Innovation Warehouse

Innovation Warehouse, more commonly referred to as IW, is a unified venture started by (and for) entrepreneurs with acquired startup, mentor and investment experience and is in partnership with City of London Corporation. IW provides a community and runway for businesses to achieve sustainability and high growth. The project has been in development for a couple of years and is now reaching full materialisation with a temporary office space being let at 31 Southampton Row, Holborn and permanent relocation to Smithfield Market in June 2011.

AbOUT

Team

IW founders include Ami Shpiro, Jeff Dean, Bruce Garvey, Odette Gibson, Jeff McGeachie and Dave Walker. As of February 2011, the team has grown to include Rosie Bryant (Marketing Director), Ben Gilman (Designer), Anthony Marshall (Project Manager) and Luisa M. Morales (Community Developer).

Space and Location

IW is new style of economic collaboration between seasoned business Angels, Venture Capitalists and other investors, London Universities and Business Schools, R&D bodies, Technology Transfer Departments, Commercialisation Departments and highly specialised professional service providers. The organisation aims to support early stage, technology and high-growth businesses in urban centres through application of knowledge transfer between collaborators and there outside networks.

Start-ups can find incubation workspace, hot desks, meeting/event rooms, access to financing and professional business advice and guidance delivered by mentors who also manage a micro-lending fund effectively acting as ‘bank manager’ as well as business advisor to mentee companies. This supports risk-mitigation through knowledge and experience, and creates a well-founded relationship between entrepreneurs and mentors.

The Smithfield 10,000 sq ft office area comprises 104 fully serviced desks, 3,000 sq ft. allocated to the IW Member club and lounge area, hot-desks, 10 meeting rooms, cafe, seminar space, Wi-Fi, virtual office solutions, members-only professional services centre, access to mentorship and varied events. The Smithfield office is located between St Paul's, Farringdon and Barbican underground stations. According to the organization's website "The space has been designed to allow affordable formal and informal meeting spaces in central London, offering companies permanent or temporary workstations alongside a club area where members can have formal and informal meetings or simply use the lounge area and cafe to work in a quiet and productive environment."

Membership Types

The IW offers two types of memberships: an IW Member and an IW Resident Member. The 'IW Member' membership is open to all, while IW does offer subsidized rates to qualifying entrepreneurs and members of startup teams. The 'IW Resident Member' includes startups, soft-landings (companies established outside of London interested in developing a market base within the city) and corporate resident memberships. Acquiring 'IW Resident Member' status is subject to an inquiry submission (via the application on the IW website), assessment process, and a case-by-case contract sign-off. Memberships are currently being accepted. 'IW Member' inquires are followed up immediately, and 'IW Resident Member' inquires receive finalized feedback within two weeks, including contract term sign-offs and defined move-in date. Once inducted, Residents are provided a (subsidised) Mentor, plugged-in from (the for-profit arm of IW) for a 6-month period, and a Well-Being Manager who remains with the startup / soft-landing company for the duration of their incubation period.

Ambassadorial Team

All members are represented by a body of Ambassadors. Ambassadors collectively represent the voices of the IW community. Their role is to ensure the IW ethos is well embedded within the community and the community thus thriving, self-regulating and self-sustaining. As of March 2011 IW Ambassadors include: Bernie J Mitchell, Tony Fish, Jonathan Geithner, Marc Mapes, Misae Richwoods, Paul Grant, Timothy Creswick.

Partnerships

  • City of London Corporation

In the news

IW is backed by City of London Corporation and a group of angel investors. In addition to the services and network aforementioned, members will have access to business angels who could potentially provide micro-financing for their companies.

"The City Corporation is working with partners to develop the City of London Innovation Warehouse, a ground-breaking business incubation centre to be located in the Square Mile. The Innovation Warehouse will integrate both financial and management resources to nurture entrepreneurs from pre start-up to maturity and exit. It is hoped that this initiative will support significant new business growth in the capital and potentially be a model for the rest of the UK and abroad."

"The Innovation Warehouse is a new collaborative project between the City Corporation and entrepreneur mentors and investors. The first Innovation Warehouse, based in the City, will be an incubation hub for London’s entrepreneurial community, helping SMEs get off the ground, survive and thrive, thus supporting significant new business growth in the capital.

This will be an excellent opportunity to meet leaders of London’s entrepreneurial, investment and academic communities and learn more about high growth investment opportunities in London's entrepreneurial sector."