UCL and Capital Enterprise: giving startups the space and support they need to grow

If you’re a London-based startup, there’s now a new workspace and innovation centre in the heart of Shoreditch, where you can take your business to the next level.

Much more than just a business space, IDEALondon is designed to open up access to mentoring, talent, expert advice and funding for new ventures in London.  

A collaboration between UCL and Capital Enterprise, it’s open to UCL students and other local entrepreneurs who want to work with UCL or the other partners. All the services are offered at an affordable rate, without asking for any equity in return.  

Over 90 startups have already used the facilities and been through the programmes on offer.  

Many have gone onto achieve expectational levels of growth, including: 

• Curve, the banking platform now valued at $250 million, with more than 500,000 users;
• Software company Trint, who’ve secured more than £5M in funding to build a new software category called StoryTech;
• Unibuddy, a platform that allows prospective university applicants to build meaningful connections online with existing students and staff through chat, live events and partnerships.

UCL’s Faculty of Engineering is playing an integral role in the success of the centre, by offering startup mentoring, innovation programmes and funding information. Businesses can also work with UCL on user testing and hardware prototyping, and tap into several of the university’s global academic and business technology networks. 

Vice Dean for UCL’s Faculty of Engineering Jane Butler said: “IDEALondon sits at the heart of UCL’s provision for post-accelerator start up support and is one of our big innovation success stories. In the last six years alone, we’ve hosted more than 90 startups in the centre. Those businesses have created over 3,000 jobs between them, and raised more than £340 million in funding. That’s an incredible achievement, and we can’t wait to see what this year’s cohort has in store for us.” 

Links

• IDEALondon.
• Curve.
• Trint.
• Unibuddy.
• UCL-based company changes the way students choose their place of study.

Image

• Credit: Sean Pollock UCL.

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