Against a global backdrop of accelerating urbanisation and revolutionary digital transformation, the Mayor of London has set out his ambition to make London the world’s smartest city.
The Mayor's Accelerated Green pathway aims to introduce 2.2m heat pumps, a 40% reduction in the total heat demand of buildings and more advanced technology on the journey to net zero by 2030. Meanwhile the city continues to make great strides to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with London reporting the lowest CO2 per capita emmissions of any UK region.
Today, London is already a hub for smart mobility, cleantech, proptech and govtech, with many more opportunities for further cross-sectoral development in this capital of convergence.
Just some of the transformation happening across the city includes uninterrupted mobile coverage across the TfL Tube network, a new city data platform and the development of advanced digital infrastructure to further cement London's future as a smart city.
As we plan for our sustainable, connected future, we welcome you to join us on this journey and work with us to build a city as smart as its citizens.
The future of transport
London is a leader in smart mobility, with an ambitious goal: by 2041, the capital aims for 80% of journeys to be made on foot, on a bicycle or on public transport.[1]
Nearly 27m trips are made every day in London, a figure expected to grow to 33m by 2041. Currently, just over half of these trips are made by public transport, cycling or on foot. The Mayor’s Transport Strategy outlines Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s vision for a greener London and the policies and actions needed to achieve it.[7]
The city’s transport agency, Transport for London, has a unique and ambitious approach to innovation, as exemplified in the London RoadLab initiative.[2]
London is also home to the Smart Mobility Living Lab (SMLL), a real-world tech-enabled environment for testing and developing future transport and mobility solutions.
A cleantech leader with further market potential
The Mayor of London wants to ensure London is a zero-carbon city by 2050.[3] The value of London’s low carbon goods and services sector was worth £39.7bn in 2017/18, having grown by more than 9% over the last two years and expected to continue at more than 7% to 2021/22.[4]
London cleantech saw £1.9bn of venture capital (VC) investment from 2016 to 2021. Over these five years, investment grew 17 times, much faster than the global average.[8]
Further supporting businesses of the future, CleanTech London brings together the community to accelerate innovation and support the growth of the sector in the capital.
Find out more about London's cleantech sector.
Where real estate meets tech
As the largest commercial real estate investment market in the world[5] and home to a globally-renowned tech centre, it’s no surprise that London is a hotbed for proptech.
From dedicated accelerators and incubators, such as Pi Labs and Geovation, to London success stories including Zoopla and Purplebricks, the capital is building the foundations for an exciting future.
The Mayor of London has launched the Future Neighbourhoods 2030 funding programme to help London’s most disadvantaged areas define environmental challenges and transition to a low-carbon circular economy.
Find out more about London's proptech sector.
Accessible, responsive, citizen-oriented public services
London is transforming its public services to better meet the needs of its citizens. The city has long been recognised as a leader in mobilising open data for public benefit, as evidenced through the London Datastore and Transport for London’s open data policy.
All Tube stations and underground tunnels are set to have internet access by the end of 2024. Transport for London is installing more than 2,000km of cabling in London’s Tube tunnels to provide full fibre connectivity across the city.
The London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI) is set to build common capability and drive the opportunity to collaborate and scale digital innovation across the capital’s local authorities.[6]
Imperial is the only university in the UK to focus exclusively on science, medicine, engineering and business.
London City Institute of Technology will specialise in delivering higher technical education and apprenticeships with a focus on STEM subjects.
UCL ranks in the top 10 universities in the world for 2021.
Home to the Sustainability Research Institute which focuses on the key urban challenges of the future.
A venture builder specialising in smart city technology.
A European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London.
Investing in early stage founders in the mobility sector.
Develop, invest in and create workspaces for sustainable businesses.
London 3D city models used for city-wide analysis, which provide a cornerstone dataset for smart city apps.
ALDStone is a leader of unique cleantech & nature-based modular & circular building material systems solutions.
AppyWay is a technology company that provides parking apps and services for drivers.
Bbox is a next generation utility, transforming lives and unlocking potential through access to energy.
BICO AI is the global leading provider of First and Last Mile Distribution SaaS Technology for Micromobility Operators.
BlockDox makes spaces smarter using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things.
Broadway Malyan is a Global Design & Architecture Consultancy.
Sensors solutions to show traffic hotspots and help cities make changes that lower carbon emissions and improve air quality.
