Earlier this week, TechHub, a networking centre for tech entrepreneurs opened its doors on London’s “Silicon Roundabout” near Old Street station. Backed by Google and Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, TechHub offers desk space for young companies from £10 a day.
On Thursday, a similar centre, the Innovation Warehouse, which is backed by the City of London Corporation and a handful of angel investors, is launching with an attention-grabbing party on the top of the high walkway of London’s Tower Bridge. The offices themselves are in a historic building above London’s historic Smithfield market. In addition to desk space, entrepreneurs will have access to business angels who could provide micro-financing for their companies.
At the beginning of the year, another 7,000-square foot hub, White Bear Yard, was set up in Farringdon with the backing of Stefan Glaenzer, Last.fm’s first investor and chairman.
Many of these are based loosely around the Connect scheme set up by the University of California San Diego in 1985, which provides support services and mentoring to tech entrepreneurs. Back in 2007, Lord Sainsbury, politician and former science advisor to the government, recommended this model as a way to help the UK grow more tech companies.
According to UKBI, the professional body for business incubators, there are now over 300 hubs in the UK supporting more than 12,000 young businesses in all sectors, from creative industries to science and technology. Each incubator typically hosts around 30 businesses and 167 jobs.
The bigger question is, however, what happens to tech companies once they come out from under the warming lamps of the incubator environment? Desk space and advice are all very well, but without an infrastructure to provide serious funding, the businesses will still struggle to grow to world class size. Many will simply wither.
On the other hand, its not worth being too pessimistic. The UK’s largest software company, Autonomy, for example, was hatched at the UK’s oldest incubator, the St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge.
