Google has announced the appointment of serial entrepreneur Marta Krupinska as the new head of Google for Startups UK, in a shift of focus towards diversity and supporting underrepresented founders.

The appointment comes as the Google for Startups Campus in London’s Shoreditch reopens next week, following a renovation. It first opened in London in April 2012 as one of the UK’s first open spaces for collaboration, workshops and events aimed at the startup community.

The reopening will focus on helping tech founders based throughout the UK, as well as in less developed startup ecosystems globally, such as in Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

Krupinska said it’s key to recognise the responsibility it puts on tech entrepreneurs who build the next generation of successful companies. “We must ensure they’re sustainable, fair and diverse, and build a world in which we will all want to live.”

She co-founded the global FinTech company Azimo, which offers low cost digital money transfers.

Founded in 2012 in London, Azimo raised over $70 million in funding from top venture capital firms and connected over one million customers to the platform. In 2018, Krupinska became the entrepreneur-in-residence at GovTech venture PUBLIC.io and co-founded FreeUp, a debt prevention platform which gives employees instant access to their earned wages.

Since 2012, startups at the Google Campus in London have created over 4,600 jobs and raised more than £220 million in funding.

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