Welsh ICE wins big at national entrepreneur awards

Welsh ICE, a start-up community and innovation hub based in Caerphilly, has been named one of UK’s best co-working spaces at the 2016 Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

This is the first year the award has been presented, and it aims to identify and celebrate the best places for entrepreneurs and start-ups to launch, grow and thrive.

Welsh ICE was the only co-working space based in Wales to be included the shortlist. The awards ceremony took place in London this Tuesday, and was held in association with Natwest.

Gareth Jones, CEO of the hub, attended the event to pick up the coveted award. Speaking after the night, he said he’s honoured to have won the award and believes that it highlights the success of ICE.

“I’m delighted that we could bring home a prize for the start-up community. Year-on-year our community is growing, gaining shareable knowledge, and building experience that raises expectations for everyone,” he said.

“So long as we can keep riding that wave, we will hopefully see more and more good stories coming out of the Valleys.”

The news comes as ICE recently appointed a new advisor, Myra Tabor, and announced that four of its resident tech firms have just raised £671,000 in investment between them.

“We were over the moon to bring this award home, the week that we announced we are looking for another member to join the team,” he added. “The award is for entrepreneurial co-working spaces.”

“And although we see co-working as being one part of what we do, we would like to think that the evolving service that we offer is borne out of market need, showing true entrepreneurship.”

“It’s on all of us to keep banging the drum and celebrating our hard working entrepreneurs in Wales, I’m delighted we were able to do our bit with this award.”