Mobile Travel Technologies (MTT), the Dublin-based travel mobile solutions provider, has officially opened its office today in the Grand Canal Docks of Dublin and begun a recruitment drive that could see its employee numbers rise from 70 to 120 people.
MTT, which was backed by a $5m investment by the European arm of $7 billion venture capital fund DFJ Esprit in 2012, was co-founded by travel technology veterans Gerry Samuels and Paschal Nee.
Mr Samuels, the chief executive of MTT, said its expansion was fuelled by recent multimillion contracts with LATAM Airlines Group, a Latin American airline group with sales of $10 billion, and BCD Travel, one of the world’s biggest travel companies with annual sales of $13 billion. Other clients of MTT include Easyjet, the low cost European airline and Jumeirah Group, the Middle East hotel chain which owns the famous Burj Al Arab luxury hotel in Dubai.
Both Mr Samuels and Mr Nee previously worked together at Gradient Solutions Ltd, a travel technology firm, which was sold to Sabre for an undisclosed sum in 2000. Mr Samuels, the chief executive of MTT, was a co-founder and shareholder in Gradient. DFJ partner Brian Caulfield, formerly of Irish-based Trinity Venture Capital, oversaw the investment in MTT and it remains in his portfolio.
MTT was founded in December 2005. “We were before the launch of the iPhone,” Samuels recalled. “The first couple of years people thought we were crazy as we were focussed 100 per cent on mobile and travel from the start,” Mr Samuels said. He said the boom in smart-phone users had helped his company expand very rapidly in recent years.”
“We grew by over 50 per cent last year, closer to 100 per cent, and this year we are on course for 100 per cent again,” Mr Samuels said. “We are currently looking at plans to super-accelerate our growth,” he added.
He declined to state MTT’s revenue but said it was in “eight figures,” indicating it was €10m-plus. He said MTT did not currently require new capital but might seek further investment if it identified a suitable acquisition or other “step change opportunity.”
MTT is recruiting staff in both software development and sales where it is competing for skilled employees against its new neighbours in Dublin’s Silicon Docks: Google, Facebook and Twitter.
“The key thing we can offer is what you’re doing. We’ve giving software engineers for example the opportunity to work on really interesting technology for world-wide customers,” he said. “This is a company where you can really learn and be in a sector where you are doing industrial scale mobile commerce.”
“It is not like working in a huge organisation where you are just one of hundreds working on a mega project,” Mr Samuels added.
Opening MTT’s new office today,Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “MTT is the latest addition to Dublin’s digital docklands and a testament to Ireland’s reputation as a hub for technology companies. New recruitment at the company will provide really exciting opportunities for job seekers in Dublin.”
