UK government funds $ 150,000 Price Mode Tech

  The British government has put up £ 100,000 ($ 153,000) prize money for technology startups in the industry, it announced Monday.

One of the fashion business in Britain welcomed the focus on the industry £ 21 billion mode, but questioned the thinking behind the plan.

The competition, launched by the Technology Strategy Board and ends in June are, £ 25,000 to four companies awarded with innovative ideas for the IT industry.

Geoff Watts, co-founder and CEO of Editd.com based in London, was skeptical. "The rather not be built the way interesting new businesses," he said. "I think the government record in the promotion of innovation in this sense is pretty bad."

Mr Watts said his own company, based in London, four years, bringing the data analysis in the fashion, not save money by driving up prices, "We do not tend to allocate resources things like crowdfunding or price you are on really your main goal speculative punt release. "

However, Mr Watts said he was "a good sign" that the government identified a potential in the interface between fashion and technology.

Emily Memarzia, Account Manager at Technology Strategy Board, the value of the said competition was as a match-making service as Liquidity Providers: "We often get reports of companies for months that they need and months talking to the right person" she said. "So this is really putting the right people in the right part."

Opening doors with brands conservative fashion was something that would be welcome, Watts said.

"It is difficult to work with companies in the traditional way," he said. "They tend to be much more skeptical of new technology companies, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States"

Ms. Memarzia said panel prices last five strong a single investor. Others were of the TSB, the media and made business partners.