Author: Rhys Gregory

Smart Towns Wales is inviting local businesses to a free event aimed at driving growth through data-driven insights about Bangor high street. The event will be held at the City Sports and Cocktail Bar, Bangor, on the 5th of March at 6 pm. Since August 2024, Smart Towns Wales has had access to key trends, footfall patterns, and anonymised demographic profiles of visitors to high streets across Wales. The data, accessed through BT’s Active Intelligence data and Patrwm open data, includes findings such as the peak and quiet visiting times and footfall and provides insights into the age, gender and…

Wales’ most famous referee Nigel Owens is the host of a brand-new Welsh language podcast, Nigel Owens Dan Bwysau, launching on BBC Sounds on March 4.  Expect some fun, humour, and captivating stories as Nigel chats with some of the nation’s best-known sports stars.  How do the stars manage the immense pressure and expectations they face when stepping onto the playing field? No one understands the sacrifices and difficult decisions required to reach the top better than Nigel.  Ahead of the launch, Nigel Owens said:  “It’s been a real pleasure chatting and laughing with some of Wales’ champions. I feel…

The British Business Bank’s Small Business Finance Markets 2024/25 report, published today, reports that Wales saw a 14.3% fall in announced equity deal numbers and a 45.7% fall in investment value during the first three quarters of 2024, relative to the same period in 2023. In total 48 equity deals were completed between Q1 and Q3 2024, with an investment value totalling £54.9m. This decline in deal numbers in Wales mirrors much of the wider UK trend, where equity deals decreased across all Nations and regions but the North East of England. However, investment value data was more positive across…

Nisien.AI a pioneering Welsh artificial intelligence start-up based in Cardiff, has received investment from the British Business Bank’s £130m Investment Fund for Wales via Foresight Group and the Development Bank of Wales, in a joint investment. Founded less than two years ago by two Cardiff University academics, Professors Matt Williams (Criminology) and Pete Burnap (Data Science, AI), Nisien.AI uses scientifically informed cutting-edge technology to detect and respond to online harms, such as online conflict, to support healthy debate and conversations. The investment comes just over a year since the Investment Fund for Wales was launched in November 2023, by the…

A leading civil engineering firm’s work on the first large-scale new water storage reservoir in the UK since the 1980s has been enhanced by a multi-million-pound investment in plant. As part of its annual review, Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK has strengthened its 400-strong fleet, with 29 of the additional machines now working on Havant Thicket reservoir in Hampshire. North Wales-based Jones Bros and Mackley, whose head office is in West Sussex, have joined forces as Future Water MJJV Limited to construct the £167m water storage scheme. And Jones Bros has deployed some of its recent additions to work on the programme,…

A DEESIDE-BASED business owner, who first launched her hairdressing and beauty salon in 1999, has opened a new, larger premises thanks to a local government grant. Sara King, from Rhuddlan, who owns Kings (formerly Oasis Hair & Beauty), has moved into new 1,894sqft premises following a period of rapid growth for the business. In 2019, Sara also launched The Kings Academy, which offers alternative school provisions for students across North Wales and has gone from strength to strength helping over 100 young people find a career path. The academy, which works alongside several high schools in the local area, will…

Seedable Studio, a Cardiff-based digital solutions company, has officially launched with £100,000 in seed funding from investors David Jones (the originator of Grand Theft Auto) and Stuart Little, a net-zero entrepreneur. The investment will fuel the company’s main focus: developing sustainable digital products with gamification elements. Led by Lowri Humberstone-Hill, Melin Edomwonyi and Perry Rylance, the company was born out of a commitment to making technology more sustainable, inclusive, and human-centric. The team’s 20 years of experience in software, app, and web development position them to enable their changemaker clients’ innovation and proprietary R&D technology. Melin Edomwonyi, UX Director, said:…

After winning several high-profile contracts and sustainability awards, a young graduate designer from Swansea is making waves with her fashion collection. With the support of Big Ideas Wales, Ffion McCormick Edwards founded Barefoot.Tech three years ago during lockdown, in a bid to tackle the volume of old, unused wetsuits being sent to landfill. Ffion comes from a family of lifelong water-skiers, meaning there have always been a selection of wetsuits on hand. As she and family members outgrew various wetsuits, Ffion’s thinking turned to a sustainable solution to reusing and repurposing the fabric. She reworked wetsuits and life jackets into…

Secondary school pupils will hear the stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees who made Wales their home, thanks to a new educational resource created by Aberystwyth University and the Jewish History Association of Wales. The series of podcasts will mean that older pupils as well as the general public can listen to those who fled from Nazi tyranny to build better lives for themselves and their families. They can also learn how refugees who settled in Wales after the Second World War have contributed to Welsh life – culturally, economically and politically. The podcasts have been produced as part of…

A 43-year-old man has been imprisoned after admitting domestic violence and stalking offences. Simon Peter Murphy, of Brynmor Avenue, Rhyl, was sentenced to 43 months at Mold Crown Court last week (Friday, 28 February). At an earlier court appearance, Murphy had pleaded guilty to stalking his female victim over a period of several months. Murphy, who was in breach of a non-molestation order at the time, admitted strangling the woman and to repeatedly calling from a withheld telephone number to make threats towards her. His stalking behaviour included the placing of a tracking device on the victim’s vehicle to monitor…