‘Huge Win’ For Indy Tech Community

Steve Pruden is VP of mobility and crowdsourcing for Appirio.

San Francisco-based Appirio Inc. is relocating its corporate headquarters to downtown Indianapolis. The global cloud services company says it will invest $7.7 million and could add more than 420 new jobs over the next five years. “The designation of Indianapolis as our headquarters reflects the office’s important role as a global training center and recruiting hub,” said Appirio Chief Executive Officer Chris Barbin in a statement. The company has doubled its existing footprint in the Pan American Office Tower to accommodate the move.

Indiana tech leaders say the Appirio move goes beyond the direct economic impact. “Appirio is one of the most innovative and successful cloud services firms in the world,” said High Alpha Managing Director Scott Dorsey, who was also a co-founder of ExactTarget. “This headquarters move from San Francisco to Indy provides enormous validation to Indy and our leadership in enterprise cloud computing.”

The Appirio deal is the latest in a string of tech announcements in the Indianapolis region. In early August, Austrian-based Emarsys announced plans to locate its North American headquarters in downtown Indy. The digital marketing company said it will invest $3.2 million and add more than 150 jobs as part of the move to Market Tower near Monument Circle.

Companies including Geofeedia, Return Path, High Alpha, CloudOne, Rook Security, Netfor, Apparatus and Eleven Fifty have also announced expansion plans this year.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation says the Appirio jobs will have average salaries that are more than 75 percent higher than the Indiana average. According to a news release from the IEDC, more than half of the state’s economic development efforts in the first half of 2015 are in the information technology space.

Appirio was founded in 2006 and has more than 1,200 employees in offices in San Francisco, Indianapolis, Dublin, London, Jaipur and Tokyo.