IT recruitment agencies in London are sending streams of candidates to startups in the Tech City area of the capital, which explains why the RBS regional growth tracker pointed to Inner East London as having the fastest growing local area economy in the nation last year. However, the Silicon Roundabout is by no means the city’s only startup hotspot.
“The Silicon Roundabout is by no means London’s only startup hotspot.”
As The Telegraph reported, one-quarter of searches conducted using online office space rental marketplace Hubble targeted the Shoreditch area. While Tech City still topped the list of places in which businesses are seeking office space, other parts of London are becoming increasingly attractive to startups as well – particularly Soho, Fitzrovia and Covent Garden, which attracted nearly one-fifth of the almost 150,000 office searches conducted on the Hubble website over the past year. Other contenders included:
“The Silicon Roundabout is by no means London’s only startup hotspot.”
As The Telegraph reported, one-quarter of searches conducted using online office space rental marketplace Hubble targeted the Shoreditch area. While Tech City still topped the list of places in which businesses are seeking office space, other parts of London are becoming increasingly attractive to startups as well – particularly Soho, Fitzrovia and Covent Garden, which attracted nearly one-fifth of the almost 150,000 office searches conducted on the Hubble website over the past year. Other contenders included:
- Clerkenwell, Holborn and Bloomsbury (16 per cent of searches)
- The Southbank (13 per cent)
- The City (10 per cent)
- Camden, Islington and Kings Cross (8 per cent)
- Victoria (less than 5 per cent)
- Docklands (less than 5 per cent)
So, what is it that makes London such an attractive startup hub?
The most visited city on the planet
London is a bustling metropolis that’s not only the most visited city in the United Kingdom and Europe, but also the world at large, wrote Lexie Sport founder and Virgin StartUp entrepreneur Lily Rice in a post for Virgin Entrepreneur. It’s no wonder that three-quarters of Fortune 500 enterprises have offices in the city, as well as more than one-fifth of the largest companies in Europe.
A large concentration of higher education
According to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2015, London and Paris have the highest number of acclaimed institutes of further education on the globe. University College London, Imperial College London, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the London Business School and King’s College London all made the Times’ Top 100 list.
“It is clear from this latest research that the U.K. is punching well above its weight in higher education globally with many of the most prestigious universities in the world – real jewels in the U.K.’s crown,” commented Times Higher Education Rankings editor Phil Baty.
A hotbed of investment activity
According to Rice, London generates about one-fifth of the U.K.’s Gross Domestic Product which makes it a natural point of focus for investors. In terms of tech startups in particular, figures from London & Partners revealed that such businesses raised 30 per cent more from venture capital firms in the first three quarters of 2014 than they did in the whole of 2013 and 10 times more than they did in 2010, the Financial Times reported.
Ultimately, London’s high number of colleges and universities, active investment climate and most-visited status make it an ideal place to find digital jobs.