After three successful years of growth at The Core, Grid Smarter Cities recently expanded out of their 800sq ft office space and relocated their operations into a larger, dedicated, headoffice space in Newcastle city centre. With the support of The Core Centre Team, Grid were able to more than treble their team size and expand their office space no less than three times in three years whilst based at The Core, Newcastle Helix.
Home to 18 agile tech and science businesses as well as innovation and research teams from Newcastle University, The Core hosts a thriving community of start-up, small and medium size, high-growth businesses. The Centre Team at The Core embraces and facilitates scaling enterprises and, as is the case with Grid, can support them to spin out to the wider city. As well as having this specialist Centre Team on hand to support occupiers, The Core events programme and the flexible work and collaboration spaces it boasts, all play a valuable role in these business growth journeys; critical to the wider ecosystem within Newcastle Helix, the city and the North East.
Whilst at The Core, Grid Smarter Cities went from strength to strength. The progressive northern tech company were winners of the North East Innovator of the Year award in 2018 and in 2019 were IoT Global Award winners for Smart Cities, Government and Utilities. Later they were hand-picked from 100+ applicants to join the much coveted 2021 HS2 Innovation Accelerator. In the last 12 months, Grid have seen their innovative Kerb technology adopted by Local Authorities to improve traffic management in dense urban centres, and have trialled their construction-specialised kerbside software with infrastructure giants such as Thames Tideway.
Grid Smarter Cities first kickstarted their growth trajectory when they secured major investment in 2017, enabling this ambitious start-up to bring their software development in-house. Using these funds, they moved to The Core because the flexible workspace and vibrant community accommodated both their technical and design teams, and importantly gave them room to grow. Which they did. Consistently. Grid grew quickly from one office to two. And in 2019, the team secured further investment to grow their product portfolio and expanded into yet a third office space at The Core.
Flying high, the team made the bold move to invest in their own dedicated headquarters and have secured 3,000sq ft of office space in Newcastle city centre. The move is reflective of their recent successes, and their confidence in their products and growing relevance within an emerging marketplace. Grid’s innovative tech portfolio has a simple goal; to improve the lives of people living in cities, by enabling smarter, cost-efficient services that result in positive social, economic and environmental outcomes and sustainable revenues for the city. A vision that truly aligns with the mood of the nation, Grid’s transformational products and services are in popular demand from Local Authorities and other land managers working to improve city centres throughout the UK.
And the growth continues. Between July 2019 and November 2020 alone, Grid created 13 new roles and are now operating with 20 employees with further plans for recruitment. Of their recent expansion and industry successes achieved whilst at The Core and onwards to their new headquarters, Founder and CEO Neil Herron said:
“The Core’s commercial model offers straightforward terms and the ability to flexibly negotiate additional office capacity, reducing the administrative complexity of ‘housing’ our organisation as it scaled. The management team were incredibly approachable when accommodating our business needs and reduced the anxiety and complexity that is so commonly encountered, when trying to cater for a dynamic organisation such as ours. We have made quite the transformation whilst at The Core and our latest expansion to our new office is a further commitment to our growth.”
The Core community is housed over six floors of Grade A office accommodation and the building benefits from a ground floor event, collaboration and meeting room space. There are currently fully serviced office suites and workspaces available from 200sq ft up to 2500sq ft. Contact The Core today to learn more about the available space, community and how it can support your business info@thecorenewcastle.co.uk.