Digital centre signs up its first member

The first member of a new business hub opening in Northallerton this spring has signed up.

The Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) will open in the new Treadmills development, based on the site of the town’s former prison.

Cornwall-based Agritech company Glas Data has joined the C4DI team as part of their mission to enhance farm management through data automation technology.

The company hopes to make key connections with other like-minded agritech and technology start ups that will be housed at Treadmills.

Eleanor Whitlock, business development and account executive at Glas Data, said: “We are all very excited here at Glas Data to be the first to join the C4DI Northallerton venture.

“We cannot wait to share our software and agri-tech solution with everyone and grow together.”

The Northallerton hub – an offshoot of Hull C4DI – is being created in the former female wing of the old prison, one of the five listed buildings on the site.

It has been transformed into business units with the old prison cells turned into offices – complete with the original cell doors.

John Connolly, managing director of C4DI, said: “C4DI Northallerton is an exciting new campus focused on helping tech companies grow, and traditional businesses innovate within the agriculture and food processing sectors.

“We’re thrilled to have Glas Data on board to mark the beginning of this new chapter.”

C4DI helps tech companies grow and traditional businesses innovate, bringing them together with industry through a variety of innovation programmes.

The Northallerton base will be a co-working, meeting and collaboration incubator space creating a community of specialists and giving access to technical skills and expertise.

It will have an initial focus on agritech – the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture and food processing – to help the agriculture sector develop and grow and build an ecosystem of tech companies with unique supply chain and mentor access.

Hambleton District Council leader, Councillor Mark Robson, added: “This is a very exciting project for Hambleton – the first of its kind in North Yorkshire, and to have our first business signed up is great news.

“Work in the agritech area – which is a large part of the Hambleton economy – will help these businesses improve yield, efficiency and profitability.

“By bringing the agriculture and food sectors together in the tech centre we hope to see them develop and grow.”

David Dickson, chairman of the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership Infrastructure and Joint Assets Board, added: “We’re really pleased to see the first business sign-up.

“It’s another landmark achieved for this exciting project, which promises to create economic growth and support important job sectors in our region.”

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