Amazon Web Services opens first startup support centre outside US in London’s Silicon Roundabout
If you were looking for more evidence that Tech City is booming: Amazon has just announced it will open its first startup support centre outside the US – and is basing it in London’s Silicon Roundabout.
Competition between cloud-based infrastructure providers has heated up recently, with Alibaba, Microsoft and Google all reporting rapid growth in this area. Amazon's move is a bid to entice entrepreneurs to choose its cloud computing services Amazon Web Services, targeting UK startups with a “pop-up loft space” where entrepreneurs can receive tech support and training.
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Similar support centres already exist in New York City and San Francisco, but this will be the first space outside the US. Another loft is slated to open in Berlin later this year.
Werner Vogels, vice president and chief of technology of Amazon.com, said that the centre was a way of combining the company’s cloud computing resources with “the brightest and most creative minds”:
The UK is a hotbed of innovation and London is one of the main places where we see talented, ambitious entrepreneurs coming together to test ideas and start new businesses that leverage cloud computing.
Amazon’s decision to set up camp in East London is partly in hope of partnering up with the city’s many digital startups, but the company also said the large number of UK customers already using its services made London an obvious choice. Customers include analytics firm GoSquared, ride-booking app Hailo and event booking app YPlan.