SilverSky’s Belfast Team helps the company meet global demand for straightforward, accessible and affordable cyber security solutions.

Modern companies face common barriers to cyber security effectiveness – sophisticated threats, a growing security skills gap and the accelerating costs and complexity of choosing, deploying and managing multiple security point solutions in-house. SilverSky addresses these challenges with a managed service model that makes enterprise-grade cyber security simple, affordable and accessible for companies of all sizes.

In January 2022, SilverSky announced it had acquired Cygilant, a leading cybersecurity-as-a-service provider.  The addition of Cygilant's UK-based delivery centre in Northern Ireland complemented SilverSky’s footprint in Asia and North America, while expanding SilverSky's access to European markets. 

The company’s first European Security Operations Centre (SOC) was established in Northern Ireland in May 2020. After considering a number of locations, the company selected Belfast as its European hub, opening its doors with 25 employees during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Invest NI worked with the company to help secure the investment for Northern Ireland. It facilitated multiple visits by the company to meet with a range of stakeholders, including existing investors, the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) and universities. Invest NI also helped the company secure its new property and has offered £455,000 of support for the creation of the new jobs.

SilverSky’s Belfast SOC supports over 200 customers, with a specific focus on clients in the finance, education and healthcare sectors. The Belfast team monitors customer networks for potential breaches and threats, and then works with each client’s internal IT team to repair any issues before they become problems.

CME Group’s Belfast team drives the technology to support its global success.

Chicago based CME Group is the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace. The company enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimise portfolios, and analyse data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities.

CME group established its presence in Northern Ireland in 2012 with the opening of its Technology and Support Services Centre in Belfast with 50 employees. Since then,
it has grown to include 325 employees, assuring the firm’s place in the region’s vibrant financial services sector.

Technology drives everything at CME Group. Its team of technologists is relentlessly focused on developing the world’s most advanced electronic trading and risk management systems to help clients manage their business risks. The company also invests heavily in cyber security – both people and controls – designed to safeguard its systems, information and markets. CME Group’s Belfast team is a key driver of the company’s technology capabilities, supporting technology infrastructure and services, accounting, finance, online marketing, human resources and legal functions. The office also hosts a robust internship program for up to 40 interns each year, helping attract the best and brightest from the local community.

In 1997 buying and selling online was an uncertain thing to do. 

Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani saw the possibilities for creating an online marketplace where people could confidently buy goods from anywhere in the world direct from their home. The Rakuten Marketplace revolutionised the way Japan’s merchants and consumers interacted with each other and formed the template for a new style of business that has swept the world.

Rakuten is now one of the world’s leading internet services companies, with a transformative presence in e-commerce, digital content and fintech. Mickey is still at the helm—hands on, approachable, and always eager to listen to new ideas.

Rakuten has offices and talent all over the globe from Tokyo to Tel Aviv and Bangalore to Belfast. In 2016 Rakuten established the Rakuten Blockchain Lab in Northern Ireland with the goal of enabling distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrencies for the many Rakuten companies.

In addition to the experienced blockchain engineers, Rakuten found Northern Ireland an attractive location because of the region’s advanced technological innovation, particularly in cyber security, at Queen’s University’s Centre for Secure IT (CSIT) and the great software engineering talent emerging from the universities each year.

The initial hiring commitment by the Rakuten Blockchain Lab was for twenty software engineers, but the team is set to grow further as the demand for blockchain technology increases inside Rakuten and with its partners.

The Rakuten Blockchain Lab has already delivered multiple projects including a cryptocurrency exchange service called Rakuten Wallet.

Each month in the Bazaarvoice network, more than a billion consumers create, view and share authentic user-generated content including reviews, questions and answers and social photos across more than 6,200 global brand and retailer websites.

From search and discovery to purchase and advocacy, Bazaarvoice’s solutions help brands and retailers reach in-market shoppers, personalise their experiences, and give them the confidence to buy. On busy shopping days, like Black Friday, its network is one of the busiest in the world.

