wejo has confirmed this morning that it will be opening a state-of-the-art office in Manchester.
The firm will create up to 100 new jobs over the 12 next months at a new 10,000sq ft space in Enterprise City.
Set up in 2014, the company uses historic and real-time data streams from connected vehicles, which it says are used to build a comprehensive data source to create a “smarter, safer, more sustainable world.”
In February, General Motors invested £19.4m in wejo, taking a 35% stake in the company and agreeing to a long-term data-sharing agreement.
Its Manchester office will include a unique “digital data observatory.” This will be a wall-to-wall display showing interactive, real-time maps of traffic flows, based on samples from more than 9m vehicles across the US.
The map will enable to people to zoom in and highlight specific areas and data points via a control centre, to pinpoint traffic flows, incident hotspots and parking availability.
“This new office is a hugely exciting milestone and it highlights the growth and impact we have created over the last five years. Being my home town, Manchester is particularly dear to me, and I’m especially proud to be part of its growing recognition as a centre of excellence for technology. We are committed to the North West and wejo is making it a global leader in connected vehicle technology,” said Richard Barlow, founder and CEO of wejo.
wejo currently employs more than 150 people in Cheshire (Tattenhall), San Jose in California and Austin, Texas.
