London Mayor Visits Silicon Valley to Talk Tech Trade Mission

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is meeting with Silicon Valley technology leaders as part of a trade mission and U.S. tour to boost London’s tourism and technology industries.

He will be joined on his San Francisco area visit by 11 London-based founders of women-led tech firms eyeing investment and expansion opportunities in the U.S., according to a press release on Tuesday (May 10).

Khan will speak with the heads of Google, LinkedIn and others and will visit the Silicon Valley headquarters of global innovation platform Plug and Play, which is opening its first U.K. offices in both London and Warwickshire.

Facebook, Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Snap and Stripe are all expanding their office space and workforce in London, per the release.

Read more: Queen’s Speech to Parliament Highlights New Rules for Big Tech

The visit comes as new research commissioned by London & Partners — a company that promotes the City of London — showed that record global investments for London tech companies came from the U.S. over the past five years.

London and the Bay Area were the top two hubs for FinTech, the study showed, receiving more capital than all other global cities, including New York and Singapore.

From 2017 to 2021, London attracted 251 new tech investment projects from the U.S., creating almost 9,000 new jobs. Singapore had 154 tech projects, Bangalore had 121, Dublin had 121, and Paris had 115 tech projects.

See also: Cross-Border B2B Payments Account for 26% of UK and US Firms’ Annual Sales

“London is already the number one destination for American tech companies to expand, showing we are an unrivaled destination in Europe for US businesses to invest. It is great news that even more leading US tech companies have unveiled plans to invest in and create new jobs in London, and I encourage businesses from across the sector and beyond to set their sights on London,” Khan said.

The Bay Area was backed by over $327.9 billion in venture capital funding between 2017-2021, including a record $121.3 billion in 2021, per the research. Silicon Valley has more unicorn tech companies than any other hub in the world, with 524 companies valued at over $1 billion.

“Google has been committed to the growth and success of London through investments in our local offices, employees and R&D since we first opened our offices in London in 2003. Google shares the Mayor’s belief in the power of technology to drive sustainable economic growth, and we look forward to continuing to deepen our connection to the capital in the years ahead,” said Ruth Porat, SVP and CFO of Google and Alphabet.