Following the successful raising of $50m in investment, Malwarebytes is targeting more growth in its EMEA HQ in Cork, if it can get the bodies.
Fidelity Investments recently pumped the $50m into the cybersecurity company, with Malwarebytes hoping to add sales staff to its growing number of engineers.
The investment was made about two weeks ago, with the company’s previous funding coming in a $30m move in 2014 (from Highland Capital Partners).
Why are we looking at this now? Well, about a year ago Malwarebytes announced plans to hire 50 people at its Cork HQ. And now, 11 months later, the company is still struggling to find talent to fill that quota.
Considering companies decide to enter Ireland because of the available pool of talent, or more likely access to an entire EU of transient employees, this seems surprising.
Moving into a new office space in Albert Quay soon, the company, presumably, is getting a little worried about the difficulty of finding employees. But now, amid news that it is seeking sales staff, that might change.
When we asked if further growth was on the cards at the company, we were told that it’s quite likely. But, obviously, those 50 positions need to be filled first.
“Fidelity’s belief in Malwarebytes validates the strength of our business model and the excellence of our products,” said company founder Marcin Kleczynski when the funding went through.
“More importantly, their investment gives us the opportunity to hire even more talented engineers to help us fight malware and accelerate Malwarebytes’ strategic sales, marketing and future product initiatives in our fast-growing enterprise business.”
It is the latter, in Cork, that will see most movement. Kleczynski plans to use the latest round of funding to hire sales staff and develop international sales, since as much as two-thirds of the organisation currently consists of engineering talent.
“This investment is very significant for growth in the enterprise market in Europe,” said Anthony O’Mara, VP at Malwarebytes EMEA, upon news of Fidelity’s involvement.
“The new funding round will support our aggressive expansion through Malwarebytes’ EMEA headquarters in Cork, where our headcount has been increasingly rapidly over the last six months, due to strong business development in the EU.”
The business is growing, funding is growing, now it’s just a case of finding employees in Cork to satisfy that growth.
Update at 13:30 on 3 February
Malwarebytes has since been in touch to clarify things, saying that recruitment is not proving problematic in Cork. The headline has been altered.
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