Finance technology firm Ideoba promises 100 jobs

The firm's main clients are likely to be based in financial centres like New York and London

A hi-tech firm is creating 100 new jobs in Bridgend developing specialist web services for the financial sector.

Ideoba is run by former Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price and American financial services expert Andrew Auerbach, who met at Harvard university in the USA.

Support comes from Harvard professor Harry Lewis, who taught billionaires Bill Gates of Microsoft and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr Price said Wales was "moving from coal mining to data mining."

The company has won financial backing from the Welsh government, whose economy minister Edwina Hart was opening Ideoba's research and development centre on Tuesday.

The company aims to create website search engines giving financial investment organisations access to advice from 300 million experts across the world, while existing businesses use smaller scale, manually-generated databases.

Mr Auerbach said although the company's main markets were in London and New York, support from the Welsh government and "Adam's passion for Wales" were two of three factors which had persuaded him of the suitability of the location.

He added: "There's a lot of very talented people around the area who ready to work and are accessible."

Hi-tech 'cluster'

Mr Price said the Bridgend area already had companies working in a similar field, adding that Sony's Raspberry Pii device was produced just down the corridor from them.

"We've already got a cluster of hi-tech companies serving global markets and that's very positive news for us going forward," he said.

"We're moving from coal mining to data mining."

The company will start with just nine employees, but Mr Auerbach said they were confident that their model would allow them to grow to around 100 employees in the next three years.

Ms Hart said: "This an extremely exciting development with huge potential and I am delighted Ideoba chose to locate in Wales.

"It sends out a very strong message that Wales is a key centre for both financial services and ICT - two of our priority sectors that are fully supported by the Welsh government."