A US technology firm is making its first investment in Northern Ireland with the creation of 40 jobs at a new Belfast base.
Safety NetAccess, which is based in Massachusetts, is setting up a software development and sales support centre to help it grow across the US and Europe.
Northern Ireland beat stiff competition for the investment from India, the Republic of Ireland and the US itself, before the company finally decided to commit to Belfast.
Vice President of Software Development at the firm Resham Patel said it made the decision after talking with other inward investors to Northern Ireland, local universities and Invest Northern Ireland, which has offered £270,000 toward the new roles.
Once all the jobs are in place, the project will generate additional annual salaries of around £1.4 million, the company said.
Invest NI said it hosted a week-long visit to Northern Ireland for the company just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“We are confident we will have access to both the skilled workforce and future graduates we need right here,” Mr Patel said. “We are proud of the fact that, despite the challenges of the last 18 months due to the pandemic, we have continued to grow our business.
“We are ambitious for the future, and this new Software Development & Sales Support Centre will help us realise these ambitions. The NI team will initially focus on software development to ensure we remain competitive in our key telecoms market.
“Longer-term, we plan to expand our markets and will look to recruit team members including developers, sales engineers, and salespersons within the Belfast centre to develop the UK/Europe markets for us.
Kevin Holland, Invest NI CEO, welcomed the investment.
“We have a pipeline of over 1,400 new ICT graduates a year and a range of post-graduate conversion and training programmes available for those interested in working in the growing NI ICT sector of 30,000 people,” he said. “We look forward to seeing Safety NetAccess grow its business and to supporting it in whatever way we can.”
