Newcastle is to get its first start-up hub devoted exclusively to high-tech businesses — and which will rely on worldwide crowdfunding to keep it running.
The project is being launched by Ignite, one of Europe’s top accelerator programmes for early-stage start-ups, which is investing £30,000 to renovate and upgrade offices in Newcastle’s Carliol Square.
To be called Campus North, the 10,000sq ft centre will provide hot-desking and office space for fledgling technology ventures. There will also be classrooms and meetings areas for companies to launch or promote their products or services.
As well as being Tyneside’s only support centre for high-tech entrepreneurs Campus North will also be the first business hub in the region turning to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter — the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects — to raise cash to help it expand and pay day-to-day expenses.
The Kickstarter website, which has so far raised almost £600m to support various projects around the world, allows people to make on-line investments of between £10 and £4,000. The size of an investment will determine what a person gets in return; those giving £10 will get a mention on the Campus North wall of fame, while £4,000 will make an investor an official Ignite backer. And although the appeal doesn’t officially start until June more than £16,000 has already been pledged.
Ignite will also move from its present cramped offices in the city’s Westgate Road, from where it claims to have helped launch technology companies across the region collectively worth more than £16m, to Campus North. The new Carliol Square hub will provide working space for at least 100 people.
The project manager for the refurbishment is Tristan Watson who said Ignite has been looking for suitable premises for 18 months. “Campus North isn’t just for people in Newcastle,” he explained. “It is about tech businesses throughout the region. Yes, it is about companies doing business, but it is also for the community, both companies, enthusiasts and the general public.”
When it opens in June, Campus North will be home to over 150 founders, developers and designers. But it will be much more, adds Watson. “It will also play an important role in the community by providing education programmes, in particular classes will be offered on coding for adults and children. It will provide a badly needed venue for tech community as a whole, both professional and amateurs, to meet and hold hack weekends or stage larger events.”
Founded in 2011, Ignite was expected to be a one-off, three month initiative. Instead it grew into an independent co-working space and venue, supported mainly by a community fund and dedicated to improving the quality and quantity of Newcastle and Gateshead-based technology events. Three years on it is now funded by companies and business partners committed to supporting early-stage technology startups, not just in the North-East and the UK but from around the world.
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