ONE of Manchester’s long standing ISPs and network infrastructure companies, which has provided the cutting-edge connectivity to enable a generation of digital startups, has chosen to continue its growth journey with a significant expansion at Manchester Science Park.
Based at Turing House, M247 has enabled some of the region’s biggest tech successes, providing the lighting fast connectivity to the likes of online retailer ao.com and web travel agent, On The Beach.
M247 is co-located at the campus, which is part of Bruntwood SciTech and managed by Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP), with two of the city’s other established and high growth tech companies, ANS and UK Fast, in a cluster that’s played a key role in Manchester’s emergence as a globally-leading digital city.
The company, which specialises in super-fast internet connectivity and network infrastructure, has almost doubled its existing footprint to nearly 12,000 sq ft, signing a five year extension in the process.
Founded in 2003 as Metronet (UK), it had just five staff when it launched at Manchester Science Park and has enjoyed rapid growth as part of the MSP community. Following two acquisitions; hosting company M247 and fibre business Venus Business Communications, the business then rebranded as M247 in 2018, and now employs more than 250 people in Manchester, London and Bucharest and is one of the region’s most dynamic technology businesses.
Tom Renn, Managing Director, Manchester Science Partnerships said: “The growth of M247 – from startup to industry leader – has been a pleasure to watch and we’ve been delighted to support the evolution of a longstanding customer into an important market player.
“Working in partnership with M247, we have developed MSP’s own digital infrastructure to become one of the most resilient and the best connected internet site in the North; our Manchester Science Park campus has a dark fibre ring around it and houses some of the most important datacentres in Manchester, providing super high bandwidth to our customers and between each of our buildings.
“The company has enabled the success of some of Manchester’s leading technology firms and the cluster which has formed around Turing House and Manchester Science Park has connectivity and cloud storage credentials to rival anywhere in Europe.
“We’re committed to supporting dynamic entrepreneurs at the helm of promising startups.
The M247 story can be inspiration to them all, and irrefutable evidence of the benefits of the co-innovation opportunities on our campuses.”
Jenny Davies, CEO, M247 added: “This is an exciting period of growth for M247 and we are proud that we can continue this journey by further investment in our facilities with MSP. This expansion not only marks our commitment to the North West, but our drive for customer excellence and the creation of a vibrant and flexible environment for our people.”
The announcement comes after a successful end to 2018 for Bruntwood SciTech and MSP with the recent news that Bruntwood SciTech is to invest more than £10 million in speculative laboratory development at its Mereside life science campus at Alderley Park. A raft of new customers have also joined and expanded in the MSP community, including several exciting tech startups at the Tech Incubator at Circle Square. The Incubator is now home to more than 20 businesses employing almost 100 people, with the new arrivals including two blockchain startups, an AI-based digital health company and cyber security specialists.