DocuSign is joining the ranks of American tech companies looking to expand their European base in the fair emerald isles. The document management company recently revealed plans to recruit an additional 1,000 people for their Dublin-based office over the next five years.
In an interview with Irish Times, CEO Dan Springer said the company planned to hire into several different positions – including software engineering, sales and customer support. Springer is confident that they will be able to attract the right people at the right time.
“I don’t know of any other place in the world that is more cosmopolitan than Dublin right now in terms of hiring,” Springer said.
“The city is great because there are people from everywhere living here, so as well as being able to take on people who have fantastic language and tech skills, they also really understand the culture of the country with which they are dealing and that’s something you don’t get everywhere,” he added.
The company opened their first Irish office back in 2015 and have been steadily growing their presence there ever since. DocuSign recently acquired another 100,000 square feet of office space in the Docklands and anticipate having the space ready for occupancy by the end of 2019.
DocuSign is headquartered in San Francisco and currently employs 3,200 people around the world. Of those, 400 are based in Ireland. The company reported $701 million in revenue last year and Springer believes this is only the beginning. Best known for their electronic signature technology, they also help clients prepare, execute, and store documents over the internet.
“We are so small in terms of penetration in the market in which we operate,” Spring stated. “Even in signature we’re only at about 5 percent of the total addressable market and probably only at 1 or 2 percent for the whole document cloud,” he said.
Spring believes that growth in international markets will likely outpace domestic expansion, largely due to the EU’s regulations for the electronic identification, authorization and trust services (eIDAS) that governs electronic transactions in the European Single Market. As the company delivers all electronic signature types defined under the eIDAS standards – there is significant potential for greater market saturation.
“One of the key pillars of our growth strategy is our targeted international expansion,” Springer said in a 2018 interview. “Currently, business from outside the US represents only about 17 percent of our revenues – and there remains incredible opportunities across our target markets.”
DocuSign’s Irish expansion represents a growing trend in Silicon Valley’s interest in the tax-friendly isle of Eire. Brian Caulfield, a venture partner with Draper Esprit, believes the country has become more attractive as a tech hub for several reasons, such as: inclusion in the European Union, a supportive regulatory system, and an abundant source of talented people ready for work. The e-document company’s Irish expansion is proof of that fact.
“We have significant physical infrastructure in Europe, three data centers, and that’s been a big investment we’ve made in scale and sophistication,” Springer stated. “EIDAS gives us leverage across all EU countries.”
