iTRACglobal team: Oisin Lavery; Andrei Lagunov, CFO; Tony Leto, CEO/president; and Conor Higgins, at the Nexus Innovation Centre at UL
A new Silicon Valley start-up called iTRACglobal has chosen to set up its headquarters in Ireland by basing itself at University of Limerick’s Nexus Innovation Centre. It now has three software developers based at UL and is planning to increase its headcount to 30.
Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur Tony Leto, who is CEO and president of iTRACglobal, described the start-up as a global import/export compliance and supply chain specialist, which uses cloud computing technology.
“The market for global trade is exploding, with the figures set to increase to US$70trn by 2025 while import and export regulations are becoming more and more complex and non-compliance can result in serious consequences for companies,” explained Leto today.
He said the start-up provides a Web 3.0 solution for a global problem and that it is focused on reaching 10,000 global system users, while also expanding the team in Limerick within the first three years.
iTRAC will be based at the Nexus Innovation Centre, which opened last November at UL. It is now home to 12 start-ups and is also working with a growing community of 24 entrepreneurs through its portfolio of services for new ventures.
Andrei Lagunov, CFO, iTRACglobal; Andrea Deverell, Nexus Innovation Centre manager; and Tony Leto, CEO/president of iTRACglobal, pictured at the Nexus Innovation Centre at University of Limerick
Software and design talent
Leto, who is also a US Customs broker and California lawyer, said today all the signs were pointing towards Limerick for the start-up.
“We were looking for innovative and creative software developers and designers. We found that UL had an abundance of top-notch talent in the computer and design sciences,” he said.
Leto added that the initial US and EU market across electronics, energy, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, contract manufacturing, logistics and retail are all within reach from Ireland.
“The multilingual talent pool at UL also provides opportunity for growth in our support services as we expand our geographic footprint,” he said.
The Enterprise Ireland-supported Nexus Innovation Centre is aiming to help nurture the growth of 35 new HPSUs companies between 2011 and 2016, spawning more than 115 new high-value jobs in the process.
