British digital learning firm Sponge opens Dublin office

Digital learning company Sponge UK has opened its first office outside the United Kingdom, locating its Dublin office in Citywest Business Campus.

The company offers workplace learning products for companies including Coca-Cola, Toyota, Adidas and Tesco, creating custom-built digital training programmes.

The Dublin office will be headed up by Michael Quann, and will include Sponge UK's microlearning division, which will look at personalised and adaptive learning technology solutions for workplace learning. The company has two employees in Dublin, with plans to grow that to eight to 10 within the first 12 months. Depending on the sales performance, this could increase further, Sponge said.

The Dublin office is part of the company's plans for expansion in the UK and Europe. It opened its third office in December, located in Nottingham.

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"Opening in Dublin is an important step for us as we expand our footprint in Europe as well as bringing us closer to clients in Ireland. We found there was a high demand from clients for us to have a permanent base outside the UK, with many wanting greater business security ahead of Brexit," said Louise Pasterfield, managing director at Sponge UK.

Innovation hub

“In addition, Ireland’s growing reputation as a technology innovation hub fits well with our global strategy. Dublin is a vibrant city and we are optimistic about our future growth here. We’re particularly excited about developing our microlearning offering out of Dublin.”

Ms Pasterfield set up the company in 2004, with its headquarters in Plymouth.

It grew turnover by 50 per cent in 2017, creating 40 jobs to bring its headcount to more than 100.

“Last year was an extraordinary year for us, and the launch of our new office in Dublin is a great way to start 2018,” said Ms Pasterfield. “With many organisations looking to modernise their training to utilise what new technologies offer, I believe that 2018 is going to be another extremely busy year.”