Cisco spraying $1bn over the UK, hipsters set for well-earned cash injection

Cisco has promised to splurge $1bn (£645m) in the UK over the next five years, investing in 'internet of everything start-ups' as well as promising to buy some real companies, too.

The company claims the investment will support the next phase of Blighty's "digitisation" plans. It follows a 2011 commitment to splash $500m (£325m).

The company will spray invest some $150m (£98m) on IoE UK upstarts. The leviathan is particularly keen to splash some cash on newbies in financial technologies, retail, healthcare, and smart city development and cyber security.

The rest of the cash will be spent gobbling up wireless software, 'next-gen' video companies, and cloud-based security, it said.

The company is also doubling the size of central London base, with a new 'state-of-the-art' office to open this year and 200 new staff.

And if that wasn't enough, it reckons it will even solve "the country’s North-South economic imbalance", by opening a number of new training centres.

Prime Minister David Cameron: "This massive investment from Cisco is great news for the UK's growing digital economy and is a clear vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan. It will create jobs and growth across the country, providing security for hard working people."

The UK has been no secret of its eagerness to get big tech companies to invest. John Whittingdale, the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, recently indicated Blighty would like more cash from Chinese kit maker Huawei after its current £1.3bn investment pot runs dry in 2017. ®