UK Business Blog

The Tech City Investment Organisation was created by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to help attract the brightest and best of technology businesses to the east London hub of innovation.  The organisation offers a network of influential people with money to invest in tech start-ups, and it helps small tech companies to find the cash they need to grow and flourish.

It hosts events, facilitates partnerships (such as one this month between Facebook and Apps for Good that has resulted in a number of training opportunities for youngsters across the capital) and makes introductions, particularly getting major technology players involved in school initiatives. One key goal is to inspire youngsters to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects at school – subjects in which the UK has been lagging behind the rest of the international community of late.

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In the next few posts I’ll be writing about Tech City, which is British Prime Minister David Cameron’s planned cluster of technology companies in East London. Located in the east London areas of Shoreditch, Stratford and the Olympic Park, Tech City now houses over 500 start-ups, up from 200 just a year ago, making it Europe’s fastest growing cluster. Smack-bang in the middle of everything-2012, Tech City offers the perfect environment for entrepreneurs to take advantage of the host of opportunities promised by the games. But how exactly did Tech City come about?

History of Tech City

November 2010: David Cameron unveils his plans for Tech City, which will aim …”to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres.”

November 2010: Recognising the need to address intellectual property (IP) laws, which are currently a major barrier to the growth of tech SMEs, David Cameron launches a review of the IP laws.

May 2011: LinkedIn’s former UK and Europea MD, Kevin Eyres, appointed as Tech City’s first mentor to give support and advice to entrepreneurs looking to set up tech businesses.

July 2011: Government spends £100k to promote Tech City abroad.

July 2011: Prince William and Princess Catherine promote Tech City on a tour to the US in support of British Business.

August 2011: The Tech City Launchpad, well, launches. Run by government’s Technology Strategy Board, Launchpad is a competition that will result in grants of £100,000 being provided to a selected group of 20 companies that develop innovative products.

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