Berlin has scored a victory over London in the battle to be the main hub for Europe’s start-up companies after Seedcamp split its flagship event of Europe’s largest support programme for fledgling tech businesses between the two cities.
The incubator programme, which began life with a week-long event at London’s Imperial College in September 2007, will now hold four such gatherings in the UK and German capitals. Read more
Dealership software motors onto market
After the excitement of Facebook’s $104bn IPO and the subsequent fall in its shares, something more modest is coming onto London’s alternative investment market.
Incadea, an Austrian company that provides software for BMW and other car dealerships, will raise around £17m on Friday, in a stock market float expected to value the company at £47m.
It’s a lot smaller than Facebook, but it is a rare technology listing in London, where the tech IPO market has been considered closed for a long time. Read more
Google opens East London Campus
London’s Tech City project got a big boost on Thursday when Google officially opened Campus, its first hub offering start-up technology companies desk space and mentoring.
Opened to great fanfare by George Osborne, chancellor, the seven-storey building will house 100 start-up companies and organisations such as Seedcamp, the technology incubator, and TechHub, the original provider of co-working space in the Shoreditch area. Read more
Technology companies are fast taking up some of the slack in the London property market created by the downsizing of the financial services sector.
IT, telecoms and internet start-up companies doubled their uptake of office space in central London during 2011. In total, the industry took up 1.3m square feet of office space in 2011, compared with 640,000 square feet in 2010, according to data from Knight Frank.
Time Out snaps up UK daily deals bargain Keynoir
Time Out, the entertainment reviews and listings group, has acquired Keynoir, a London daily-deals service, for a sum well below its inspiration Groupon’s multi-billion-dollar valuation. Read more
David Cameron returns to Silicon Roundabout, touting growth, electric cars and augmented reality
David Cameron, the British prime minister, returned to Shoreditch in East London on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of his Tech City initiative. Read more
Silicon Roundabout comes to Buckingham Palace
It might be the most significant meeting of British royals and geeks since Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the web, received his knighthood in 2003.
Thursday evening saw a reception celebrating “innovation through UK entrepreneurship” held at Buckingham Palace, as the great and the good of London’s Silicon Roundabout and beyond gathered to toast digital Britain. Read more
Home Office backs away from social network blocking after riots
The British government appears to have shelved plans to block rioting teens from using Facebook and Twitter or even shutting down Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger network during times of crisis, in response to this month’s violent disorder.
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the idea, Thursday’s meeting between the three technology companies and the Home Secretary passed calmly and without incident. Read more
Twitter is still coming to London despite super-injunction row
The British brouhaha surrounding the mass online breach of so-called “super injunctions” will not deter Twitter from opening a new office in London. In fact, it looks as though its first UK-based employee is Tony Wang, who moved over from San Francisco this very weekend.
But it remains unclear whether Twitter will join the start-ups on Silicon Roundabout or follow Google and Facebook to Soho. Read more
“Silicon Milkroundabout” seeks to lure geeks from the City
One of the biggest challenges facing any tech start-up, particularly in the UK, is recruiting skilled developers.
Rather than sit around waiting for the government’s East London Tech City initiative to bear more fruit than ministerial meet-and-greets, the residents of Shoreditch’s “Silicon Roundabout” are taking matters into their own hands. And yes, it involves a hilariously bad play on words. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
Older entries