The entrepreneurial hub of Europe

Cambridge finds itself at the very centre of the boom, bringing in an impressive £135m in investment funding in 2014, second only to London according to Business Zone. Government policy is also increasingly placing entrepreneurial innovation as a top priority, especially within technology.

The 2015 budget announcement made by George Osbourne pledged £500m towards next-gen technologies, an indication of just how much value is placed on the technology sector’s potential future contribution to the UK economy. Included within the announcement was a promise of review on regulation, which is inhibiting innovation within disruptive technology.

“The typical timeline from taking a high-tech product from inception to market has been reduced substantially in the last decade,” said Benedikt von Thuengen, CEO, Speechmatics. “These shorter product lifecycles coupled with extremely low entry barriers means that technology start-ups are booming; but as a result it has become a crowded marketplace with a lot of background noise making it more important than ever to stand out from the crowd.”

With this crowded marketplace in mind, Cambridge Wireless is putting together a dedicated Start-up Zone at this year’s Future of Wireless International Conference at the Emirates Stadium in London on 23^rd and 24^th June. ‘The Start-up Zone will be a fantastic opportunity for UK and international start-ups to exhibit the hottest technologies, apps, solutions and gadgets they have to offer,” said Gerlinde Gniewosz, CEO, KO-SU. “As winners of the CW Discovering Start Ups Competition last year we are very excited to have another platform to showcase ourselves.”