The US company behind 'half the world's busiest websites' is bringing its European HQ to Cork
Nginx plans to recruit more than 100 staff in the southern city.
WEB-SERVER SOFTWARE FIRM Nginx will open its European headquarters in Cork’s city centre, and the firm plans to recruit 100 staff for the office in the coming years.
San Francisco-based Nginx, pronounced engine-x, said it was launching the regional base for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) countries as part of plans for “rapid global expansion”.
The Nginx open-source software has been around since 2002, when it was created by Russian engineer Igor Sysoev, while a commercial firm of the same name was established in 2011 to offer paid products and support for the platform.
Since then, it has raised more than $40 million from investors, according to Crunchbase, including from Dell founder Michael Dell’s venture capital fund.
Nginx will run its EMEA operations from the new base in Cork, with the office due to be completed next month. The expansion is being backed by IDA Ireland.
The firm said it will hire at least 100 staff there over the next three years to add to its current global headcount of more than 100 people.
It is currently advertising for software engineers and several foreign language-speaking roles in Cork, while future jobs are expected to include in sales, marketing, finance, business development and various technical areas.
Cork culture
According to Nginx, its software now powers more than half of the world’s busiest sites and applications. Its products are designed to help internet servers, which provide the back-end to websites and online services, run faster and more efficiently.
The company’s CEO, Gus Robertson, said having Nginx’s EMEA headquarters in Cork would help the firm better serve its customers in the regions.
“Beyond this geographical fit, Cork is strongly aligned in culture and attitude with the values carried over from our global headquarters in San Francisco, and we look forward to bringing in the best and brightest talent in the area,” he said.
The announcement from the US company comes after the apparent shelving of another major firm’s planned expansion in the southern city.
The Sunday Business Post yesterday reported pharma giant Eli Lilly was delaying a €200 million investment in Cork while it waited on anticipated protectionist policies from new US president Donald Trump.
Reporting by Cormac Fitzgerald and Peter Bodkin
