Some folk used to say the great thing about Europe’s digital startup scene was, unlike Silicon Valley, it’s distributed. So the growing concentration around the Shoreditch, London, area they’re calling Silicon Roundabout may seem a little at odds with that.
Now Pearson (NYSE: PSO) has announced itself as the first founder sponsor of TechHub, a project to sit 500 dot.commers around desks in a building near the roundabout.
Tellingly about its strategy, Pearson is press releasing its sponsorship by email, professing to be “exploring the digital frontiers” with projects like its own innovation fund and using the opportunity to say a third of its revenue is now from digital. It’s unclear exactly how much Pearson is putting up, or what it’s getting out of it.
Clustering is nothing new, though is usually accomplished by the likes of development agencies – see Wales’ sector-specific Technium network, which has been operating for nine years.
TechHub is a sector-specific co-working facility. Many are beginning to sprout up around the UK.