UK “tech city” doubles number of start-ups
29 July, 2011 Category: News No Comments 
Original post by Nicole Kobie via PC Pro
“That means something like 1,000-1,500 new jobs”
The UK’s plans to build a Silicon Valley in East London have already helped double the number of start-ups, according officials behind the plans.
Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of the Tech City Investment Organisation, told the Wall Street Journal that the number of start-ups had “at least doubled” since the Government announced the plans last year.
He claimed that last year, the area – stretching from Old Street’s so-called Silicon Roundabout further east to Stratford – had 170 tech companies at work.
“I can tell you that it has more than doubled in less than eight months,” he told the paper. “Every one of those companies is perhaps two or three people, working in low-cost shared workspaces, making a product, selling a service. That means something like 1,000-1,500 new jobs.”
Van Der Kleij said official numbers about the success of the programme would be announced soon.
At the time of its launch, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres.”
