London woos tech startups

Mayor seeks to hold status as European hub

LON DON • Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced a new program of investment days for London startups as he tries to maintain the U. K.’s position as a European hub for young tech companies.

The U. K. national trade body for early stage companies will help run 20 investment days in London over the next four years, offering coaching and connections to potential investors, alongside US$740,000 in funding.

In the wake of the Brexit vote other cities are making greater plays to attract entrepreneurs. French President Emmanuel Macron has called to make his country “a startup nation,” while local billionaire Xavier Niel has spent 250 million euros ( US$ 291 million) to transform a former Paris freight station into a startup campus with 3,000 desks for rent.

Khan’s latest announcement comes almost a year after he launched a 7 million

THIS IS A CLEAR SIGN LONDON IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS.

pound (US$9.2 million) fund to give the city’s younger population access to jobs in the tech industry. Khan has also recently appointed the city’s first ever chief digital officer, Theo Blackwell.

“Since I became mayor, the capital has attracted significant investment from the biggest players in this sector — Google, Facebook and Apple, to name just three,” Khan said. “This is a clear sign London is open for business.”

In a February survey of 940 startup executives in the U. K. and other nations, one in 10 said they were considering shifting their headquarters onto the continent, with Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam often talked about as potential bases.

Meanwhile, the message to overseas tech companies operating in London has been mixed. Uber Technologies Inc., the world’s largest startup, is appealing a decision by London transport regulator — led by Khan — to revoke the car service’s licence.

Last year, Facebook Inc. said it planned to increase its U. K. head count by 50 per cent. Snap Inc. has also named London its international hub and Alphabet Inc’s Google plans to expand to accommodate as many as 3,000 additional staff there.

“As mayor, I’m quite clear if we’re to safeguard our competitiveness and our reputation for cutting edge innovation moving forward, we must stay true to our open and outlooking traditions,” Khan said at a Wired Live conference last week.