The first day of the web summit was a busy affair, with attendees crowding the stages to see big-name speakers and get to grips with the large numbers of start-up companies throughout the halls.
Jobs and investment were the main topics of interest, with companies keen to share their plans for expansion.
Although the big numbers for jobs came from foreign companies setting up base in Ireland, there were plenty of homegrown success stories to discuss too.
Irish fraud prevention firm Trustev was first out of the gate with an impressive seed funding announcement – $3 million to finance the company's expansion in the US. The company, which provides real-time identity verification to help reduce ecommerce fraud, announced the investment on the main stage. It said it will expand its Irish operation, with numbers expected to grow to 20 from 15 before the end of the year.
But the show-stealing number came from IDA Ireland, which announced 335 new jobs in software development, online security, internet and digital media as nine North American and European based firms expand their businesses here.
The bulk of the jobs are coming from Adroll, which is setting up its European headquarters in Dublin. It will create a total of 100 jobs by the end of next year, supporting its business in more than 12 countries.
The company, which offers an online targeted advertising platform, helps businesses collect data on purchase behaviour and target marketing.
Marketing asset
"Our belief is that every website's most valuable marketing asset is its customer data," said Adroll's president Adam Berke.
Fifteen people are employed in Ireland, with the remainder of the jobs expected to be filled by the end of 2014. It is the company’s first international office.
A further 50 jobs will be created at Nitro, which provides document productivity and workflow solutions, when it establishes its European, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin.
Thirty jobs are being created at cloud company Zendesk's development centre in Dublin, while legal software company Clio will also create 30 jobs in the city with the establishment of its European headquarters in Ireland. A further 25 jobs will come as Pearl Street Enterprises sets up its worldwide headquarters in Dublin, and domain name provider Minds +Machines is also setting up shop in Dublin city with 25 job. Aviation software firm AerData is bringing 15 jobs to Dublin.
Outside the capital, quality and compliance management software provider EtQ is creating 30 jobs at its new EMEA headquarters in Limerick, aimed at those with computer science qualifications and technical sales capabilities.
In Cork, disaster recovery specialist StorageCraft is setting up its international headquarters, with 30 jobs for IT support, marketing and human resources.
More than 10,000 people are attending the Web Summit this year, more than double last year’s attendance.
“In three short years, 36 months, we’ve come incredibly far, incredibly fast,” said Paddy Cosgrave, web summit co-founder.
