The City is ramping up its efforts to attract innovative technology firms to the Square Mile with plans to set up a new fintech hub.
Innovate Finance, the fintech industry body backed by the City of London Corporation, will move from Canary Wharf to a new space in the Square Mile that is also set to house startups.
It will be located in Broadgate, though discussions are still underway over the exact location and details.
Mark Boleat, the City of London’s policy chairman, told City A.M. the Square Mile was a “natural place for fintech to coalesce”. Speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit, he added that the City’s plans to bring greater wireless internet coverage to the capital’s financial district and efforts to improve super fast broadband will help it attract small businesses.
Rising rents in the traditional startup habitat of Shoreditch have already pushed entrepreneurs to look elsewhere, with Soho, Clerkenwell and King’s Cross rising in popularity.
Deliveroo, the billion-dollar delivery startup, will open a brand new office in the heart of the city this summer which used to be the trading floor of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, while peer-to-peer lender Ratesetter is located in Bishopsgate.
Current co-working spaces in the capital are not keeping up with demand from the growing number of tech companies springing up, and Square Mile rents are now on a par with areas such as Shoreditch, according to a March report from the City of London Corporation, City Property Association (CPA), Cushman and Wakefield and KPMG.
“The City occupier base has diversified significantly over the past decade and with the right policy environment and developer investment, the Square Mile will be a natural home for global tech,” said CPA president Mark Ridley.
Source: City A.M.