Move Over Silicon Valley, Here Comes London.
Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area have long been the world’s breeding ground for high-tech startups. Leaders like Google, Facebook and Twitter are of course some of the most notable companies originating from the sunny West Coast.
But in recent years, new challengers have pulled up from behind in the race. An increasingly powerful group of cities have established themselves as the perfect environment for an innovative and cutting-edge tech scene to flourish. It is no surprise that in this group, the largest city in Europe has managed to make its mark, London.
The European City Digital Index, launched by Nesta and the European Digital Forum, recently crowned London as the leading city in Europe for digital entrepreneurship. With an impressive 275,000 recognised startups, London held steady at #1, surpassing its key competitors Amsterdam at #2 and Berlin at #7.
With this in mind, I decided to have a look at what the promising land had to offer and why it’s become such a hot spot for tech startups:
Co-working Central
London hosts a plethora of co-working spaces tailored to every type of worker. From sleek professional designs to free beer taps in the lobby, there are a grand total of 135 different spaces established in the city alone. This figure does not take into account all other international co-working branches, that were founded outside of England but have since opened in London. You can say goodbye to the home office, with that many desk spaces come plenty of desk chairs to fill.
Home to Incubators and Accelerators
London is a base for startup incubators and accelerators, including Europe’s largest FinTech incubator (Level 39) and Europe’s First Property Tech accelerator (Pi Labs). This is boosted by a strong financial sector, able to support a growing number of crowdfunding services such as Seedrs and Funding Circle. These power hubs are city wide: with Canary Wharf being most known for its FinTech scene, Kings Cross a base for the Internet of Things and Shoreditch home to the Silicon Roundabout.
A Unicorn Role Model
London has more unicorns than any other European city, with the likes of Asos, Shazam and Transferwise all acting as role models to their many followers. The popular media app Shazam has now managed to raise over €110 million, whilst put together, all of London startups have raised €8.3 billion since 2005 and created employment for over 1.5 million people. To any young startup looking for inspiration or guidance, London’s rising number of unicorns definitely help keep the faith.
Bright Young Things
London hosts some of the world’s top universities, attracting bright minds from all over the globe to seek an academic degree from the city. With this comes a sea of driven graduates looking to achieve professional goals and make their mark in the world. Findings from the Tech Nation 2016 Report say that digital tech businesses source a solid 35.5% of their talent from local universities. So to all students, sit up straight and pay attention in that lecture! Companies near you are on the lookout.
A Node for Networking
Startups are gravitating towards fast-paced and energetic metropolitan cities for a reason. London’s vibrant social scene holds endless opportunities and events for networking. Silicon Drinkabout is a weekly meetup meant specifically for techies to mingle with like-minded people. Similarly, Chew the Fat is a meetup created for VCs, founders and CEOs to come together, converse and stimulate each other. Whether used for making deals or for making friends, there is no lack of chances to schmooze in this city.
London has proved itself a force to be reckoned with. The city’s favourable conditions make it an evermore popular starting point for young entrepreneurs to begin their journey into the world of new tech ventures. Think you’d make a good fit for London’s booming tech scene too?
Apply to Try Catch and we’ll get you there.
Try Catch is a curated marketplace for developers and tech jobs. Run by developers, for developers. A Try Catch community of tech experts carefully pre-asses your technical skills, resulting in an interview acceptance rate of over 95% at companies like Uber, Catawiki and Iprobable. Join us HERE.
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