Yammer announces move to expand into London’s Tech City

Further consolidating East London’s Tech City district as a centre for big tech names, Yammer, the enterprise social networks provider, is moving into a larger premises in the area.

The new office will house Yammer’s EMEA leadership team, sales, marketing and recruitment personnel as well as a developer centre.

Yammer joins other big tech names in the area including Amazon, Twitter and the Google Campus as well as the native companies who originally started business in the area when it was a good place to keep overheads down due to cheaper rent.

Fashionable East London

The area has passed the point where locals will recognise it as becoming ‘gentrified’ and has moved into a more fashionable district where large companies can take advantage of the big industrial spaces that used to be warehouses and factories.

This leads to a difficult balance for the encouragement of home-grown startups. As Jimmy Wales noted in a recent presentation at City Hall, larger companies that can afford a higher rent for properties means that the overall prices in the area will rise, something that many startups can ill afford.

Not quite the nurturing environment that will see home-grown startups expanding as the government might hope. However, the big names moving into the area will raise its profile as a European hub for innovation and possibly provide new job opportunities.

George Ell, General Manager EMEA at Yammer, has said that part of the reason for making the move is the availability of talent. Yammer started hiring in London 18 months ago and  continues to work on building its team in the capital.
Recently acquired by Microsoft, Yammer’s move comes as a result of its healthy EMEA business and subsequent growth of its team in the region. The new developer centre will be the company’s first outside of the San Francisco headquarters.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said: “Yammer’s expansion in Tech City underlines again London’s position as Europe’s digital capital. London is a global magnet for high-tech giants alongside a growing cluster of exciting start-ups. This sector’s burgeoning growth is providing high value jobs for Londoners, as well supporting valuable supply chains. This all demonstrates the attractiveness of London as the world’s leading 21st century business city and a great place to invest.”

The Duke of York opened Yammer’s new office on Tuesday as part of His Royal Highness’s ongoing commitment to promote the UK technology industry and London’s Tech City. The ceremony was also attended by Yammer co-founder and CTO Adam Pisoni, chief customer officer David Obrand, Yammer customers and partners, and representatives from other businesses in the Tech City area.

Image Credit: Robert Scoble/Flickr