KPMG has launched a Digital Innovation Network to support start-up mobile app development firms in the UK.
A partnership between the audit firm and the Chelsea Apps Factory (CAF), a developer of Mobile Enterprise Apps (MEAs), will launch the network.
"We created the Digital Innovation Network to build an eco-system of ideas and innovation in a new way that benefits our clients. By working closely with early stage tech companies, such as the Chelsea Apps Factory, we can give our clients access to the hottest areas of mobile, cloud, cyber, social and analytics," said Alwin Magimay, head of digital and analytics at KPMG.
As the UK’s leading EMA organisation, CAF has already built over 100 mobile apps to address the increasing ‘consumerisation’ of business technology onto mobiles and tablets.
The partnership with CAF follows last year’s opening of a permanent KPMG representation in Tech City and the launch of KPMG Capital, a global investment fund that will invest primarily in data and analytics businesses.
Last year also saw KPMG declare that the UK technology sector is a key engine for job creation and growth as it outperformed the rest of the UK private sector over the last ten years.
"Fostering this type of corporate ‘eco system’ can drive the UK’s route to sustainable growth. Certainly with our own corporate ‘match making’ at Tech City proving such a success, it was only natural that we would explore partnerships that we could benefit from as well!" said Simon Collins, UK chairman of KPMG.
"Many businesses are waking up to the fact that apps can increase productivity and make work processes more flexible. An increasing amount of IT budgets are now being devoted to building EMA’s. Experts estimate that the UK EMA market is currently worth £150m and at the moment there is no single player offering a credible end-to-end offering for the emerging needs of the FTSE-500 companies."
KPMG is currently looking at other start-ups which may join the network over the next five months.
Picture courtesy of Paul Wilkinson/FMJ
