UK to donate £ 400m to support national startups to prevent foreign buyouts

The UK government has announced that it will invest in startups and R&D projects that are playing an increasingly important role in the country’s tech sector.

More than £ 400 million of public funds will be invested in start-ups in the form of venture capital through the British Business Bank in order to stop UK startups from leaking out through foreign buyouts.

In 2016, Japanese internet giant SoftBank bought ARM for $ 31 billion. Other UK companies recently acquired by foreign investors include DeepMind, which was sold to Google in 2014 for $ 400 million, and SwiftKey, acquired by Microsoft that same year for $ 250 million.

The UK government plans to invest an additional 2 billion pounds ($ 2.48 billion) in research and development by 2020, which will be directed to a number of key technologies, including robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Earlier, taxpayer funds of £ 1 billion were invested in the development of high-speed fiber-optic broadband infrastructure, which will give fast Internet connections to 2 million UK households. In addition, £ 400 million of the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund will be used to support new broadband Internet providers.

These measures are aimed at restoring confidence in the UK tech sector after the June 2016 Brexit vote, when the country voted to leave the European Union.

Gerard Gretsch, CEO of Tech City UK, commented: “The British government has shown that it is focused on the needs of the tech community to build businesses with the potential to transform many of our traditional industries. We are delighted that the government is investing £ 400m in venture capital funds through British Business Bank. This investment will unlock at least £ 1bn in venture capital for startups in a globally competitive market. ”Source: http://thenextweb.com