machine wins. This test is now more than half a century old and we are still at the beginning of the development.


 


For the whole article click here.


 


	Article Part 1: Economic Growth through Artificial Intelligence				
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In cooperation with Venionaire Capital, DerBrutkasten.com publishes a four-part article series on the subject of artificial intelligence.  We are concentrating on the economic aspects of how AI works to the current research and the future of artificial intelligence.


The first part shows the economic growth through artificial intelligence. While most people still associate the terminator with artificial intelligence, it has long become a key technology. Also Austrian Startups in cooperation with the ÖFAI (Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence) contribute to this growth with Voicebots and Chatbots such as Yodel.io.


The International Data Corporation sees the US market potential for artificial intelligence in three years at approximately 34 billion euros and the contribution to the economic growth only in Germany will be 1.6%. This is an important argument for investors and caused 2016 investments in the amount of 5 billion Euros. Although there is a clear distance between the USA and Europe, the number of completed deals in Europe is rising. For example the largest financing round in 2017 concluded the German company Kreditech with about 138 billion Euros. The amounts of Austrian startups like FRUX, Kiwi Security or Cortical.io are clearly smaller. Sales will increase enormously between 2016 and 2025 even if there are warnings about the current development for example from Elon Musk.


For the whole article click here.


 


	Drone Wars – 3 Ways to Look at Drones				
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Generally, innovation comes about when that which is invented either solves a problem that hasn’t been solved before (cars revolutionized mobility), is cheaper in solving it than previous efforts (Uber vs Taxi), or provides us with an entirely new tool or gadget that we happily include in our lives (we didn’t need iPads). Drones, or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), can have the ability to do all three, which is why they potentially are such a valuable invention.


 


The Good: Opportunities


To remain in sync with the opening argument, drones have a vast array of applications that solve severe issues (US fighter drones prevent risking pilots’ lives); are cheaper (Chile and Peru can now monitor their maritime borders and fishing rights via drone applications instead of sending expensive observation teams via boats or planes). If thus another example is needed please change to the following: Peru’s Ministry of Culture can now monitor its archeological sites from the sky instead of sending expensive observation teams and the new drone-camera gadget all of a sudden has allowed my friend’s wedding pictures to be taken from the most surprising angles.


To understand the value of drones, PWC did a great effort in aggregating markets with a high potential of operations to be replaced by drone powered solutions: infrastructure, transport, insurance, media & entertainment, telecommunications, agriculture, security and mining can achieve a total aggregate of 127,3$ bn USD (approx. 112€ bn).


With over 35% of this aggregate, infrastructure is by far the largest sector to benefit from drones as investment monitoring, maintenance and inventory management can now be done remotely. Agriculture fares about 25%, the transport sector just over 10% and security around 8% (see PWC). Currently the US security sector is assumed to be the largest worldwide user of current drone solutions. However, as security related billing in connection with the use of drones currently only amounts to 50% of invoices extended for the use of drones, these figures provide us with a fair idea of the strong opportunity that lies in those still unexplored waters when after maximum exhaustion the security sector will be a mere 8% of the drone use.


According to the market research company Drone Industry Insights, there are already 711 UAS companies worldwide, developing from platforms, components and systems to even drone insurance. Whilst more than half of these companies are based in the US, a good 30% are in Europe, making both markets key arenas for its development and application.


 


The Bad: Regulations & Risks


The key issue: EU-wide rules for UAS might give Europe a competitive advantage but it is hard to arrive there – 18 EU countries already have national rules in place and EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, which has released a technical opinion on the operation of drones in December 2015, does not yet have the legal authority to regulate the use of drones. The European Commission has adopted a proposal for the revision of EASA’s basic regulation which would introduce an EU-wide regulation to cover drones of all sizes. However, currently the use of drones under 150kg is regulated at national level.


Changes for the regulation on common EU rules in the field of civil aviation must be adopted by the European Parliament Transport Committee – at present it is not clear, when such steps will be taken. Meanwhile the US applies federal legislation for amateur small drones, but pilot requirements for larger UAS are not yet available.


The reason it is so complicated to draft regulation is because there are high risks and legitimate issues concerning the privacy (i.e. is a drone allowed to fly over my property?), safety (drones have already dangerously grazed comercial flights), security (drones could fly say close to a presidential home) and the need for air traffic separation (flight routes need to be respected), which are all worlds of their own. And then, it is an inevitable reality that by the time regulation catches up with the new technology needs, the next invention is impatienty waiting at the door ready to be regulated.


 


The Ugly: regulatory solutions take time – but the ugly duckling can turn into a swan


There is no pretty way to say this: the timeliness, thoroughness and universality of the application of regulations – at least in the EU – will determine whether the EU can seize the opportunity to be at the forefront of the DronEvolution or not, and how this market will develop. By experience we know that EU regulation, which in all cases needs to be proposed by the European Commission, takes time as, depending on whether it is a mere EU matter, or a matter of mixed EU and national competence (then also the national parliaments of EU member states need to ratify). But once it stands- as with so many other issues (think: EU environmental policy is the most extensive world wide policy), the EU can be the welcome primary innovator.


For European investors, drone developers and drone users, this is a key moment: the use of drones could become an exponentially growing market (as we believe it should) revolutionizing industries and services, guided by reasonable and forceful regulation, or alternatively grow slowly and precariously as the necessary guiding regulation is not there to safely support the unpathed waters and their unexplored shores.





				
				


				
			


		





		




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