London: Mayor launches tech initiatives to boost innovation

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today (2 November) launched two new tech initiatives to boost the sector and help harness the capital’s tech talent to make life better for Londoners.

Speaking at WIRED Live at Tobacco Dock in east London, the Mayor announced that City Hall will fund 20 investment days over the next four years, to give innovative tech firms the opportunity to attract crucial funding to enable them to grow.

Each event – run by the UK Business Angels Association – will focus on a specific area of tech and will offer coaching to the leaders of these companies, as well as directly linking them with investors. The GLA will provide £280,000 in funding, which will be matched in kind by the UKBAA. The programme will be structured so it will be entirely self-funding by the end of the four years.

Khan also announced that Bloomberg Associates – Michael Bloomberg's philanthropic municipal consultancy – will help shape the new Smart London Plan, in partnership with the Smart London Board.

The document will lay out in detail how the Mayor plans to achieve his ambition of harnessing the new technologies being pioneered in the capital to transform London into one of the world’s leading smart cities.