WATCH: Here East, the 1.2m sq ft digital and creative campus on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, E20, is to become home to Europe’s largest technology innovation centre.
The 68,000 sq ft innovation centre will be a joint venture between DV4, Delancey’s evergreen investment fund, and ENTIQ, the team behind Canary Wharf fintech accelerator Level39, and is scheduled to open on the ground floor of the former Press Centre in January 2017.
The Innovation Centre aims to bring together a community of businesses that will help revolutionise their fields, with an initial focus on sport, health, fashion, design and the Internet of Things.
At full occupancy, the centre will support up to 500 on-site members and organisations, and has capacity to spin-out scaling firms into other space across the estate.
ENTIQ founder Claire Cockerton, chief executive of the new TIC, said: “We have a bold vision and a strong team to deliver London’s next technology and innovation cluster. Working together at Here East, our members and partners will unite to shape new industry verticals that will make life better: businesses that improve engagement in sport, tools for preventative health care, the design of intelligent and functional fabrics, applications that improve connectivity, sustainability and mobility in urban environments and much more.
“Our business values are firmly rooted in the local and Olympic history: creativity, multi-disciplinary working, inclusivity and internationalism, and we will remain a launch pad for British-based scale-up businesses and a soft landing pad for companies coming to the UK for the first time.”
Paul Goswell, managing director of Delancey, added: “In a market that is at risk of becoming saturated with multiple carbon-copy co-working facilities offering little more than flexible leases and cool interior design, we are delighted to be creating a business that really will help our occupiers innovate, collaborate and scale their businesses through the programmes, events and support we will provide.
“Brexit or otherwise, we believe that London’s technology sector is only going from strength to strength and are pleased to play a small part in supporting it to do that.”
Read more about Here East’s plans to steal some tech thunder from the EC1 heartland >>
• To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
