Presentation by Coadec Executive Director, Guy Levin, about the UK's Startup Ecosystem at the Bitspiration Conference in Warsaw, June 2015

1. Startup Ecosystem in the UK
Bitspiration Festival
June 2015
Guy Levin
@guy_levin

2. Me
• Former policy wonk in UK
government: advisor to George
Osborne, Conservative Party, DCMS
and DFID
• Now tech policy - relaunched and
run Coadec.
• Also write for The Memo and Tech
City News.
@guy_levin

3. Coadec
• Set up by tech entrepreneurs in
2010 to be the ‘policy voice of
digital startups’
• Last year published ‘The Startup
Manifesto’, backed by over 200
founders and VCs
@coadec www.coadec.com

4. THE
STARTUP
MANIFESTO
How the next government should
support digital startups in the UK
Guy Levin – September 2014
#StartupManifesto
www.coadec.com/
the-startup-manifesto

6. UK’s startup scene is thriving
17 UK ‘unicorns’ created since
2000 according to GP
Bullhound

7. Household names

8. Why?
Many ways to cut it, but I like UP Global’s 5 elements:
1. Talent
2. Density
3. Culture
4. Capital
5. Regulatory Environment
Politics matters across all of these

9. George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Speech at launch of Google Campus London, March 2012
“We want nothing less than to make the UK the
technology centre of Europe”
“I want this to be the startup nation in Europe and one
of the great startup nations of the world”
David Cameron MP, Prime Minister
Campaign speech, May 2015
Politics matters

10. Talent
• World-class universities
• Increasing number of training
programmes
• Coding on the school curriculum

11. Density
• 382,000 workers in London’s tech
sector (in 2014)
• (At least) 21 clusters around the UK

12. It’s not just London
74% of digital companies based outside of London
and 21 Clusters identified by TechCityUK in their
recent Tech Nation report

13. Culture
• Role models and entrepreneurship
celebrated
• Meetups, drinks, conferences
• Political leadership - trade missions,
speeches, pitching competitions

14. Capital
• VC investment on the rise ($781m in
Q1 2015)
• More US investors (eg Google
Ventures, a16z)
• Crowdfunding taking off
• Generous tax reliefs for angel
investors (SEIS, EIS)
Equity crowdfunding
Source: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

15. Funding on the rise

16. Regulatory environment
• Significant engagement right from
the top of government
• Examples:
• ‘Tech City breakfasts’ in Downing
Street
• Review into the sharing economy
• Financial regulator (FCA) set up
an ‘Innovation Hub’

17. Challenges
• Scale-ups
• Diversity
• Policy (immigration, EU)

18. Thanks!
@guy_levin @coadec
guy.levin@coadec.com