Stimulating London’s Technology Cluster at Canary Wharf

来源：人民网  2013年10月21日10:25

L39-City View

    Level39 is a new technology accelerator based in Canary Wharf, an East London business and retail district with a working population of over 100, 000. Young companies in finance, retail and future cities technologies can apply to join Level39 in order to grow their business and be part of a vibrant community, through an eco-system of startups, mentors and investors. The emergence of the technology accelerator space in London builds on the city’s tech cluster and compliments London’s strength in financial services.

    There have been over 320 applications to join Level39 since its launch in March 2013, and due to this level of interest, it is expanding to another floor in Canary Wharf only seven months after opening. The new area, dubbed the ‘High Growth Space’, will house graduates of Level39 and other technology companies with potential for rapid expansion.

    Level39 members benefit from a creative, mature and playful environment where a community of tech entrepreneurs from around the world work, mentor and develop.

    According to Eric Van der Kleij, the Head of Level39, “As we move into the future, the technology and finance sectors need to work together. In this environment of collaboration, the financial institutions can benefit from the innovative technologies being developed by the emerging tech sector, and the technologists can benefit from the wisdom and legacy of the banks.”

    Level39 works with Pivotal Innovations, a company which creates customised innovation programmes for entrepreneurs, governments and large corporates to accelerate growth. Accelerator programmes include startup competitions, hackathons and innovation labs, which aim to solve business’s biggest challenges – innovation, scaling, internationalization, and agile responsiveness to an industry in the midst of change. Pivotal Innovations identifies and accelerates cutting-edge technology startups, which in turn enables the sponsoring organization to learn from and enter new markets, source acquisition and/or investment opportunities and diversify their along their product set. These programmes help entrepreneurs scale their businesses by providing access to real market pilots, partnership opportunities, financing, executive mentoring, and the top talent to grow management teams.

    Pivotal Innovations also convenes cross-disciplinary, international salons to discuss the worlds’ major innovation challenges and come up with enabling solutions. A recent programme, specialising in financing future cities, brought together thought leaders and international experts from the financial and technology sectors, to discuss the challenges of funding smart cities initiatives needed to address mass urbanization. Pivotal Innovations will hold also an open showcase event to share the insights of the programme and publish a highly visual report which captures the industry trends and challenges.

    Claire Cockerton, the CEO of Pivotal Innovations and Head of Innovation Programmes at Level39, has said that “We want to curate an “ideal playground” to curate innovative thinking and open dialogue – and then to make these insights accessible to a global community. Working across UK government organisations, tech startups, think-tanks and the international community nestled in the heart of Canary Wharf, we hope to foster a dynamic, multi-disciplinary eco-system which will produce tomorrow’s technologies and the finance instruments that will enable the development of smart, interconnected cities.”

    Many of the major banks have UK/European headquarters at Canary Wharf and, like Beijing, the Wharf boasts its own HSBC tower. The claim is that this proximity to a powerful financial district enables Level39 to be the place where technology companies go to meet the banks.

    The Level39 project was initiated and is wholly funded by Canary Wharf Group plc, who are the company that own and manage the entire business district. Songbird Estates, 15.3% owned by China Investment Corp, have been the majority shareholder in Canary Wharf Group since 2004. The Canary Wharf Group is attempting to diversify their tenant portfolio whilst maintaining a strong financial community, and Level39 is the first part of this project. The future that is being worked towards is the Wood Wharf development. Wood Wharf is a twenty acre development site to the East and South of the current Canary Wharf site, which will compromise of both commercial and residential space.

    With its combination of residential and commercial space, the Wood Wharf development plays to London’s proven affinity with Asian investors. According by a Financial Times report in 2012, Asian investment accounts for 25% of all transactions in London’s commercial property market by value. In addition, buyers from Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia purchase 47% of all new-build properties in Central London according to a report conducted by Knight Frank earlier in 2013. In 2018, when the Wood Wharf development is due to complete, it could be useful to remeasure the statistics that measure Chinese investment in London’s technology sector.