Purpose-built for innovation
Our workspace has been designed to resemble a mini-city, so we have our very own indoor park, private phone booths, high street, town hall and workshop space for rapid prototyping (which comes stocked with 3D printers and scanners).
Why? Because we believe innovators need two things: opportunities to connect with people and space to think or create in quiet.
And cities do both those things – which is why they’ve been hotbeds of innovation for thousands of years.
Coworking memberships, events and innovation services
We offer startups flexible memberships, giving them access to a private office or a desk in our coworking space – plus all the benefits and support they need to scale.
We also host events (anything from workshops to large conferences) and have our own in-house innovation services team, who bring the right people round the table to tackle some of our biggest challenges.
Still got questions? Visit our FAQ page or contact us.
Our story so far
Our story begins in 2012, when our building was home to the press centre of the London 2012 Olympic Games, before work began on transforming the site into an innovation centre based at the Here East tech cluster.
Plexal was officially opened by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in June 2017 and in a very short space of time we have become a thriving hub of tech startup and scaleup activity.
Since then we’ve made rapid progress, filling up with amazing tech startups and hosting hackathons, conferences, launches and meetups.
In 2018, we delivered Plexiglass: an accelerator to help female-founded startups scale.
And in June 2018, we were hugely proud to launch LORCA (the London Office for Rapid Cyber Advancement), which will see Plexal run bespoke, six-month programmes for the country’s top cybersecurity companies over three years.
Meet the team
Lydia Ragoonanan
Lydia Ragoonanan is the programme lead for the London Cyber Innovation Centre. She caught the bug to support collaboration between startups and large organisations during her four years at Nesta, where she designed and ran programmes to test and scale new social innovations.
Before working at Nesta, Lydia was the principal strategist at the New Zealand Transport agency where she wove behavioural insights approaches and user design into the fabric of the organisation. While at the Transport Agency, she was the Australasian representative on the World Road Forum’s funding and finance committee. And in past professional lives, she’s also been an internal auditor and a private secretary in the civil service.
In her spare time, Lydia enjoys the great outdoors, geeking out on podcasts and having adventures with her six-year-old daughter.
Tony Markovski
Part mad professor (he holds degrees in Engineering Physics and Medicine and has a Masters in Psychology) and part business growth specialist, Swedish-born Markovski has business acumen, creativity and a genuine love of people in spades.
After spending 15 years spearheading change at Google, Adobe, Bazaarvoice and WPP, he’s helping Plexal’s clients transform their businesses and build purpose-driven teams that ultimately results in measurable growth. A believer in the power of behavioural insights and good old-fashioned empathy, he understands that innovation is carried out by people first and foremost.
In short, the sort of person you want holding your hand as you propel forwards into the next industrial revolution.
Francesca Lavey
Francesca specialises in making sense of the most important micro and macro trends while helping businesses respond to change and, if necessary, transform their entire strategy.
As head of innovation programmes, she’s responsible for delivering some of our highest-profile programmes, including a project Plexal is running for Innovate UK to help scale the country’s top startups in the manufacturing and materials sector.
She brings with her six years’ experience working across the business at Ernst & Young (EY), working in the Ventures team to reinvent the consulting business model, while solving some of the biggest market issues. Prior to that she worked closely with clients to help them identify and respond to the opportunities and threats created by disruptive and emerging technologies. Working closely with technology startups, scaleups and innovators, her work spanned everything from developing prototypes, products and platforms to horizon scanning, business strategy and crafting the right go-to-market approach
Tommy Ekman
Tommy is an Innovation Lead at Plexal, where he works with large corporate clients to develop and deliver open innovation programmes. He is passionate about funding and building innovative businesses, projects and products from “an idea on a napkin” to successful ventures.
Before joining Plexal, Tommy worked at venture capital firm and accelerator BlueChilli, where he assisted in establishing their office and investment portfolio in Brisbane. He is an advisor to tech startups, has founded and driven his own business, and is a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship.
Marcus King
If you’re looking for an events space with a difference, Marcus is your man.
Originally from sunny southern California, he has background in interactive media and design innovation (and a Master’s degree in Design Innovation from Goldsmiths, University of London to boot).
Three years ago, he sold his car, bought a plane ticket and moved to London.
Next thing he knew, he was part of the team that helped launched Plexal in 2017. He’s been with us ever since as our community has grown, and has plenty of stories up his sleeves. “But if you want to hear them, you’ll have to join me for a tour,” he teases.
