UK web entrepreneurs take trade mission to Silicon Valley

Eighteen of the UK's most successful technology start-up companies are jetting off to the States today as part of a government backed initiative designed to promote UK web entrepreneurialism and open up their businesses to an international market.

The Web Mission project is backed by a range of public and private sponsors including government agency the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and government body UK Trade & Investment.

The project, which has also been run by previous governments, starts with a competition aimed at picking the most innovative and fastest growing web companies in the UK.

These include ScreenReach Interactive, which on Friday announced that its
Screach digital media platform is being used by marketing company Think
Innovative and its client Newcastle United to enable fans at home games to interactively vote for their man of the match.

Other technologies being showcased including online booking services using social media, application optimisation technology, marketing optimisation tools, production and delivery of e-content and new forms of cloud-based file sharing.

Once in the US, the firms will effectively be on a trade mission, but with
unrivalled access to top execs from companies like Twitter. Over $60m has been raised in private finance by companies that attended two previous Web Missions, according to TSB.

"Web Mission provides a fantastic opportunity for us to meet the people and organisations that can help us reach our goals," explained Simon Prockter, chief executive of one of the successful companies, housebites.com.

"We have an ambitious product that we intend to launch in the US within the next 12 months and San Francisco is the logical place to begin that journey."