About Idea London
Idea London publishes data about the British startup market. Lists of companies, funding figures, valuation marks, investor directories and accelerator terms. The rule for every page is the same: each figure carries the date it was checked and a link to where it came from.
The name comes from an actual place. IDEALondon was an innovation centre in Shoreditch, and this site is what remains of it.
The IDEALondon record
The centre was announced on 6 December 2012 by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron. IDEA stood for Innovation and Digital Enterprise Alliance. Three organisations backed it: Cisco, DC Thomson and University College London.
From Cisco’s announcement at the time:
- the centre was to host around 25 digital and media companies
- those companies were expected to employ around 100 people
- the three partners committed over £3.5m across the first three years
- residents got mentoring and training through UCL Advances, UCL’s centre for entrepreneurship
- it was to host UCL DECIDE, a “living lab” testing digital products with UCL’s 30,000 staff and students
The centre opened in 2013 at 69 Wilson Street, London EC2A 2BB. EDF Energy joined as a partner in July 2017, backing six startups working on artificial intelligence, data and the low carbon transition, according to UCL.
What it added up to
The most detailed public account of the centre’s results is a 2018 write-up by the National Centre for Universities and Business, published when IDEALondon was in its fifth year. It reported:
- more than 50 startups through the centre
- over £60m of investment raised by residents
- more than 400 pilots run with the corporate partners
- around 500 jobs created
The centre was not a fixed-cohort accelerator. Residents typically stayed six to twelve months, and Cisco described the model as a post-accelerator workspace. IDEALondon no longer operates as a physical centre.
The alumni the partners named
Three companies were named publicly by the partners: Curve, MishiPay and Hoxton Analytics. All three were still trading in August 2026, which is a better survival record than most incubator cohorts manage.
- Curve consolidates several payment cards into one wallet, letting you switch which card a purchase lands on after the fact. It reports over 6 million customers, and is regulated by the FCA in the UK and the Bank of Lithuania for the EEA. Registered in London and Vilnius. NCUB described it as a UCL spinout.
- MishiPay builds scan-and-go and self-checkout technology for retail. It now reports over 2,000 stores across 35 brands, including Decathlon and Flying Tiger Copenhagen. It has moved its base to Toronto.
- Hoxton Analytics now trades as Hoxton AI, still in Hoxton, London. It sells overhead AI sensors and analytics that count visitors and measure conversion, with Vodafone, Iceland, Tate and Center Parcs among its named clients.
Two things follow from that list. The corporate-incubator model produced companies that lasted, but none of them became the billion-dollar outcome the model was pitched on. And two of the three have changed enough since 2018 that the old descriptions no longer fit, which is the same decay that afflicts every startup list.
What the site does now
It is a research site, not a product. There is no subscription, no dashboard and no database to log into. Pages are written and then re-checked, and a page that cannot be re-checked gets cut back rather than left standing.
Three things follow from that:
- Dates go next to numbers. A valuation is a mark set on a particular day by a particular deal. Six months later it is history, so it is labelled as history.
- Dead companies get named as dead. A list of startups is only useful if the ones that failed are marked. Several of the biggest names in British healthtech and AI over the past four years no longer trade.
- Unverifiable figures come out. Market totals that no published source supports are removed rather than repeated. Sector counts, in particular, depend entirely on how you draw the sector boundary, so we cite whoever drew it.
Corrections are welcome and get made. If a figure here is wrong or out of date, say so at hello@idea-london.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
What was IDEALondon?
An innovation centre for digital and media startups at 69 Wilson Street, Shoreditch. It was announced in December 2012 by the then Prime Minister David Cameron, backed by Cisco, DC Thomson and University College London, and opened in 2013. IDEA stood for Innovation and Digital Enterprise Alliance.
Is IDEALondon still open?
No. The centre no longer operates. By its fifth year it had taken more than 50 startups, who between them raised over £60m and ran more than 400 pilots with the corporate partners.
Who backed it?
Cisco, DC Thomson and UCL at the start. EDF Energy joined as a partner in July 2017, supporting six startups working on AI, data and the low carbon transition.
Does Idea London invest in startups or run a programme?
No. It is a research site. There is nothing to apply to and nothing to buy. If you are looking for a programme to apply to, the accelerator directory lists nine current UK options with their terms.