Expanding technology firm gets £500K loan
MANCHESTER technology company DataCentred Holdings has landed a £500,000 loan to boost its continued expansion.
The Barclays funding is matched by a further £500,000 investment from existing investors, including The Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Jon Moulton.
It will allow DataCentred to build on its position as a major provider of data centre and open-source computer processing and storage systems allowing the business to expand their OpenStack infrastructure and grow the workforce.
DataCentred was established in 2012 by Dr Mike Kelly, a pioneer in the data centre sector.
The company’s’ growth has been underpinned by the rise of big data, rich content delivery and hyperscale end-user applications, which are driving substantial growth in the demand for cloud compute and storage capabilities.
In addition, public and private sector organisations are also transferring ‘everyday’, large scale applications into an environment, where they can be scaled rapidly on-demand, and easily accessed by the wider public.
Data Centred’s founder and chief executive Kelly said: “DataCentred has been well supported by our initial investors to date, and the opportunity provided by Barclays’ innovative finance, allows us to move rapidly to fund a significant expansion of our cloud.
“This investment, along with an additional £500,000 from our existing investors allows us to make a substantial step up in the range of services we are able to provide our core government clients, and to continue to develop the profound capability of our cloud team.
“As the business grows, our ability to access a wider range of capital will be key to our plans for substantial, sustained growth. We look forward to working with Barclays now and in the future, to develop our business.”
David Parr, Relationship Director at Barclays in Manchester said: “As part of our plans at Barclays to enhance our high-growth offering to the market, we are extending our lending capabilities and credit appetite in the technology sector for ambitious, entrepreneurial businesses like DataCentred.
“In addition to our existing venture loan, we have launched Innovation Finance; this enables us to offer greater support to the market by allowing earlier lending to the most promising of high-growth companies and preferential pricing for all qualifying high-growth companies, allowing more funds to be re-invested into the business.”
The deal follows Barclays announcement that it has signed an agreement with The European Investment Fund (EIF) to finance lending to innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-caps in the UK. The transaction benefits from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments which will be deployed by the European Commission and the EIB Group.
The agreement allows Barclays to provide EUR 140m (GBP 100m) finance to innovative companies in the UK over the next two years.
