Tech City demonstrates phenomenal growth

Success of tech cluster hailed by the Prime Minister as Government promises continued support 

London, 10^th November 2011: The number of tech businesses in the Tech City area is now over 600. In November 2010, there were around 200 – indicating an impressive growth rate in the last year.

The figures were revealed today as the Prime Minister launched the new Tech City Map, created by local developers at Trampoline Systems and designed by Playgen. The project was realised with the support of Thomson Reuters, Mother London, Cisco, Atos and LinkedIn. The map includes analytics to highlight the flourishing community in East London, pulling in streams of social network data for all the technology business in the district to analyse their networks and influence. This provides an important data infrastructure to help the cluster to grow.

To support the growth of businesses in Tech City, the Government today announced the expansion of the Red Tape Challenge so that entrepreneurs and investors can tell the Government where rules and regulations get in the way of innovation.

The growth of the cluster was hailed by the Prime Minister, who said: “One year ago we made a major commitment to helping the tech cluster in East London grow. The successful growth we see today is thanks to the talented, creative entrepreneurs who have decided to set up there. As a Government, we are determined to continue doing everything we can to help support and accelerate this growth. We have already taken action such as introducing the Entrepreneurs Visa and tax breaks like the Enterprise Investment Scheme. We are also looking at new ways we can protect Intellectual Property. But we are not done yet – we’re looking forward to continuing our work with the community in Tech City to further support them to grow”.

Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of Tech City Investment Organisation, said: “The growth in Tech City is hugely exciting – and looks set to continue. We are not looking at a bubble here. This is real business creation and jobs based mainly on organic growth, encouraged by the right set of business-friendly policies. We’re working closely with Tech City companies to provide the right support at the right time, helping to build an internationally connected ecosystem that will thrive – whether it’s connecting experienced mentors to newer start-ups, introducing investors to the area, or working with larger companies to locate, share, and contribute to the success of the area.”

Other announcements today included:

Cisco announced its agreement to partner with University College London and Imperial College London to create a Future Cities Centre in Shoreditch. Alongside this, Cisco announced its National Virtual Incubator (NVI) as part of its British Innovation Gateway (BIG) initiative. The Future Cities Centre will help to conduct and commercialise research in the high potential area of smart infrastructure. BIG amounts to a five-year investment of cash, technology and human resources, which aims to develop Britain’s innovation eco-system and create an environment in which start-up digital businesses and their ideas can flourish. 

Qualcomm announced the first Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) trial for London.  The pre-commercial trial will start in early 2012, involving up to 50 wirelessly charged electric vehicles (EV). Based partially in Tech City, Qualcomm hope to work with the local community to innovate around services and applications, in order to enhance the smart EV experience.

General Assembly have announced plans to set up in Tech City in 2012. One of the most exciting technology and innovation incubators in the world, their unique mix of digital education and networking will help many more Tech City entrepreneurs to succeed. General Assembly are being supported in their move by Yuri Milner.

Intel is creating a High Performance Computing cluster that can be used by companies located in Tech City. This cluster will enable companies of all sizes to access some of the world’s most advanced technology, giving them a competitive advantage in bringing products and services to market.

A host of companies have invested, set up and expanded in Tech City over the past 12 months:

• Google have committed to creating a new seven-storey centre for the tech and media community in East London, a creative space for their engineers to come together with developers and start-ups to create the next generation of applications and services
• With approval from the FSA, Silicon Valley Bank plans to open a UK branch in early 2012, building on the work they have been doing to support the local technology community since 2004
• Barclays have set up a dedicated team providing specialist banking services to high-growth technology companies in the Tech City, with a view to establishing a permanent presence there
• McKinsey and Company have published their research on the development of the Tech City cluster, and, with other corporate partners, have incubated and spun-out Entrepreneur First, a ground-breaking new scheme to encourage more graduates to start up their own business ventures

