Barclays forms new partnership with C4DI

The Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) and Barclays Eagle Labs have announced a partnership that will see the bank launch a new programme in Yorkshire.

The programme is designed to assist in building a community for entrepreneurs to accelerate and scale their businesses, whilst also providing the opportunity for traditional organisations to seek out new technologies. The C4DI Building in Hull is a privately funded technology incubator helping tech companies grow.

C4DI’s model brings together traditional businesses with tech startups through its custom innovation programmes and startup incubation. This provides traditional businesses with access to skills in tech and also provides tech companies with access to supply chain and mentors.

The new C4DI Community, powered by Barclays Eagle Lab, will build on three areas of activity; helping businesses to plug in to the Barclays national network, access business support, High Growth and Scaleup support as well as build on the network for traditional businesses to access high tech knowledge.

John Connolly, managing director C4DI, said: “C4DI has grown significantly over the last few years with an increased number of tech and traditional businesses being part of our community.

“We now want to scale-up our work and the partnership with Barclays experts opens up mentoring, connections and collaborations required for Hull’s businesses to flourish and help them grow on the world stage.”

Steve Mullins, Barclays area director for Yorkshire, added: “Hull is an exciting digital hub with huge growth potential and our new partnership, which forms part of our wider growth strategy in Yorkshire to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and accelerate high-growth companies, will stimulate economic growth and create jobs in the local area and across Yorkshire.

“As a partner C4DI brings unrivalled expertise in the digital sector and we are well equipped to help this dynamic community, encouraging innovation and stimulating business growth in the city.”

Based on the ground floor of the C4DI Building at Queen Street, the C4DI Community powered by Barclays Eagle Lab will be supporting businesses across all sector industries including; IoT, engineering, renewables, logistics, and health and wellbeing.

Barclays recently launched a new £500m growth fund for SME businesses in the Northern Powerhouse region. The partnership with the C4DI programme will enable Barclays to work with businesses to provide access to the fund for scaleup and growth.

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