Dropbox to open office in Dublin

Online file storage business Dropbox is to open an office in Ireland to support its European business, creating up to 40 jobs by the end of next year. The final employment potential could be higher if the company continues to grow at its current rate.

The Dublin headquarters will be the company’s first office outside the US. The roles will be in sales, account management and users operations, providing technical support to customers in Europe.

The deal is being supported by IDA Ireland.

The Irish office will be headed up initially by Mitra Lohrasbpour, the head of European business operations. She said the company hoped to hire someone locally once the office was established. The Irish office would add between 30 and 40 staff to the company, which already employs 240 in the US.

“At the pace we’re growing we expect the first year to be that predictable rate, but after that if our business keeps chugging along we’ll have the Irish operations grow along with it,” she said.

“The goal is for the Dublin office to support the broader European business so if that continues growing we’ll want to scale the base to match it.”

Dropbox offers online storage for users, with both free and premium packages available to private and business users. More than 100 million users have signed up for the service, with a third of those located in Europe.

The news was welcomed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

“As part of Ireland’s mission to become the best small country in the world for business we have become the European hub for many of the world’s leading digital companies, and the arrival of a top cloud company like Dropbox indicates Dublin’s growing capacity to usher in the next generation of internet companies.”