There’s a black hole at the heart of the City: Lack of superfast broadband September 28, 2014 In the twenty-first century, superfast broadband is something we take for granted, like clean water and bright lights. But despite being in the world’s most popular business location, many of the City’s SMEs are still receiving the internet equivalent of rusty, murky water. While our larger businesses are well-served by fibre optic broadband, SMEs and [...]
London’s tech boom is more than just hype – and the City is at its heart September 18, 2014 WHILE London Technology Week may not yet rival London Fashion Week for glamour, there is real substance to the capital’s tech boom. This is why, for the first time, TechCrunch is bringing its Silicon Valley conference to London this October. A number of things are driving this tech boom. London has long acted as a [...]
London Fashion Week: Could London emerge as a global hub for wearable tech? September 17, 2014 At London Fashion Week, the merging of fashion and tech has been more palpable than ever before and, with top fashion designers now embracing the trend, wearable technology looks set to finally achieve mainstream success. The tech giants of California and East Asia have of course been playing a dominant role in developing wearables [...]
We’ve discovered the UK’s tech unicorns – now we must nurture their growth September 7, 2014 After creating its first product in the 1970s, it took Apple years to become one of the world’s most valuable companies. But in today’s technology sector, a new breed of tech firm is emerging – the unicorn. The unicorn is a startup that grows exponentially to reach a billion-dollar valuation within a few years of [...]
Germany’s €6bn mega-float puts London on notice September 3, 2014 Europe’s biggest online fashion player Zalando, a rival to Britain’s Asos, plans to raise more than €500m (£399m) to fund its expansion by listing a stake on the Frankfurt stock exchange. The announcement comes as London’s tech community launches a fight back to maintain its lead over its European rivals. Yesterday, the Coalition for a [...]
As entrepreneurs call for tax cuts to support startups, have politicians been complacent? September 3, 2014 David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, says Yes. There is a real lack of ambition in support for the tech sector from government. Some efforts are being made to improve London’s hi-tech infrastructure, for example, but it’s concerning that the capital still comes twenty-sixth in the UK table of high-speed broadband connectivity, and falls behind [...]
WEF: UK is ninth most competitive economy – and second most “technologically ready”? September 3, 2014 The UK is now the ninth-most competitive economy in the world, figures published this morning showed – and the second-most competitive when it comes to "technological readiness". Blighty rose one place from last year in the rankings, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), while Switzerland came top of the list and Finland (fourth) and [...]
Top startups in call to keep London #1 European tech hub September 2, 2014 London's top startups and venture capital firms will today urge the UK government to relax rules and taxes in order to maintain the capital’s status as the top European tech hub. The so-called Startup Manifesto – written by policy group Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) led by former government adviser Guy Levin – [...]
Former government adviser Guy Levin leads the startup charge September 2, 2014 When Guy Levin left his job as a government adviser last year – where he’d worked since 2010, jumping from the Conservative Campaign Headquarters to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and finally the Department for International Development – he was passionate about bridging the gap between startups and government. “I’d always been interested [...]
Coding for schools: How to code like a five-year-old September 1, 2014 This week thousands of children returned to school to find themselves faced with a new subject: computer programming. England's five-year-olds are the only ones in the G20 to be taught programming, in a move the government hopes will turn the nation's children into budding tech entrepreneurs. But children at academies may be spared the new [...]