Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD today announced the creation of 153 new jobs for Dublin from 4 North American and European high growth companies.

The investments are supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

The new jobs are being created by technology companies working in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) area across a range of activities such as software engineering, R&D, sales, customer support.

The companies creating the new jobs are:

Pressreader (65 jobs) – Canadian technology and media company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, PressReader is the world’s leading digital content platform and the pioneer of the all-you-can-read model. Our users get unlimited access to more than 6,000 newspapers, magazines and other media sources from around the world via our apps, available for every smartphone, tablet and laptop. The company intends to create up to 65 new roles over the next few years across a range of functions, including Research & Development, Multilingual Business Development, Sales and Marketing, Management and Administration.

Looker (50 jobs) Looker today announced the expansion of its international operations with the opening of its new European Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. The newly established headquarters in Dublin allows Looker to better support its ongoing growth and market opportunities across Europe. Looker’s Dublin operations will create approximately 50 positions within Sales, Marketing, Professional Services and Support over the next three years.

ThinkSmart (20 jobs) – ThinkSmart, the fastest growing provider of powerful Business Process and Workflow Automation software and solutions, announced the opening of its Ireland office today to strengthen the U.S. company’s sales, operations and client management efforts in EMEA. The company plans to hire 20 people in Sales, Customer and Support roles.

ArtofUs (18 jobs) London based ArtOfUs Ltd today announced its plans to create 18 R&D jobs in Dublin. The company is developing the world’s leading human operating system for the Internet of Things market (IoT).

Speaking at today’s announcement Minister Mitchell O’Connor TD said “ I warmly welcome these new companies. Ireland has been very successful in attracting investment projects from many of the big international players across a range of sectors. We intend to be just as successful in securing investment from the rising generation of early stage, high growth companies as well. It is terrific news that this group of companies, who are at the forefront of their technologies have decided to locate in Ireland and I look forward to their future expansion here. There are now over 2 million people working in Ireland, the highest number of people at work since Q4 2008.’’

Welcoming today’s announcement Martin Shanahan, CEO IDA Ireland said “Ireland has been very successful in attracting Software as a Service (SaaS) companies in recent years. Ireland provides SaaS companies with well-educated Multilingual, Customer Support, Sales, Finance and Technical Teams. Ireland has a young, educated & adaptable workforce strengthened by the free movement of people within the European Union’s 200M strong labour market. Dublin is building a reputation as Europe’s centre for SaaS companies looking to scale with Pressreader, Looker, ThinkSmart, and ArtofUs establishing their EMEA HQ in Dublin. The key differentiator for Ireland over other locations is that the Ireland gives SaaS companies the ability to scale quickly with access to the right talent.”