Northern Gritstone invests £7.5m in chipmaker Pragmatic to expand its tech manufacturing plant
Northern Gritstone, the investment business focused on science and technology-enabled businesses in the North of England, invested in Pragmatic, as part of a £162m funding round.Pragmatic develops and manufactures flexible integrated circuits, manufactured from metal oxide instead of silicon, to create chips for smart and digital packaging that can be used to track and trace goods through a supply chain.
The funding will expand the business to expand its production facility in Durham.
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Hide AdPragmatic plans to build at least eight manufacturing lines in the UK over the next five years, creating over 500 highly skilled jobs in the North East and Cambridge, where it has headquarters.
Northern Gritstone chief executive, Duncan Johnson, said: “With intellectual property acquired from the University of Manchester and a state-of-the-art production line in Durham, Pragmatic represents some of the brightest technology from across the North of England.
"Its strong impact agenda and desire to create high-value jobs in the region aligns with Northern Gritstone’s ‘profit with purpose’ mission and desire to create a thriving innovation community. We are excited to be investing at this later stage and are optimistic about the growth that Pragmatic can deliver in the next few years as the use of its chips expands.”