The US firm announced last year that they had backed the government-led project that aims to develop East London into one of the world’s great technological centres, rivalling the likes of Silicon Valley.

They have now signed a ten-year lease on a building at 4-5 Bonhill Street, East London that will not be used as a Google office, but for an entirely new initiative.

The space will be used to support the Tech City start-up community by opening it up to other organisations that support entrepreneurs and working with them to provide a ‘launchpad’ for London-based start-ups and developers.

Engineering director for Google UK, David Singleton, remarks, ‘Finding a suitable building is the first major step, and we hope to announce more details about the organisations we’ll work with and how they will use the space in the coming months.’

Google are not the first large company to pledge investment in the Tech City project with international corporate backer Cisco committing $500 million (£310 million) in February this year.

The network computer company announced that they would establish two innovation centres in the area and five annual competitions aimed at entrepreneurs, which Prime Mininster David Cameron publicly welcomed.

Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of the Tech City Investment Organisation, has publicly welcomed Google’s investment, saying he was delighted the company was adding a present in the area.

He adds, ‘The investment will pay dividends for them as well as contributing to the long-term success of the Tech City.’

The building will now undergo a full refurbishment and will be open in 2012 with Google stating that the lease will run until at least 2022.