Tech City – the inside story
Newham Chamber of Commerce, Friday 16 December
Chris Orange, Gateway to London
Gateway to London
The inward investment agency for east London
Public/private sector partnership, established 2002
Free and confidential business location advice:
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Promote east London for business
Attract new investment
Support existing businesses
Make connections
A brief history - milestones
4 November 2010 announcement – east London Tech City
UKTI – Tech City Investment Organisation
Gateway to London role
Commitments from major corporates: Facebook, Intel, Cisco, etc
May 2011 – TweetDeck acquired by Twitter for $40m
May 2011 – Digital Shoreditch Festival
Sept 2011 – Google Launchpad
Nov 2011 – Entrepreneurs Festival
Tech City – where is it?
“a hub that stretches from Shoreditch to the Olympic Park...”
Concentrated in EC2A/N1/E1, but...
Work-space supply dwindling, rents rising
Focus widening – east London, London-wide, rest of UK...
Tech City – how big is it?
June 2008 – “Silicon Roundabout” list – 15 tech businesses
October 2009 – Wired list – 100
May 2011 – Digital Shoreditch – 550
November 2011 – Tech City Map – 819
Gateway to London – 350 “genuine digital tech businesses”
However defined, remarkable
growth in middle of recession
Tech City – who’s there?
Tech City – work-space
Tech City – incentives
Entrepreneur Visa – high-potential businesses can come to UK with
£50k funding, rather than £200k for standard Tier 1 visa
Entrepreneurs Investment Scheme – income tax relief up from
20% to 30%; maximum up from £0.5m to £1.0m
Life-time Capital Gains Tax relief – maximum 10% on first £10m
on sale of assets (from 4/9ths of first £5m previously)
Entrepreneur First – 2-year programme to help graduates start their
own business, backed by Microsoft, McKinsey and others
R&D Tax Credits – from April 2012, amount of tax relief claimable
by tech SMEs against R&D spend to rise from 200% to 225%
Tech City Launchpad – competition for 50% funding for innovative
new projects; £1.8m awarded in first phase
Mentorship programme – advice and support from leading
entrepreneurs in Tech City area
Tech City – where next?