CAJ#9 Europe's SV

When writing my last post about the seven “ingredients” we would need to build a Silicon Valley in Europe according to Reid Hoffman, I thought “Well, we do have these ingredients”. You don’t remember the seven elements he mentioned? Here they are in bullet points:

• ·         Human capital – entrepreneurs
• ·         University & culture
• ·         Supportive government
• ·         Investors
• ·         Market
• ·         Developed infrastructure
• ·         Global mindset

LONDON

Well, the European global mindset might not be as developed as others and European investors might not be the most adventurous but still we do have the requirements for having a Silicon Valley in Europe. Here is a look at three hot tech hoods on the European continent:

Silicon Roundabout, London

Silicon Roundabout and Tech City are London’s hottest tech hub zones. They have been all over the news in 2012 when Amazon moved there. The Silicon Roundabout is a relatively small concentration of high-tech firms centering on Old St. Roundabout. In 2010 85 new startups were reported there. TweetDeck and SongKick are two of the names people have likely heard that got their start there. Because of Prime minister’s interest the Roundabout area was expanded into a larger “Tech City”, which had its own officialy-appointed entrepreneur manager, and around 200 firms had homes there in 2012. Facebook and Google have placed some operations in this area.

Silicon Fen, a small area around Cambridge and Silicon Corridor, the Britain’s earliest version of Silicon Valley are only two more high-tech hubs in Great Britain, Europe.

DUBLIN

The Irish city is increasingly earning the nickname of “Europe’s Silicon Valley”. The Irish Times noted in 2011 that Twitter's decision to locate its third international office in the city in the docklands area of the city resulted in the zone being called Silicon Docks. In early 2011 Google bought the tallest building in the city, the 15-floor Montevetro building, for $136 million as its earlier local office was too small for its growing staff. In June Nuance Communications, the firm behind the voice-recognition tech in systems like Apple's Siri digital assistant, revealed it was planning an international office in Dublin, leveraging the cosmopolitan and tech-savvy workforce that Dublin is fostering. 

 

BERLIN

In 2011, the New York Times ran a long piece about the boom of tech in Berlin. SoundCloud is perhaps the biggest name you know that has sprung from Berlin’s new startup scene. Germany is in general Europe’s biggest economy, which aids Berlin’s startup scene, though traditional German risk-aversion in business may be an issue.