Silicon Valley cloud player Marketo creates 125 jobs in Dublin

30 May 2011

One of the fastest-growing cloud computing companies in Silicon Valley, Marketo, is to create 125 new jobs in Dublin over the next three years. The company is building a team to deliver marketing automation and sales effectiveness solutions across Europe.

Through an initiative supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland, recruitment is already under way for graduates and experienced staff covering sales, marketing, support, consulting, development and back office positions.

Marketo, which grew sales by more than 300pc last year, specialises in Revenue Performance Management, which enables marketing and sales teams to collaborate to build predictable revenues.

Marketo serves mid-sized and enterprise customers in B2B (business-to-business) industries such as high technology, financial services, healthcare, communications and professional services.

Its software was developed to help companies harness the new ways customers buy as a result of the growth of the internet, search and social media. The company has raised US$57m in funding to date.

Announcing the jobs, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said quoted a recent report that predicted by 2014 the cloud computing industry in Ireland could employ 8,600 people and be worth €9.5bn.

“However, Government must act if this potential is to become a reality. Earlier this month, I announced the establishment of an applied research centre supported by €5m of Government funds to help ensure that Ireland can realise its potential and become a world leader in this high-growth area.

“Today’s announcement that, with the support of Government, one of the fastest-growing Silicon Valley companies in this sector is creating 125 jobs in Dublin is a great confidence boost for cloud computing in Ireland and for the high-tech sectors of the economy, generally.

“I am developing ambitious plans to ensure that Government continues to provide whatever supports and policy changes are necessary to build on our achievements, so that we can realise our potential in these innovative sectors and create more jobs and growth in the economy again.’’

Ireland is Europe’s cloud computing hub

Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of Marketo, explained the company selected Ireland because it needed a European hub with a large talent pool of skilled people.

“Ireland has built a great reputation as a centre for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies,” Fernandez explained.

“We look forward to expanding operations in EMEA and support our swiftly growing international customer base from Dublin,” he added.

Marketo has appointed Irishman Fergus Gloster as managing director for Europe. Gloster was one of the co-founders of Salesforce.com in Europe and headed the company’s European corporate sales centre in Dublin from 2000-2009.

The announcement was welcomed by IDA Ireland chief executive Barry O’Leary.

“This is a great win for Ireland as Marketo is a global leader in the fast-growing area of revenue performance management.

“The company will be creating high-value jobs and the decision to establish here further boosts Ireland’s growing reputation as a location of choice for cloud computing, which is a key growth area identified in IDA’s strategy, Horizon 2020,” O’Leary added.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com