Written by The Rain Gods, a London-based company, and The Cambridge Judge Launchpad at Cambridge University have responded positively to the announcement by the UK Government that it will form a dedicated GovTech Catalyst team and provide £20 million to help tech firms deliver innovative fixes to public sector challenges (London, 15 November) by announcing a new GovTech entrepreneurship programme to run from 2018.
GovTech, short for Government Technology, is an exciting new area of entrepreneurial activity that seeks to bring entrepreneurial solutions to the problems of government at local, regional and national levels, enabling better government decision making, improved public services and stronger links between citizens and their representatives. Government can be seen as the biggest industry in the world, and offers a wealth of opportunities to start-ups and investors.
From 2018, Launchpad will introduce a GovTech specialisation for students on entrepreneurship courses, believed to be the first such offer in the world. The Cambridge Judge Launchpad offers two routes to postgraduate entrepreneurship qualifications, the Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship and a Master of Studies in Entrepreneurship. The GovTech specialisation will be available to both routes, one of eleven pathways available.
Timothy Barnes, formerly the director of the centre for entrepreneurship at UCL, founded The Rain Gods which runs The Rain Cloud Westminster, the first start-up facility dedicated to supporting for-profit ventures aiming to bring the benefits of digital disruption to government decision making and public service delivery. Tim will be the pathway lead for the GovTech specialisation on the new programmes. Tim is excited about the prospects for GovTech,
“The GovTech space is a new sector for start-ups and investors. It’s fair to suggest GovTech is where FinTech was maybe five years ago so this is a great time to learn about and plan a new venture in this space and catch the wave as it develops over the short term.”
Dr Chris Coleridge, Director of the Cambridge Judge Launchpad, explained,
“We have been planning the GovTech offer as part of our new programmes for several months and this announcement validates our belief that this is set to become a major area of start-up activity and one that future entrepreneurs should be examining and considering for their new ventures.”
The Director of the Cambridge Launchpad Programme will be hosting an information session for potential applicants in London on 30 November. More information can be found here.
Updated with factual corrections only, August 2019
The Rain Gods 