London is the place to be for digital start-ups

London Start Up scene montage ()

In 2010, the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron and London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, launched the Tech City Initiative. In the five years since, the number of companies is up by half and 200,000 people now work in the sector.

The growth has been accelerated by the merging of London’s finance and technology sectors, making it the largest base for “fintech” ahead of Silicon Valley and New York, says a study by consultants from Oxford Economics and it predicts that the sector will increase in value by five per cent a year to almost £30bn by 2025.

Many companies, like Amazon, have moved their offices back into the capital because they say attracting and retaining talent is crucial – and the best flock to London.

London’s technology landscape is developing too, not everything is centred around ‘Silicon Roundabout’ – start-ups are looking to alternative (and often cheaper) areas to set up shop, which has led to new hubs each with their own specialisms: Clerkenwell for advertising technology, Canary Wharf and the City for financial technology, Notting Hill for fashion and e-commerce, Bermondsey for ecommerce and artificial intelligence and Kentish Town for ecommerce and digital marketing.

Media executives interested in getting a taste of the digital start-up scene influencing media should attend FIPP’s upcoming London Start-up Tour taking place on 16-18 November.

The three-day tour will guide executives in and around London’s start-up scene, covering new, emerging and recently established companies.

The programme is being created by The Accelerator Network which aims to deliver the most efficient range of support for high growth tech and digital media start-ups.

Here’s a taste of two companies that are already confirmed on the programme:

Openr is a disruptive online marketing tool that lets you add relevant promotional messages onto all the content that you share, making that content sharing get the action you want – whether it’s traffic, email subscriptions or subscriptions to paid content. 

By closing the gap between content sharing and direct action Openr has already been named a Must-Have Marketing Tool by Entrepreneur Magazine and is being used by global brands and agency giants.

Sliide App is an opt-in ad network that puts brands content on the smartphone lock screen, giving them the ‘first impression’ on the fastest growing point of sale, the mobile.

Users get to discover and engage with cool content such as blogs, brands, events, trailers, apps and offers via their lock screen, and earn money on a revenue share basis for doing so. 

To find out more, or to register your place, go to FIPP London Start-up Tour or email Christine Huntingford and/or Jenny Stubbs.

More about London Technology Week.

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