In 2017, as part of its growth strategy, the company wanted to rebalance engineering, client services and sales activity between the US and Europe, to take advantage of new talent pools and to drive customer growth in Europe. Galway and Belfast were seen as attractive options but Belfast quickly emerged as the preferred European location for the new operation because of:

• A strong supply of suitable graduates with excellent technical and professional qualifications
• Skills in the ICT sector, particularly in software development
• Government programmes designed to promote and grow the local ICT sector
• Northern Ireland was a more cost-effective option

Early in 2020 Bazaarvoice Belfast had 50 employees when it announced plans to create another 50 new jobs over the rest of the year, assuring the firm’s place in the vibrant Northern Ireland technology cluster. 

Bazaarvoice’s Belfast office is now set to become the company’s first international R&D hub and will include software engineering and design, user experience, business development, as well as research and development.

Version 1 is an Irish company specialising in International Management Consulting, Software Asset Management, Software Development, Cloud Computing, and Outsourcing.

It has progressed through organic growth and strategic acquisition to become a trusted technology partner to major domestic and international customers across all industry sectors. It has over 1,300 staff based in Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Manchester, Edinburgh, Kent and Birmingham.

Version 1 opened its first office in Belfast in 2012 with four staff and has grown rapidly. Since then, it has built up a team of over 150 staff and is aiming to grow to 200 by the end of 2021.

The Northern Ireland Team delivers a wide range of technology and services for customers both locally and across the UK and Ireland. The technology skillsets span all of their key strategic growth areas – Enterprise Resource Planning, Digital Services and Enterprise Cloud.  The Belfast team also work closely with Technology Partners including Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

In 2020, Version 1 announced the establishment of a Digital Development Hub in Belfast and the creation of 70 specialist IT jobs. The team also works closely with local schools, universities and other agencies in establishing routes for under-represented groups and non-IT people to start a career in IT throughout Northern Ireland.

Version 1 is planning to expand rapidly using the Assured Skills Programme in Northern Ireland with the aim to hire 120 people. Assured Skills is a pre-employment training programme that will offer Version 1 a pipeline of skilled resources over the coming years.

Founded in Australia in 2017, The Lightyear Corporation offers cloud-based procurement and invoice processing automation software to large SMEs and mid-market companies across the world. Its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product increases workplace efficiencies and team collaboration through data extraction and customisable workflows for businesses.

In 2018 Lightyear selected Northern Ireland as the location for its global headquarters, locating inside Belfast’s largest tech hub community. Factors that influenced the company's decision to choose Northern Ireland included the region's credentials as a leading innovation hub for fintech and support from Invest NI.

In May 2024, Lightyear was acquired by The Access Group. The Access Group is a leading provider of business management software to mid-market organisations in the UK, Ireland, USA and Asia Pacific. The Access ERP division serves small growing and medium to large businesses, with tailored solutions in a range of industry verticals, including Construction, Supply Chain, Waste Management, Professional Services and Facilities Management. Their ERP software enables customers to streamline operations, allowing data to be shared seamlessly across different business operating systems.

This acquisition is a strategic move that will allow Lightyear to innovate faster with more resources and expertise and continue to deliver the same high service levels whilst scaling their global footprint.

Since its original investment, the company has continued to work with Invest NI’s teams in Northern Ireland and Australia to explore new industries and potential export markets for its services. Invest NI has offered trade assistance and support towards job creation, R&D and technical product support to develop its software product.

The skillsets of the Belfast team include fintech, software and dev-ops. It is an agile team that is focused on creating solutions for businesses and accountants.

In 2020 Lightyear announced that it was investing over £1million in its business and doubling the size of its Northern Ireland workforce, adding twelve new jobs.

Fortune 500 company considered 15 locations, then found talent in Northern Ireland.

In October 2019, Aflac opened a Global IT and Cyber Security Innovation Centre in Northern Ireland, committing to create 150 IT and cyber security jobs over five years. The purpose of the Belfast centre is to provide technical expertise and operational support to complement existing technical operations, helping support customers and global market growth.

