Cloud storage giant Dropbox is to establish an international headquarters in Dublin. The company, whose cloud service is used by more than 100m people across a variety of mobile devices, includes U2’s Bono and the Edge as investors.
The investment marks Dropbox’s first move outside the US and the investment is supported by IDA Ireland.
The investment is an important win for Ireland, which now counts Dropbox along with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Salesforce.com and LinkedIn among the born-on-the-web coterie of internet giants based in the country, along with established IT giants like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Oracle, Apple, EMC, SAP, Dell and many more.
Ireland’s Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, has welcomed the news. “The arrival of a top cloud company like Dropbox indicates Ireland’s growing capacity to usher in the next generation of internet companies,” he said.
“Ireland has many advantages to offer international companies, including our young, passionate and talented workforce, all of which will be a great asset to Dropbox as they make their new home in Dublin,” he added.
The initial goal of Dropbox’s Dublin office is to hire for various positions, including multilingual sales teams, account management and user operations staff, all of which will provide targeted support to Dropbox users in Europe.
“We’re delighted to be closer to millions of our European customers,” said Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox.
“By opening our international headquarters in Dublin and tapping into the large talent pool that exists there, we’re better positioned to serve even more people locally while we continue to grow.”
With more than 100m users in 200 countries, with more than one-third of them in the European region alone, Dropbox’s new office opening will support the company’s continuing growth and expansion.
Dropbox is a free cloud service that lets users bring all photos, docs and videos into a folder that can be accessed on any PC, Mac, iOS, BlackBerry or Android device and across a variety of web browsers.
From start-up to cloud power broker
MIT graduates Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi began work on Dropbox in 2007, as a Y Combinator start-up.
It emerged in April that U2’s Bono and the Edge took part in a US$250m second-round funding of Dropbox.
Welcoming the news, Bono said: “Dropbox is one of the great tech stories of recent times. Meeting Drew and Arash is like meeting guys in a band.
“This smart and innovative company will find a smart and innovative workforce here in Ireland, with a creativity and commitment second to none. The Irish Government worked hard on this, and the Irish Development Authority (IDA) played a blinder,” Bono added.
“Dropbox is one of the best-known brands in the digital world today,” said IDA Ireland chief executive Barry O’Leary.
“Dropbox’s file-sharing service is used worldwide by millions of customers – it is one of the leading players in the cloud computing space. Dropbox’s decision to locate in Dublin further adds to the existing cluster of world-class internet brands that have chosen Ireland as a location for their international operations,” O’Leary said.
Cloud computing image via Shutterstock
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