• The Olympic Park Legacy Company have now launched a marketing process for the legacy use of the Press and Broadcast Centres in the Olympic Park
• Facebook have continued to run developer events in general across Tech City, bringing together and inspires the most talented developers and entrepreneurs here in the UK
• BT have brought forward the roll-out of superfast broadband in Shoreditch and Old Street
• Vodafone are investing in great businesses through Vodafone Ventures, and Vodafone will be holding its 2012 Mobile Clicks competition finals right here in Tech City
• Microsoft BizSpark is announcing an offer to advance entrepreneurship and innovation in the UK. Microsoft will provide £200,000 worth of cloud computing benefits on the Windows Azure Platform to eligible UK start-ups in Tech City
• Index Ventures have set up an office in Tech City
• Seedcamp have set up in Tech City because they want to be close to the start-up action, the tech community and take advantage of the networking opportunities
• Twitter acquired Tweetdeck, a home-grown Tech City company
• TechHub are expanding in London and opening internationally, including in San Francisco, with their first European city to be announced next week
• Mindcandy has achieved global success with online kids world MoshiMonsters.com – which now has over 50m registered users worldwide. The company has now expanded offline with the recent launch of Moshi products at retail within the US and Australia. Led by Internet entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith, the company will continue to expand internationally in 2012 with a vision of becoming one of the first billion-dollar businesses to emerge out of Tech City
• Ustwo are expanding into the US market too
• We are delighted that Judith Clegg, entrepreneur founder of Takeout and key connector in the London and New York scenes through digital community Glasshouse, and Anil Hansjee, former Head of M&A in Europe for Google, will co-found in 2012 a seed fund based in Tech City with operations in New York. The fund will be a major boost to start-ups seeking a transparent, efficient and fast approach to funding, as well as on-going operational support. They will be joined by an advisory board of leading UK and US entrepreneurs and by Venture Partner Tom Hulme, a leading UK angel and Director of IDEO
• Groupon UK launched in 2009 and now operate from offices within Tech City. As a global company with over 140 million subscribers and more than 10,000 employees worldwide, Groupon are delighted to have made London a home – they see Tech City as a vital hub from which to drive the latest innovations in online group buying in the future
• Yelp have expressed their intention to expand their office in London as the cornerstone of its European operations
• PBS have opened an office in Shoreditch
• Expedia will be moving in to a new building in EC1, to house more than 600 employees from 2012
• Buongiorno, the Italian mobile solutions company, launched an Innovation Hub in Tech City, expanding their London operation to 110 people in the process. Both Buongiorno and their spin-off, Lumata Group, are further expanding in the TC area
• Yammer, the Enterprise Social Network, have used Tech City to support their current fantastic growth in Eirope, and are continuing to expand, with the intention of creating nearly 100 job
• Firebox have moved from Streatham to Tech City
• Twilio are establishing a European HQ in Tech City
• Eventbrite from San Francisco, opened their London office in October – their first outside the US
• Gilt Groupe has recently expanded to Europe through the Jetsetter travel brand. Jetsetter UK are moving into Tech City in January 2012, from where they will be managing their flash sale travel business. The team currently employs 10 people which will more than double in the coming months
• SnapLogic have set up in Tech City to launch their integration platform for the cloud
• SAE, an Australian higher educational institution that deliver Digital Media courses, are opening a second site in Shoreditch
• Appirio will be launching its European operations for Cloudspokes, the first worldwide crowd-sourced cloud development community, from Tech City
• Blick Rothenburg strongly support this initiative by No. 10 to develop Tech City and have opened an office in the area
• Law firm Taylor Wessing have set up an office in Tech City to provide their services to the ever-growing tech community
• SPACE Studios are working with Bloomberg and the Olympic Park Legacy Company to create The White Building, a new venue that will ensure creative innovation remains at the heart of London’s digital economy
• Airbnb, from San Francisco, is really excited to be basing its UK operation in Tech City. Whilst they are waiting for their new, permanent office to be ready they have found a temporary home in the same area. They are looking forward to immersing themselves with some of the best UK tech companies