Investing in advanced technologies is at the heart of Aflac’s strategy for delivering exceptional customer service, and the company found Northern Ireland particularly attractive due to its expertise in mobile and cloud development and intelligent surveillance technology. Its executive leadership were also pleased the new centre would provide an additional time zone in the UK – ideally situated between customers in the US and Asia – to enable expanded threat monitoring and response.

Aflac conducted extensive research to identify a location that would support its business strategy. It considered 15 locations in the US and internationally over more than a year.

Why Northern Ireland?

• The existing cluster of insurance companies, such as Allstate and Liberty Mutual
• Availability of insuretech talent
• Accessibility to the US and other global markets
• English-speaking workforce
• Cultural alignment
• The warm welcome

For Aflac, given the global competition for tech talent, access to the right talent and skills was critical.

Invest NI provided just over £1 million in financial support for job creation, and connected the company to Assured Skills, Northern Ireland’s 100% free, customised training and recruitment programme, available to investors to ensure they have access to a workforce trained for their specific needs.

Northern Ireland’s digital infrastructure helped the company recruit and on-board remotely—leadership called Belfast “resilient, reinventive and adaptable” and maintained the company’s commitment to growing the team there.

Exploristics is an award-winning global provider of bio-simulation software and biostatistics services for designing, analysing and reporting clinical trials and real-world studies.

Its cloud-based statistical and big data analytics platform, KerusCloud, gives researchers the chance to improve the success of their studies and transform the speed and efficiency with which new medicines are brought to market.

This unique software uses SaaS technology to enable data-driven decision-making by clinical project teams, optimising study design and analysis approaches during clinical protocol development. Exploristics can provide independent statistics consultancy or services to augment existing in-house statistics capabilities.

Planned Growth

Invest NI is working closely with Exploristics as it invests in future growth plans. The company routinely partner with organisations in the UK, North America, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and India and are interested in both expanding and consolidating its reach within these key areas. Future target markets also include Asia (e.g. China and Japan) and the Middle East. 

Invest NI has a network of overseas offices with advisors working  closely with companies located in the region interested in developing strategic trading partnerships and relationships with Northern Ireland’s life and health sciences companies.  

Northern Ireland Life & Health Sciences Sector

The region is at the forefront of medical innovation, specialising in the areas of Data Analytics & AI, Diagnostics, Digital Health, Precision Medicine, Clinical Trials and Medical devices. Employing 18,000 Northern Ireland’s vibrant cluster of 250+ companies are providing world-class solutions, exporting globally to over 140 countries thanks to a unique combination of talented people, world-class research and strong links between industry, academia and clinicians.

To find companies view our Life and Health Sciences company database.
 

Talent availability and a strong insurtech cluster were just some of the reasons why EverQuote chose Northern Ireland for its new software development centre.

EverQuote operates a leading online insurance marketplace, connecting consumers with insurance providers. The company's mission is to empower insurance shoppers to better protect life's most important assets—their family, property, and future. It is striving to be the largest source of insurance policies in the world, using data and technology to make insurance simpler, more affordable and personalised, ultimately reducing cost and risk.

In January 2021, EverQuote announced it would set up a software development centre in Northern Ireland, building a team with 70 people over three years. The roles include both recent graduates and staff experienced in software development, IT and product management.

EverQuote uses data science and machine learning to deliver a personalised, frictionless experience for its customers. To realise this vision, the company requires highly skilled software engineers and developers. The company’s CTO had previous experience working with tech teams in Northern Ireland and realised it was some of the best talent he had seen in his career.

EverQuote is on target to reach 50 employees by Summer 2022.  It has recently been awarded the Bronze Diversity Mark Accreditation for its commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion within the workplace. The Independent Assessment Panel recognised a high level of ambition with appropriate, measurable and time-bound targets. 

In July EverQuote is looking forward to welcoming the graduate class of 2022 and one year placement students. “This is an amazing opportunity to join our growing and talented team.” said Mark O’Connell, Site Lead in Belfast.  “At EverQuote we believe in lifelong learning. We provide learning platforms, innovation time and career coaching, as well as plenty of opportunities to get exposure to complex engineering problems at scale."

Leading US insurance agency taps into Northern Ireland talent to build first-of-its-kind tech platform - SimplyIOA.

