Government launches £1m tech competition for London's 'Silicon Roundabout'

The government's Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has announced a competition to offer creative and digital firms in the east end of London the chance to win funding of up to £100,000 as part of a £1m overall pot.

Companies in the area can apply to the Tech City Launchpad competition for cash to develop new ideas, as the government seeks to foster an environment of creativity similar to that of Silicon Valley in the US.

David Bott, the TSB's director of innovation programmes, told V3.co.uk that the project is designed to get "Shoreditch on steroids" by giving companies in the district the chance to look at new areas of business.

"With this competition we wanted to draw a spotlight on the cluster of firms in the Shoreditch area, and help them collaborate on new projects or explore new aveanues of creativity," he said.

"Once they have funding from us they need to get it matched in order to receive the final grant, and we will hold an investor summit in July or August where they can present their projects and hopefully secure the rest of the funding."

The TSB hopes to see some 200 companies apply for funding, and Bott said that £100,000 is a good amount to offer, despite some telling the TSB that it should be higher, at about £250,000, and others saying it should be lower at around £25,000.

Additionally, a programme called IC Tomorrow will move to Shoreditch in July to give companies the chance to liaise with content owners, application developers and consumers to test services on a closed internet system.

"There are so many rules and regulations on the internet that there can be risks for firms launching new products. With IC Tomorrow they can try things out and work with others to see how it all works in a walled garden environment," Bott said.

The competition follows the announcement by the European Commission on Thursday that it is funding six projects with €1.5m as part of its Future and Emerging Technologies competition.