London landmark reached as the capital registers its one millionth firm

There are one million companies registered in London.

According to data compiled by www.informdirect.co.uk, a company secretarial software provider, the capital reached the landmark figure this week – bringing the total number of companies inside the boundaries of the M25 to a record high.

This year there have been 150,564 new companies formed and 89,682 companies dissolved.

This has pushed the total number from 946,709 at the end of 2014 to the million mark.

Hackney has seen 14,475 registered in this year alone and Camden 13,454.

Henry Catchpole, CEO of Inform Direct, said: “I am not surprised to see Hackney at the top when it comes to entrepreneurialism.

“The makeup of this borough’s economy has changed significantly over the past decade with old factories becoming workspaces for a new boom in technology, media and telecommunications.”

At the start of the year the Mayor of London launched an £85m fund to help tech start ups across the capital – many of which operate out of Tech City.

Boris Johnson said the capital’s science, technology and digital sector was “flourishing” and that the city was a “hotbed of talented young and ambitious people buzzing with exciting ideas who are setting up new companies in their droves.”

Said to be the largest technology hub in the world after San Francisco and New York, Tech City, which is also known as Silicon roundabout, houses an exhaustive list of over a thousand emerging and established technology businesses.

These include Songkick, Mixcloud, Huddle, Transferwise, Duedil, MarketInvoice, Mind Candy, and even Candy Crush creators King.

Henry said: “While Britain has long been famed as an enterprising nation, the recent explosion in start-up activity has been exceptional.”

He suggested that there are three complementary factors fueling this growth.

First, there is the ease and speed with which a company can be started – usually within hours and generally for less than £20.

Secondly, many companies can successfully operate from home and need little more than a website before they can start trading.

Thirdly, there are improved channels for accessing capital.

Crowdfunding is a good example of this, making it easier for new companies to get early stage backing and therefore encouraging would-be entrepreneurs to give it a go.

Inform Direct provides cloud based company formation and secretarial software enabling accountants and business owners to incorporate companies and manage all the records of new and existing companies. The service provides an online platform for a range of actions including filing annual returns, updating shareholder records, creating share certificates, producing dividend vouchers, submitting dormant accounts and of course forming new companies.