• Amazon Web Services launched one-to-one technical support for UK start-ups, providing free IT support for start-ups every Wednesday, including face-to-face advice in planning and moving their technology infrastructure to the cloud and access to a dedicated AWS specialist for on-going help
• Virgin Media has announced a long-term partnership with THECUBE, an innovative start-up incubator based in East London, which will see THECUBE’s members test and help develop new products and services including superfast broadband, next generation digital entertainment, mobile and business services

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For more information on the Tech City Investment Organisation, please contact

For more information on the Tech City Map, please contact

For more information on what’s been happening in Tech City, click here to download the app

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In the last 12 months since the Prime Minister set out his commitment, Government has taken action across a range of issues to support enterprise, innovation and technology. For example:

• Corporation tax cut to 23% by 2014. This will give us the lowest rate of any major Western economy, one of the most competitive rates in the G20, and the lowest rate this country has ever known
• The R&D tax credit for SMEs increased to 225% from April 2012
• Capital gains tax relief doubled to £10m for entrepreneurs
• Access to venture capital helped by raising income tax relief on the Enterprise Investment Scheme to 30%
• Small business rate relief extended for a year from October 2011
• The Technology Strategy Board’s £2m Tech City Launchpad competition has provided 18 companies with up to £100,000 funding for their ideas if they can secure match funding from private investors by spring 2012. Two of the 18 companies (Magnolia Box Ltd with its Artistic.ly project and Makielab have secured financing commitments from investors to enable them to draw down on the Technology Strategy Board finance and start their projects. A further six companies are now in advanced talks with investors
• We created the Entrepreneur Visa to attract the best talent to the UK
• From April 2013 companies will pay a reduced rate of income tax (10%) on profits derived from patents, under our new Patent Box system
• A radical opening up Government to ensure  25% of Government procurement spending ends up with SMEs and a world-leading approach to open data for public scrutiny and use

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Notes to editors:

The Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO) was created in March 2011, following Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement of the Tech City initiative in East London. TCIO was set up by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and is designed to help the existing cluster of tech and creative companies flourish. Tech City stretches out from the financial heart of the City of London to Stratford and the Olympic Park in East London, and is the fastest growing technology cluster in Europe. The TCIO team is a unique combination of experienced entrepreneurs and UKTI business specialists. Their role is to help existing companies succeed, as well as attract global business, entrepreneurs and high-value investment to the digital capital of Europe. For more information, visit www.techcityuk.com or www.ukti.gov.uk/techcity or follow us @techcityuk

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the Government Department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business. UKTI offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For more information on UKTI, visit www.ukti.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000. For latest press releases, visit the online newsroom at www.ukti.gov.uk/media

Trampoline Systems is leading specialist in software for large-scale communications network analysis. Trampoline’s advanced technology analyses tens of millions of emails, Twitter posts and other types of message to untangle complex webs of relationships and reveal unrecognised performance factors. Clients have used Trampoline’s technology to identify poorly-managed partner relationships, win major sales bids, improve collaboration between international offices and highlight employees with the greatest influence on internal opinion. Customers include Aviva Investors, RBS and Raytheon.

Trampoline was founded in 2003 by social scientist Charles Armstrong and computer scientist Craig McMillan, based on Armstrong’s field research into social networks. The company was amongst the first technology ventures established in the Shoreditch district of London and has been closely involved with the UK Government’s “Tech City” initiative. Trampoline co-authored the April 2011 report with McKinsey, Google, Vodafone and others which outlined recommendations for expanding the East London technology cluster. In 2009 Trampoline became the world’s first technology venture to finance its growth through equity crowdfunding. For more information, visit http://trampolinesystems.com or follow us at @tramp0; for more information on the Tech City Map, please visit http://techcitymap.com or follow us