A company that has helped develop some of Wales’ leading tech companies is opening a new co-working and office space in Newport's newly revamped market.
Tramshed Tech plans to open the new site this spring in Newport's indoor market, with the exact date yet to be confirmed.
The Cardiff-based digital workspace company will offer 37 offices to be leased out to local businesses and exciting start-ups, as well as co-working spaces, meeting rooms and a mezzanine area for hosting events.
“We wanted to offer a really fun, innovative space for entrepreneurs and start-ups in Newport,” said Lucy Olivia Hopkins, communications manager at Tramshed Tech.
“The market has always been an entrepreneurial space, so it’s a really interesting area for us to be moving into as part of a new wave of tech-based entrepreneurialism.”
Clients will also have access to Tramshed’s Cardiff-based Barclays Eagle Labs, which includes exotic tools like laser cutters, 3D printers, and virtual reality equipment.
In addition, they will have the opportunity to receive training and mentoring from Tramshed’s network of partners and members, which includes some of the most prominent companies in Wales’ growing tech sector.
“90 per cent of new start-ups go on to fail, which is a shocking number,” said Ms Hopkins.
“But Wales is outperforming the rest of the UK by 30 per cent. There’s a lot of talent here, and Tramshed Tech really does provide a breeding ground for that.”
Tramshed Tech was founded in 2016 as a co-working space offering digital workspaces and tech support to start-ups in Grangetown, Cardiff. Since then, it has quickly become one of Wales’ leading supporters of tech start-ups, with new sites planned for Barry and Swansea in the next 18 months.
Their members include Amplify, which seems set to become Wales’ first tech ‘unicorn’ (a term for a company worth over a billion US dollars) and Virtus Tech, a company working with the NHS to pioneer virtual reality technology for the medical sector.
The latter won Tramshed’s Start-Up Academy competition, a free 12-week program that gives aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to develop and pitch their ideas to a panel of experts and investors that includes Google.
For Tramshed Tech, the new expansion into Newport Market offers the opportunity to find and nurture the next Welsh ‘unicorn’, whilst also keeping them rooted in the local community.
“We want to continue to support the entrepreneurial minds of Wales, and Newport specifically,” said Ms Hopkins.
“Hopefully they will still stay grounded in Wales, regardless of how big they grow.”
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