LeWeb 2013: Level39’s Eric van der Kleij Warns Of Closed Borders

The UK tech scene will suffer if the country leaves the EU, the head of technology accelerator Level39, told TechWeekEurope today  in a video interview with deputy editor Tom Brewster.

The technology sector is starting to provide big growth in an otherwise depressed economy, said Eric van der Kleij, who runs the financial technology incubator Level39. However, tech companies need freedom of movement for the staff they want to hire, and this could be jeopardised if the UK becomes more insular, he said.

Watch out for EU-sceptics

“How many of us know someone that works for a company that didn’t start in your country?” says van der Kleij. “You cannot try to close off your borders, because you acknowledge that prosperity comes from these flows..

The start-up guru is concerned that anti-European sentiment is growing, and the UK government is likely to run a referendum on leaving the EU,

He does, however, give the government credit for its entrepreneur visa, describing it as a “very bold thing to do”.

See more videoa on our ITweb channel

How much do you know about Tech City? Try our quiz!

Peter Judge

Peter Judge has been involved with tech B2B publishing in the UK for many years, working at Ziff-Davis, ZDNet, IDG and Reed. His main interests are networking security, mobility and cloud

Recent Posts

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

11 hours ago

Former Policy Boss At X Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

14 hours ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

15 hours ago

FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Spared Prison

Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…

16 hours ago