Lord Bilimoria and Mayor of London Welcome India's Next High Growth Multi-national Companies to London

LONDON, March 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Leading British-Indian entrepreneur Lord Bilimoria last night praised a United Kingdom business programme aimed at identifying the global Indian multi-national companies of the future as new figures revealed the country's tech firms are investing in London at an unprecedented rate. 

The founder of the Cobra Beer empire, who attended the IE20 event (India Emerging 20) which has demonstrated the Indian economy's extraordinary depth and breadth in technological innovation, said that London and the wider United Kingdom offered the best opportunities for businesses to internationalise.

Latest data released by London & Partners, the Mayor of London's business and promotional organisation, shows that Indian companies are the second biggest investor in London, ahead of China and Japan, but behind the USA.

Since 2005 there has been a 117 per cent increase in Indian companies across all business sectors investing in London, with a 133 per cent increase in tech companies investing in the city, which accounts for 46 per cent of all projects.

This worldwide expansion of Indian technology companies is also reflected in new figures released today that show venture capital raised by Indian technology firms has risen to record levels. In the last five years investment in Indian tech companies has rocketed seven times from $454 million (Rs 3049 crore) in 2011 to $3.3billion (Rs 22,165 crore) last year, according to CB Insights.

Lord Bilimoria, who was last year named International Indian of the Year 2014-15, said: "It is vital that we continue to foster connections with one of our most important trading partners here in London, where Indian companies have more than doubled in number in the past ten years. Like many Indian companies, the IE20 are young and fast-moving and have a brilliant future ahead of them, and London is absolutely the right place for them to grow."

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson MP said: "India is the fastest growing major economy in the world and Indian companies are now the second biggest foreign investor in London. To welcome 20 of their brightest and best businesses demonstrates how attractive the city is for Indian companies with global ambitions."

Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United Kingdom last year which resulted in $13 billion of commercial deals being signed, over one million Indian businesses were made aware of the IE20 programme with the judges whittling the entries down to just 20 places.

The winners come from a broad range of categories including life sciences, artificial intelligence, IT services, cyber security, sports tech, travel tech, adtech, e-commerce and analytics.

The IE20 programme is being run by London & Partners in partnership with British Airways, which flew the company representatives from India to the UK, BDO, Newland Chase and UK Trade and Investment. This week the company representatives have flown to London for a programme aimed at helping them facilitate international partnerships, alliances, business opportunities and to find out about setting up a global HQ in the city.