(Yicai) June 13 -- Many exciting Chinese tech companies are choosing London as their access point to Europe, according to the chief executive officer of the city's business and promotion agency.

London & Partners is providing comprehensive support for Chinese tech firms that choose to use London as a gateway to enter the European market, Laura Citron told Yicai in an exclusive interview during the London Tech Week.

The London Tech Week kicked off at the Olympia London in West London on June 9 and will conclude today. The event, which attracted over 30,000 visitors from nearly 130 countries and regions, focuses on topics such as generative artificial intelligence, quantum computing, digital infrastructure, and regulation.

Excerpts of the interview are below:

Yicai: What is the position of the United Kingdom in the global tech innovation landscape?

Citron: The UK is the third-biggest country in the world for tech, whether you look at artificial intelligence or venture capital investment. Clearly, the US and China are the number one and number two, and then the UK is the third. And London has that position as a city, which can be a bridge between the US and China to some extent as well. We're a really important part of a European tech ecosystem. 

Yicai: How does L&P help investors and entrepreneurs from the Chinese technology industry to expand their business in London?

Laura Citron: We love welcoming Chinese investors who want to set up a tech company in London. And we help them from the very early stages where they're thinking, 'is London a good fit for me?' to make the business case, understand how it compares to other cities, through the operational aspects to make it simple and to deem risk, so maybe immigration or tax, bank account, setting up a legal entity. But then, importantly, really connecting them to the right people in London to grow the business, whether that's finding opportunities to build their brand, speak on stages, connecting them with potential clients, or connecting with the regulator, so they can really be successful when they get there.

For example, just in the last few months, from China, we've welcomed Bipo, which is a human resources technology company, we have welcomed Hanshow, which is a really exciting retail technology business, and then last year we had Honor, obviously a very famous, consumer tech brand. So there are lots of really exciting Chinese tech companies that are choosing to use London for their European expansion.

Yicai: More and more Chinese businesses are going abroad, trying to gain new growth momentum through globalization. What advice do you have for them?

Citron: One of the most important things when businesses are expanding internationally is to really think about localizing the product and localizing the team. So, not to assume that because a product sells really well in one market, it's going to sell really well in another.

I think the other big difference is around talent. Different markets have very different cultural norms around how you hire, how you build an internal culture, and how people expect to work in terms of autonomy or authority, work-life balance, and inclusion. So, building a culture that stretches across different continents is really hard; it's one of the most difficult things international founders do.

We have a specialist team in L&P that works with founders from international companies, including Chinese companies. To say you want to build a team in London, let's say you want to hire 50 people, 100 people, how can you do that in a good way that will be sustainable? You'll get good quality talent, and then will you be able to retain that talent? Because it will probably be quite a different approach to doing that in China.

Editor: Futura Costaglione