Cambridge Aims to Be British Silicon Valley

The city of Cambridge, located north of London and renowned for its prestigious university and scientific discoveries, seeks to enhance its status as a technology hub to rival its counterpart, San Francisco in the American state of California, as reported by the French news agency.

The goal is for the city to become the “next Silicon Valley in the world,” according to British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt.

The British authorities spare no resources to position Cambridge as the new “European scientific capital.” Among the notable steps in this regard is London’s announcement to allocate three million pounds in the autumn budget to fund new projects aimed at enhancing the city’s infrastructure, including transportation and housing.

Most Expensive City

Cambridge is considered one of the most expensive cities in Britain in terms of property prices, much like San Francisco, which serves as the actual “Silicon Valley” in the world. It is a hub for highly skilled jobs, a factor contributing to the high cost of living in the area.

The “Innovate Cambridge” project, a collaboration between the prestigious university and major companies, including AstraZeneca in pharmaceuticals and Microsoft in technology, aims to double the number of “Unicorn” startup companies in the city by 2035.

The term “Unicorn” refers to emerging companies with a valuation surpassing one billion dollars, coined in 2013 to describe Silicon Valley companies that witnessed a significant leap, surpassing the billion-dollar stock value, which is considered as rare and miraculous as a mythical unicorn.

According to recent data from the University of Cambridge, 23 such unicorn startup companies, valued at over a billion dollars, have emerged in the small English city, nearly equivalent to the number of similar companies in Berlin but less than the 39 unicorn companies in London.

Among these local success stories are the giant technology company Arm, which employs its semiconductor designs in most smartphones worldwide; Darktrace, focusing on IT security technology; and Abcam, specialized in producing research antibodies.

“CMR Surgical,” a Cambridge-based company, produces small robots for “minimally invasive” surgical procedures. (REUTERS/Chris Radburn)

The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization noted that Cambridge witnesses the highest scientific and technological activity in the world relative to its population density.

In the UK as a whole, startup companies accumulated over 21 billion dollars in the past year, signifying a decline after two exceptional years. However, Britain remains the third-largest technology incubator in the world, following the United States and China, according to a study published by “Dealroom” and HSBC Bank in early January.

Innovation and Happiness

Mark Slack, co-founder of “CMR Surgical,” considered that the presence of his life science company becoming a unicorn in 2019 is due to being based in Cambridge. He stated that there are likely very few places in the world where they could have achieved this.

He noted that the technical expertise required by the company, including physicists, mathematicians, and IT experts, was “extremely hard” to find elsewhere, emphasizing Cambridge’s “astonishing” talent concentration.

According to the French news agency, a study conducted by the British bank “Virgin Money” last year classified Cambridge as the best city in the UK to start a company. The study indicated that “the historic college town ranks first in innovation and happiness, and also ranks first among the top five cities in terms of commute times, workforce levels, and internet quality.”

It seems that the relatively small population of about 150,000 in Cambridge does not hinder its ambitions, especially considering that its Californian counterpart has a much larger population of around three million people.

Despite its size, the American Silicon Valley has only three times the number of unicorn companies in Cambridge, a city that has also witnessed significant scientific accomplishments in DNA, in vitro fertilization, and stem cells throughout its history.

According to Michael Anstey from “Cambridge Innovation Capital,” an investment capital firm focusing on life sciences and disruptive (highly innovative) technologies, the British city can build on its past successes to renew itself.

He added: “Over the past sixty or seventy years, (the city) has managed to convert academic innovation into commercial opportunities.”