London, the capital of the United Kingdom is a leading financial hub of Europe. London stock exchange with a market capitalization of $6.06 trillion (Dec 2014) is the largest stock exchange in Europe and third largest in the World. In fact, London is a player for Fintech industry in Europe.
With a multi-cultural community and creative vibes, London is definitely among the leading cities with a growing startup ecosystem. UK has provided a tax-friendly UK startup scheme. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is a government scheme which helps startup raise equity finance as it provides immense tax benefits of up to 64% to Angel investors. Companies like Barclays are providing an accelerator program for startups.
Techcity London is the third largest technology startup cluster in the world after San Francisco and New York. Techcity was Launched by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and is a publicly funded body. Based on its success other cities of the UK are receiving similar support, for example, MediaCityUK in Manchester. By 2020, Technology jobs will lead all other occupations as forecasted by Techcity. In fact, over 1.46 million people are currently employed in the digital industries in the UK. Silicon Roundabout in London is housing over 1600 tech businesses, which shows the synergy and a developing network at a very fast pace in the locality.
London is a leading destination when it comes to VC investments in Europe as per the study by EY. In fact, during 2014 London startups attracted venture investment of over $1.4 billion with significant investment from US investors. With the boom in Britain’s digital economy, it is estimated to continue 12 billion GBP over the next decade and generating more than 50,000 jobs. As per a survey from Barclays, Britain’s technology sector is set to grow four times than it’s GDP during 2015.
Google campus is Google’s dedicated place for startups in East London. Some interesting takeaways are mentoring events, educational events as well as networking which takes place at Google Campus. It has a very diverse community under one roof of several startups, investors, Googlers, Mentors and so on.
London has 12 incubators and 24 accelerators program running. Along with that many successful startups from the US are picking London as their next destination to set up a strong base in Europe. Many startups prefer crowd-sourcing through platforms like Crowdcube which facilitates to raise crowdfunding based on business plan.
Overall London has the complete support of Government by having tax friendly schemes, amazing infrastructure, multi-cultural environment, growing VC & Angel community as well as passionate entrepreneurs adding immense value to London Startups.
CMARIX has been actively working with startups from London enabling them to build a functional prototype, Minimal Viable Product (MVP) as well as full-fledged product development as per the business needs.
