Discovering London's vibrant ecosystem

Every semester, the winning start-up projects of the Business Concept training from all over Suisse Romande join a trip in a European innovation hub. Joining in February were five teams with projects ranging from a metal 3D printed to a quick & handy malaria diagnosis, coming from EPFL, Université de Fribourg or HEIG-VD.

For it's 3rd edition, the teams flew to London to discover it's vibrant and booming start-up ecosystem. From incubators, to accelerators, start-up events and makers' space, London has an astonishing amount of offers for young entrepreneurs to put their innovative ideas to work.

In partnership with the Swiss Embassy of London, an intense two-day program was forged with the great challenge of providing an all-rounded view of the local ecosystem. It included visiting two worldwide known education poles, Imperial Colleges' newly build hack space and King's College co-working, but also mingling with entrepreneurs at co-workings, meeting Swiss start-ups in London and of course sharing stories of successes and failures over a beer.

While London might feel overwhelming and make your head spin from it's constant buzzing, you will be taken aback by how welcoming the start-up ecosystem is and the fierce entrepreneurial drive that seems to pump in the veins every founder you will meet.

Here is an overview of the two days in photos:

Visiting King's College

Imperial Hack Space for students

Imperial Collage Hack Space intro

An army of 3D printers!

Networking over burgers

Drink at the "Silicon Roundabout"

Pitching in front of local experts

Mingling with local entrepreneurs