New £650k developments for AI company in Gateshead

A local software company has secured investment worth £650k to support its expansion plans.

AI specialist Wordnerds received the funding from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The company was advised by Newcastle-headquartered commercial law firm Watson Burton.

Wordnerds received the funding from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and managed by Northstar Ventures, as well as from angel investors Paul and Gerard Callaghan, founders of The Leighton Group, Kevin Beales, founder and CEO of Refract, and Maurice Whittle.

Pete Daykin, CEO of Wordnerds, said: “A deal as complex as this could have been fractious and time-consuming.

“That it was agreed so quickly, effortlessly and constructively was in no small part down to the team at Watson Burton and we remain extremely grateful for their patience, good humour and measured advice.

“Wordnerds was happily trading, and growing fast. The support we [receive] from organisations like Sunderland Software City, Gateshead Council and Proto was pivotal both in developing a class product and in winning some big-ticket clients.”

Wordnerds, which is based in Gateshead, combines AI and advanced linguistics to train computers to understand the huge volume of unstructured text that is currently invisible to most companies.

Wordnerds’ technology is designed to make sense of the millions of tweets, emails, web chats, online reviews, CRM-entries and survey results written about - and within - brands or competitors, and helps companies to understand and act upon this information.

Watson Burton’s corporate team advised upon and negotiated the terms of the investment.

Richard Charnley, investment manager at Northstar Ventures, added: “The team at Wordnerds impressed us from our first conversation with them.

“They have all the building blocks in place: the right team, market, product, and they complement that with a level of ambition and passion that we are excited to support.

“We were also very pleased to welcome a strong group of angel investors to the round that add significant business model experience.”

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