There can be little doubt that Silicon Valley is becoming an unattractive place for aspiring technology entrepreneurs to set up shop. Rents are exorbitant, wages stratospheric and its highways are all but gridlocked at rush hour. As Tobias Lütke, founder of the $40 billion Canadian ecommerce upstart Shopify, put it this week: “I’m flabbergasted why anyone would ever consider starting a company in that area.”
Even deep-pocketed venture capitalists are priced out. Chasing unicorns is an increasingly expensive pursuit, with valuations for even the greenest start-ups rising to astronomical levels. This partly explains why investment funds are casting their nets wider than they did in the past. Britain, happily, has become a magnet for this footloose capital. Thanks to its open economy and an environment…
