SurveyMonkey has opened a cloud data centre in Dublin to shore up its European business
The company said its Irish office is at the ‘vanguard’ of its expansion plans this side of the Atlantic.
SURVEYMONKEY HAS LAUNCHED a cloud data centre in Dublin as it prepares to ramp up its European enterprise business, led from the Dublin office.
Tom Hale, president of SurveyMonkey, told Fora that expanding the enterprise side of the company’s operations in Europe has become a key focus.
He said that more than a third of its revenue comes from outside of the US.
The data centre, housed in an Amazon Web Services facility in Dublin, will allow the survey software company to store data locally for European clients.
Hale explained that it will help the company allay customer concerns around security and where data is held. The move comes the same week that GDPR celebrates its first birthday.
“Even though it’s not a requirement of GDPR, our customers were very clear that they would like the data to be housed within the EU and so as a result, we’ve made the investment,” Hale said.
Dublin office
SurveyMonkey opened its Dublin office, which serves as its European headquarters, in 2014 and has grown into a multi-function location.
“I think we’ve doubled (in Dublin) over the last year. It’s nearly 100 people now. It started as a customer support office and we’ve added sales, marketing and product development teams,” he said.
“Dublin is our HQ, it’s also the vanguard of our effort to reach into Europe.”
It recently hired Joe Cummiskey, who previously led international sales efforts for Google and Facebook, as senior director of sales for the EMEA market, based in Dublin.
In addition to the cloud data centre, SurveyMonkey bought Dutch rival Usabilla last month for $80 million and with it acquired Usabilla’s outposts in Amsterdam, London and Berlin.
“They have 130 employees so now we’ve got quite the presence with 200 plus folks in Europe,” Hale said.
He added that SurveyMonkey will likely double its staff numbers in Europe in the coming years as its business here scales.
“I think we’re hopeful that outside the US, we’ll grow at a faster rate than inside the US. If you were to think of them doubling in the next couple of years, I think that’s probably about right.”
The company, which was founded in 1999, floated on the Nasdaq last September. Earlier this month it reported revenues of $68.6 million in the first quarter of this year.
