As Britain enters an era of austerity, not only will the fate of UK workers be threatened, but also a huge burden will fall on the shoulders of the private sector. Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy, highlights the need for technology business to prevent the UK from becoming an “economic backwater.”
Currently, there are only three high-tech companies in the FTSE, but Lynch believes there needs to be many more in order to rekindle the flame of the UK’s economy. The past has shown that it is a hard struggle to keep high-tech companies within the UK borders. Lynch stresses that government needs to do more to help bridge the financial gap that pushes young talent across the Atlantic. He compares the UK to the US, where a culture of breeding talent and innovation is evident. That same culture, that same support needs to be instilled in the UK where finding funding for start-ups can be a challenging and painstaking process.
“What we have to do is make sure that there are ways for them to get funded, so that when they're sitting there on the final day and they've got the option of going into a cushy job in the City or starting their own business, they choose to start the business” says Mike Lynch.
Autonomy, a search software giant, was born in 1996 after receiving a £2million investment from venture capital firm Apax Partners. It is now Britain’s largest software group. The software is designed to search through unstructured data like voicemails, emails and telephone calls to identify trends and patterns. It has been used by companies such as Coca-Cola and Adidas, and been used in cases like the collapse of Enron and French bank SocGen. Autonomy has battered most of its American competitors into submission and we hope that the next generation of Britain’s innovators continue to do the same.
Read more at the Daily Mail
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