A decade after it opened, the London Cable Car (aka, the Dangleway) has a new sponsor, a technology company that isn’t exactly a household name. For the next couple of years, the Dangleway will be officially known as the “FS Cloud Cable Car”, after the technology firm, IFS agreed to sponsor the cable car for up to eight years.

The cost of the sponsorship has been revealed as £420,000 (plus VAT) per year for the first five years, compared to the £3.6 million per year paid by Emirates for its 10-year year.

As part of the deal, the two cable car terminals will also be renamed IFS Cloud Greenwich Peninsula and IFS Cloud Royal Docks. The rebranding from the previous sponsor, Emirates Air Line is due to be completed by October, when the new sponsorship officially starts. The change also means the IFS brand name appears on tube maps.

Although indicated as a being 2-year contract, the sponsor has actually signed a 5-year contract, with annual break points after the second year, and an option for a further 3-year extension to be negotiated, so unless they decide to cancel, the IFS branding could be on the cable car until 2030, which is when it can then be put out to other bidders.

TfL is also retaining the option for short-term sponsorships with other organisations that don’t compete with IFS, such as the recent Pokemon branding. Apart from the branding on the cable car and the tube map, the sponsor also gets 100 free return journeys per year to give to staff or clients.

IFS – formerly Industrial and Financial Systems, is a software company founded in 1983 and headquartered in Sweden. It’s majority owned by EQT, a Swedish private equity group.

As a final observation, within Transport for London (TfL), for contractual reasons, the cable car is managed by the DLR – so legally, it’s part of the Docklands Light Railway.