UK fuels race to launch trillion-dollar start-up
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THERE will be a trillion dollar start-up sooner or later,’ says Duncan Logan, t he Scottish founder of Rocket Space, the San Francisco- based technology ‘campus’ that is launching in London next month.
The company has helped more than 1,000 firms, 18 of which are now ‘unicorns’ – private technology start-ups that have reached a valuation of $1 billion (£800 million) or more. It is most famous for working with Uber, Spotify and augmented reality business Blippar.
Logan points out RocketSpace is not just offering office space but access to key investors, mentors and advisors, through more than 150 corporate partnerships. Of course, it also offers co-working office space, workshops and networking events.
The company, which was set up to help fast- growth firms become tech giants of tomorrow, is expanding internationally. The UK site, in Angel, North London, is its second campus and is opening with the support of NatWest, which is a corporate partner.
The UK launch comes as US shared office space firm WeWork, which has a $17 billion valuation and 100,000 members, has announced it will almost double its presence in London this year to 20 offices. Another rival is Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, which counts Reddit and Airbnb among its alumni. Y Combinator was part of a $33 million funding round for Boom Supersonic, an aircraft company backed by Richard Branson, which claims it will deliver the ‘world’s fastest civil aircraft ever made’ and fly from London to New York in three-and-a-half hours.
In the face of fears that many unicorns have had valuations they did not deserve due to overzealous investors, Logan says the potential for some of these firms is ‘on a different scale’.
He said: ‘I was speaking at a conference and I said: “OK, Uber’s valued at $63 billion. Who would buy shares at $63 billion?”, and nobody put their hand up. “Oh right, OK. So Uber’s a six- year- old company, employs about 16,000 people, it’s got revenues of $5.5 billion, and it’s valued at $63 billion, and none of you would buy stock?
‘If I told you that only 7 per cent of Americans have ever travelled in an Uber, and less than one per cent of the world have ever travelled in a ride-sharing vehicle, now would you buy...?” And everyone’s like: “Oh god, yeah. It’s got a long way to go!”.’
HE added: ‘Once you’re on the internet, it’s such a big marketplace. We are going to see start-ups go well through $100 billion $ 200 billion. Facebook’s now a couple hundred billion. ‘But there will be a trillion dollar start-up sooner or later, and I think Uber has got growing pains, nobody’s ever managed to grow a company that fast that size, but it’s just on a different scale that we can’t imagine it.’
The new campus is being leased from Royal Bank of Scotland, and will offer a range of memberships. ‘Desk surf’ allows people to grab a desk between 8.30 am and 5.30pm, while a dedicated desk means 24/7 access to ‘premium’ seating and space for branding.
There will be an on-site cafe and bar, showers, bike storage, a relaxation room, weekly tech workshops, monthly trend talks with industry leaders, ‘crazy-fast, secure internet’ and event space. RocketSpace claims its ‘break-out spaces’ such as pool tables help people foster ideas.
Logan said: ‘Corporates have this brilliant asset of huge customer bases, but they really struggle with innovation. We become the broker between start- ups with a ton of innovation and corporates with access to scale.’
Priya Guhua, ecosystem manager for RocketSpace UK and the first female British general counsel in Silicon Valley, said: ‘ London has something t hat Silicon Valley doesn’t have – you’re basically San Francisco tech, LA media, New York finance and Washington government all in one place.
‘There’s a huge untapped opportunity still coming through London. And then if you put that alongside what’s happening here with things like artificial intelligence I think we can hold the global position for leading deep tech now.’