The University of South Wales (USW) has opened its second graduate start-up business incubator hub at its Newport campus to help create new businesses in the city.
Named the Startup Stiwdio, the hub will offer space to USW graduates who are starting their own businesses and provide support services such as business advice, assistance with intellectual property, and access to specialist help.
It will also provide a bespoke start-up business support programme and the opportunity for new firms to grow their business contacts through access to networks and events.
The University has already established one hub on its Cardiff campus, which specialises in supporting creative graduates. A third hub is expected to open at USW Treforest campus in the summer to support students in science and engineering who want to start a business.
The University's Startup Stiwdio has supported a total of 65 graduate entrepreneurs to date.
Assistant pro vice-chancellor for enterprise at the university Professor Dylan Jones-Evans believes the Newport hub will play an important role in the future of the city.
He said: "Newport is a great city with enormous potential for the future and it is critical that we get more young people to consider becoming their own boss and to start innovative new firms to create jobs and support the local economy."
He added: "The Startup Stiwdio can act as a catalyst and a conduit for increasing entrepreneurial activity in Newport and, in doing so, become an important part of the community. It will also complement recent developments such as the refurbishment of Newport market and the activities emerging from the Alacrity Foundation.”
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Councillor Jane Mudd, leader of Newport Council, said the facility will give graduates the opportunity to showcase the skills they have gained while studying at USW.
She said: “We spend a lot of time talking about graduate attributes, and this is a realisation of that because it provides that opportunity for graduates to really demonstrate those skills.
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“There’s entrepreneurialism and creativity, innovation and resourcefulness, and it gives a real platform for them to really launch their careers. And I'm so proud that we've got this Startup Stwidio here in Newport, it means a lot to us to have this facility.”
She added: “This really captures the entrepreneurial spirit that we have here in Newport. We've got a really, really, strong creative and innovative community - you see it in the businesses that have started up across a range of sectors.
“But what you also see is those businesses going on to employ people, more graduates, more local people as well. The growth really is tremendous.”
Three start-up businesses are already benefitting from the hub at the Newport campus. These are NDT South Wales, a non-destructive testing engineering company; C Bloc Productions, which specialises in music videos; and Taking Reality, which makes wellbeing podcasts.
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C Bloc Productions was started by new graduates Will Langley, 23, from Newport, and Alicia Jones, 22, from New Tredegar who both have Masters degrees in Music Engineering and Production from USW. The pair said the company 'provides and produces audio and visual content beyond the industry standard'.
Despite only launching the business in earlier this year, the business has already had initial success with getting its productions to a wider audience including securing a prime spot at the opening of the new Swansea arena.
Ms Jones said: "We were able to do a highlight reel for the artists that were performing - we shot for the headline act Trampolene and support act called The Now."
On working within the new incubator hub on Newport campus, Ms Jones said: "We can loan equipment from the other USW sites, which is obviously really useful when you have a new business and are always looking at managing costs.
“Also, because we don’t live close to each other, we would struggle to meet up if we didn’t have this office space – it’s been great for that, and offers us the chance to get together, be creative, and work on developing the next steps for the business.”
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Read the full story, here.