The Lord Mayor of London, Alastair King, has today (6 February) launched the first-ever ‘Scale Up Showcase’ at Mansion House, aimed at supercharging investment into the UK’s fast-growing tech start-ups. In partnership with the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT), the event will bring together some of the country’s top scale-up tech firms with leading UK investors, including senior representatives from Lloyds Banking Group, London Stock Exchange Group, and Aviva.
The showcase serves as a critical platform to accelerate collaboration between the UK’s burgeoning tech sector and major financial institutions, creating high-impact opportunities for growth, innovation, and global competitiveness.
The event will showcase 18 of the best high-growth technology prospects in the UK pitching to an audience of 240. They will present themselves to major UK financial service companies to help them gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities available to UK investors from supporting the scale up of high-growth potential tech businesses in the UK , especially in the light of recent moves to free up investment capital from pension schemes to support innovation.
The event aims to address the ‘scaleup funding gap’ in the UK. The UK is currently ranked third in the world for tech start-ups and innovation (behind the US and China), however many of these start-ups are forced to move to the US to access the private financing needed to scale-up.
While the UK has a good start-up technology investment ecosystem, largely driven by tax breaks, as well as a vibrant private equity sector for later stage M&A, there is a gap in the market to support those scale-up companies who seek market development funds of between £3m-£20m.
Lord Mayor of London, Alastair King, says:
“My theme for the year is ‘Growth Unleashed’, and a key focus is supporting our tech sector. This event connects UK tech talent with major financial institutions, unlocking opportunities for growth and innovation.
“The UK has world-class tech talent and top universities, but too few businesses are scaling into global leaders. This must change, and initiatives like today’s showcase are key to making that happen. We would like to do all we can to ensure that British businesses can start here, grow here and thrive here.”
Gary Moore, Master of the Information Technology Livery Company, said:
“I’m delighted to be supporting the Lord Mayor for this event. Our purpose today is to surface and give a platform to some of our most exciting high-growth tech businesses. We want to reinforce the message that London, and the wider UK, is a fabulous place to conceive of and grow a business; individually we hope to connect these businesses today with customers, capital and other forms of support.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
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