Buro Happold is an independent, international engineering firm.
Delivering an indoor to outdoor navigation system for smart cities.
Cityzenith is a software development organisation that makes software services for the built environment.
London Universal power charging and data port console for electronic vehicles.
Corethree is a leader in mobile ticketing and commerce.
CrowdVision is a pioneer in the video analytics space.
Combining quantum technologies with modern cryptography to provide a unified IoT end-to-end security from device to network.
Darktrace’s self-learning AI detects and responds to threats as they emerge.
Uses devices that embed multiple sensors, proving a data context that can help a large variety of projects.
Service monitoring for connected devices.
The world’s most advanced real-time video analytics software, designed to detect and verify humans in areas they are not supposed to be.
The Fabriq OS platform allows users to track any metric, for any building type, from any source.
Filament builds bespoke AI solutions with use cases in governance and standards, health, smart buildings and data analytics.
Location planning experts providing data and consultancy for infrastructure and retail industries.
GlobalReach provides carrier class Wi-Fi services and solutions.
GoodVision provides automation tools in all stages of traffic projects.
Hello Lamppost allows people to interact with their built environment whilst collecting data and insights.
Software for autonomous vehicles that analyses the behaviour of pedestrians to make them less at risk of accidents.
LightFi develops retrofit technology that can analyse how often indoor spaces are used.
Loqiva finds and presents the most relevant information for citizens in any given location.
Masabi’s Justride is a Fare Payments-as-a-Service (FPaaS) account-based ticketing platform.
Multipass innovates digital payments and smart mobility.
Nitrous solves meaningful challenges for cities and regions using impact-led innovation.
Novoville accelerates the digital transformation of councils and businesses' services.
Machine learning software that predicts the outcomes of development projects to help understand complexity and risk.
Provider of cutting-edge cloud solutions for Internet of Things.
Pavegen is a smart floor tile that generates clean energy and analytics from every footstep.
Pointr is a mobile navigation app providing location information inside large buildings such as airport terminals.
Pupil is a spatial data company.
Resilience.io is a pioneering systems modelling platform.
SenSat uses drones to provide high resolution land surveys for the engineering and construction sectors.
A cloud-based virtual production studio.
Skyroom partners with major landlords to create high-quality, low-cost, eco-friendly homes for key urban workers on disused rooftops in London.
SLAMcore provides spatial AI algorithms to build the next generation of autonomous machines.
Space Syntax provides digital urban master planning services.
A transport data aggregator that takes multiple transport data feeds and aggregates them into a restful API.
Unmanned Life develops software designed to provide a platform to autonomously operate aerial and ground vehicles.
Wireless smart sensors that use AI to collect environmental data, for use in the development of smart cities.
Vivacity Labs uses AI technology to gather data on transport systems, to capture, classify and track live transport usage.
A software firm that helps building stock owners to monitor, optimise and significantly reduce energy costs, carbon emissions and improve the health of their buildings.
Assigns each 3m square in the world a unique three-word address.
Enables governments and businesses to onboard users at a fraction of time and cost compared to traditional methods.
Offers various technology-focused solutions aiming to transform traffic planning and management.
Global engineering, management and development consultancy.
PwC’s Cities team in the UK is part of a global network of smart city specialists.
An innovative real estate developer with offices around the world.
Helps cities and organisations to identify and implement smart solutions to their environmental focus areas.
Delivers reliable, citywide network coverage and smart communications infrastructure.
Investing in ambitious founders using technology to tackle big social and environmental problems.
Working to create a hub for low-carbon and circular industries in London.
A government innovation agency for the transport industry and autonomous vehicles.
A community of 1,250 leaders in cybersecurity, fintech, retailtech, smart cities and more
An east London innovation centre and co-working space.
Providing advisory support on circular initiatives to SMEs in London.
A real-world connected environment for testing and developing future transport and mobility solutions.
Digital and data collaboration for London's local government.
Gallery and forum for city architecture.
A guide to the startup community, events and jobs in London.
Local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London.
Be in the know
How we can help
London & Partners offers free advice to potential and existing overseas investors, from startups to established companies.
We can help you:
- Stay informed and access the latest developments, initiatives and incentives.
- Connect with the wider ecosystem, including support networks and trade associations.
- Future-proof the setup of your London business.