Nitro Software to double headcount at Irish operation

Plans to take headcount to over 200 locally as company seeks to hit $100m in revenue

Nitro is looking at adding more staff at its Dublin-based operation

Nitro Software, a company that designs software to create, edit and secure digital documents, intends to double its headcount in Dublin to more than 200 employees.

The move comes as Nitro, which was founded in Australia but is now headquartered in San Francisco, increasingly shifts its focus towards the European market.

The company recently acquired Belgium-based eSign company Connective in a €70 million deal that sees it becoming one of the top three signing companies globally along with Docusign and Adobe.

Spending on esigning solutions globally is expected to grow at a 29 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next decade, and Nitro co-founder and chief executive Sam Chandler said the acquisition of Connective enables the company to further tap into a market that is valued at $17 billion (€14 billion).

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Nitro, which is listed on the ASX in Sydney, raised $140 million from investors last week to fund the deal for Connective. Founded in Melbourne, the company established operations in Dublin in 2013 with just three employees. It now has more than 100 staff with Mr Chandler saying that the Irish operation accounts for one-third of all Nitro's workforce.

Dublin office

“We’re at about 300 people now and between $50 million to $60 million in revenues. I think that as we hit the $100 million milestone in the next couple of years that headcount will grow to around 500 or 600 people with staff numbers in Dublin rising to around 200 people,” Mr Chandler said.

“We initially opened the Dublin office as a go-to market location with sales and support and customer success but we quickly added other functions and now the Irish operation is the only one site we have that has representatives from every function. In fact, we even transferred our engineering function from San Francisco to Dublin because of the talent there.”

Nitro has 2.8 million licensed users and more than 13,000 business customers in 155 countries, including more than 68 per cent of the Fortune 500 and three of the Fortune 10. In addition to hubs in San Francisco and Dublin, it also has offices in Toronto, London and Melbourne.

Mr Chandler said Nitro was targeting $100 million in revenue by 2025 but that he now believes the company could get to that point by 2023.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist