01/07/2009

The government is to provide up to £150 million worth of funding to new IT ventures.

According to the authorities, the money will be put into the UK Innovation Investment Fund, which should generate £1 billion worth of funding for start-ups during the next ten years.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Department of Health and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will provide the money in collaboration with investment from the private sector.

Prime minister Gordon Brown said: 'This fund will help build Britain's future by investing in key sectors. It will provide crucial support for our most promising start-ups and existing small companies just when they need it most.

'Venture capital finance is the lifeblood of innovation and crucial to ensuring the commercialisation of the discoveries coming out of our research base.'

Julian Frost, head of technology, media and telecoms at BDO Stoy Hayward, recently said that IT companies were among the fastest growing businesses in the UK's economy.