Boris Johnson launches £85m fund to lift London’s tech start-ups December 4, 2014 The Mayor of London has launched an investment fund which will make up to £85m available to the capital's most exciting science, technology and digital start-ups. Boris Johnson has pledged an initial £25m towards the London Co-Investment Fund, which will help new businesses looking for a cash injection between £250,000 and £1m. The fund, which hopes [...]
RBS to put Aldgate office block up for sale with £90m price tag November 27, 2014 The Royal Bank of Scotland is close to putting one of its office buildings in Aldgate up for sale, as it looks to cut costs and tap into booming demand for property in London’s Tech City area. The bank has lined up agents at DTZ to sell Aldgate Union on Whitechapel High Street, with offers [...]
Britain must do more to scale up tech firms says LoveFilm and Zoopla investor Sherry Coutu November 16, 2014 Britain is great when it comes to helping tech startups, but we lag behind many countries when it comes to scaling-up these companies to reach their full potential, a report will reveal. The Scale-Up report is to be launched today at an event at Bloomberg’s London offices by its author, the investor and entrepreneur [...]
How we can turn London’s thriving tech startups into billion dollar digital giants November 16, 2014 Just four years after the Prime Minister and the mayor of London launched the Tech City initiative, London now has one of the fastest growing technology sectors in the world. Visitors to any of its tech hubs will be struck by the industry and dynamism of the capital’s entrepreneurs and startups, driving innovation and change. [...]
Is this the end of Tech City’s Silicon Roundabout at Old Street in Shoreditch? TfL plans pedestrian square November 13, 2014 A new radical plan for Old Street roundabout in Shoreditch, the home to many of Tech City’s startups, could transform the area into a pedestrian square. Made famous as “Silicon Roundabout”, Transport for London has unveiled plans to transform it into a pedestrian- and bike-friendly zone as part of £4bn road modernisation plans, effectively demolishing [...]
Quotas on immigration would be a disaster for London’s tech startups November 12, 2014 Political debates over the benefits and drawbacks of immigration will no doubt rage on for years to come. But while the opposing sides pick apart the evidence over the impact of migrants on the public purse, one thing is clear: London’s tech ecosystem faces a very significant skills shortage. Government should be doing all it [...]
London tech sector sparks City building boom at Silicon Roundabout November 10, 2014 London’s thriving tech sector has helped to drive a resurgence in building activity in the City over the past six months as developers push the start button on a record number of schemes in areas such as Old Street. Developers kick-started work on 10 new schemes in the City in the six months from April [...]
Finding Britain’s next Future Fifty: Tech City’s Gerard Grech in search of new UK stars October 29, 2014 Four London floats, over £260m of investment raised and just 10 months later, Gerard Grech is hunting for the UK’s top tech stars to join his new cohort. London has changed dramatically in the past year since Tech City UK, then simply Tech City, named 50 high-growth tech firms which would join its scheme [...]
London is no Silicon Valley – here’s why that may be a good thing October 20, 2014 Geeks and startup types are again gathering today in Billingsgate for TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference, a celebration of London’s tech sector. There’s a lot to celebrate: the sector hasn’t been this hot since the days of the dot-com boom. Investors are toasting two billion-dollar exits this year: games designers Natural Motion and artificial intelligence wizards Deep [...]
There’s a black hole at the heart of the City: Lack of superfast broadband September 28, 2014 In the twenty-first century, superfast broadband is something we take for granted, like clean water and bright lights. But despite being in the world’s most popular business location, many of the City’s SMEs are still receiving the internet equivalent of rusty, murky water. While our larger businesses are well-served by fibre optic broadband, SMEs and [...]