Canary Wharf is now home to London’s most concentrated cluster of FinTech startups, according to new analysis by CBRE, the global real estate consultancy. The E14 postcode houses 13 of the 140 companies recently set up to develop and provide financial technology in London, many of these inside the Canary Wharf incubator Level39.
Perhaps surprisingly the second-largest cluster is found on the South Bank in SE1 where 11 companies have grouped together. The area benefits from attractive rents, amenable to tech start-ups, but remains close to London’s financial roots in the City.
The third, fourth and fifth largest clusters are all found within the City’s tech heartland, around Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout. There are currently 10 companies in this area near City University in EC1V, seven in EC2A, and another seven under the TechCity umbrella in E1.
Dan Hanmer, Head of CBRE CreativeLondon, commented: “Canary Wharf has been an ideal home for FinTech start-ups hoping to stand on the shoulders of the financial giants in the area, especially for the FinTech ‘facilitators’ that play a supportive role for well established firms in the sector. There are similarly thousands of innovative businesses springing up around Old Street’s Tech City, so it’s little surprise to see three of the top five FinTech clusters in this area.
“What’s less expected is the size of the cluster on the South Bank, where a new wave of FinTech ‘disruptors’ are benefiting from lower rents just outside the City. FinTech firms tend to group together with likeminded businesses with similar property needs; this puts them near customers and within reach of appropriate talent. As competitors to traditional financial institutions FinTech disruptors have less need to be based in traditionally financial postcodes, so this move south may well be an emerging trend.”
Bloomberg is one of the Capital’s largest FinTech ‘facilitator’ success stories, with 408,000 sq ft on Finsbury Square in EC2A, closely followed by ‘disruptor’ Funding Circle’s 29,100 sq ft in EC4Y. Europe’s largest provider of FinTech incubator space, Level 39 in Canary Wharf, houses 190 young tech firms in 80,000 sq ft of space.
