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With stock markets hitting all-time highs in 2017, there has been an increase in the number of highly-valued tech start-ups going public.

Four Unicorns, private companies valued at $1 billion or higher, completed initial public offerings (IPOs) in the second quarter 2017. That was double what was seen in the first quarter and equal to the number of Unicorn IPOs for the entire year in both 2015 and 2016, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs.

Research from Play Bigger, a Silicon Valley consultancy that works with VC-backed start-ups, confirms that Unicorns are growing faster in recent years. Should investors be looking to jump on the bandwagon?

Blockchain allows people who have no particular confidence in each other to collaborate without having to go through a neutral central authority. Simply put, a blockchain creates trust.

Blockchain provides mass access to an open, collectively controlled record that cannot be changed and offers a very high level of protection through cryptography and mathematical algorithms. The combination of being open and yet highly secure seems to create confusion and distrust.  Below we delve into the details to explain further.

What to look for when assessing whether an emerging company has got what it takes to succeed.

• Innovation

  Small companies looking to compete with large, established incumbent players need an edge. Customers are more likely to look at unknown brands if they feel the product offers a benefit over competition, is easy to use and increases efficiency.

• Operate in existing markets

  It is generally harder to persuade customers to buy a product for the first time. Being the first product to market can offer greater upside however it also increases the risk of failure.  Many of the more successful technology companies have offered a new twist on existing products and have eventually replaced the incumbent market leader; Microsoft (IBM), Google (Yahoo), Apple (Nokia), Facebook (MySpace), Uber (Halo).

Will today’s technology powerhouses maintain their stranglehold on world tech for the next ten years and still be the companies we are talking about in 2027?

With the emergence of the technology powerhouses they have been grouped by acronyms GAFA, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, closely followed by NATU, Netflix, AirBnB, Tesla and Uber.  GAFA are very different companies to a number of years ago.  Google is part of the wide ranging technology company Alphabet; Apple offers a wide range of cloud based services and not just phone and iPads; Facebook is an advertising and media giant built around a social network; and Amazon has developed from an online book reseller across almost every vertical market imaginable. Such diversification has lead many to speculate whether GAFA have become too big to fail.

What developments in AI are needed for us to reap the true advantages it can bring and is the world ready for it?

AI is a general term that implies the use of a computer to model and/or replicate intelligent behavior. Research in AI focuses on the development and analysis of algorithms that learn and perform intelligent behavior with minimal human intervention. Like most new technology, AI has become part of everyday life without us knowing it, whether that’s the spellchecker on your phone or the software sitting behind credit score calculations.

The global technology powerhouses have declared AI will change the way we live and work over the next decade but will the overall impact be positive or negative?