Insurance Office of America (IOA) is an insurance agency that provides property and casualty, employee benefits, and personal lines insurance coverage to more than 72,000 clients. With $3 billion of insurance premium written annually, IOA is the 4th largest privately held insurance brokerage in the United States, with over 1,400 team members in 60 locations across the US and now, in Northern Ireland.

In September 2020, IOA opened a technology centre in Belfast for its new quote-and-buy home and auto insurance platform, SimplyIOA, the first independent insurance comparison service of its kind in the US. IOA initially planned on having 40 new software engineering and data science roles, but within nine months, because of the strong talent pool, the company decided to put a portion of its enterprise systems roles in Northern Ireland.

Today, the Belfast team also supports IOA’s enterprise wide digital technology services in areas including IT, infrastructure and operations, cyber security, data science and engineering, application development, and intelligent automation.

When IOA began looking at technology hubs across the US and Europe, Northern Ireland was at the top of the list. The region’s deep pool of highly skilled technology talent and the education system that cultivates this expertise were a perfect match for IOA’s need for experts in software engineering, cyber security, data science, and machine learning.

*Video filmed 22 September 2020

Once IOA decided to build its technology centre in Belfast, Invest NI took a consultative, collaborative approach to working with the company, making it easy for them to set down roots. Based on IOA’s five-year plan, Invest NI helped the company formulate growth strategies, advising on what support could be available for job creation, training and development, and R&D.

Invest NI provided IOA assistance to support new job creation and a variety of soft landing support. The company expects to expand its presence in Northern Ireland even further over the next five years. In the words of IOA Chairman & CEO Heath Ritenour, “This is the smallest we’re ever going to be.”

Northern Ireland company Almac Diagnostic Services offers bespoke precision medicine solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide.

Almac Diagnostic Services support global pharma and biotech companies with their precision medicine strategies from biomarker discovery through to companion diagnostic partnerships. With clinical and research laboratories in Europe and the USA, alongside strategic partnerships in China, Almac is enabling the support of global studies in Genomic Services, Clinical Trial Assays and Companion Diagnostics. 

The company also provides proprietary biomarker discovery software solutions that global biopharma clients can access to support novel analysis of their DNA and RNA data such as claraT – A unique software reporting solution for cancer researchers looking at gene expression data.

The claraT report is a unique software-driven solution, classifying biologically relevant gene expression signatures into a comprehensive report, using the Hallmarks of Cancer for easy interpretation – saving oncology researchers’ valuable time, whilst maximising the understanding of their dataset.

Planned Growth

Invest NI is working closely with Almac as it invests in future growth plans, including supporting the company with investment in R&D to aid the development of proprietary gene expression assays and biomarker discovery & testing solutions. The company routinely exports to global markets primarily in the USA, Europe and China and has future ambitions to also target the Japanese market.

Invest NI has a network of overseas offices with advisors working closely with companies located in the region interested in developing strategic trading partnerships and relationships with Northern Ireland’s life and health sciences companies. 

Northern Ireland Life & Health Sciences Sector

The region is at the forefront of medical innovation, specialising in the areas of Data Analytics & AI, Diagnostics, Digital Health, Precision Medicine, Clinical Trials and Medical devices. Employing 18,000 Northern Ireland’s vibrant cluster of 250+ companies are providing world-class solutions, exporting globally to over 140 countries thanks to a unique combination of talented people, world-class research and strong links between industry, academia and clinicians.

To find Life and Health Sciences companies view Northern Ireland’s company database:
https://www.investni.com/life-and-health-sciences-company-directory
 

NASDAQ-listed Rapid7 counts cyber security hub Belfast among its 14 global locations. 

More than 10,000 companies across 125 countries– including 52% of the Fortune 100 – rely on Rapid7’s cyber security software and services to keep their IT safe and secure.

Rapid7 first arrived on Northern Ireland’s technology scene in 2014. Despite having offices across the Americas, IMEA and APAC, the company needed a well-trained workforce of engineering, development and customer support professionals to service its growing client base – in particular, their European customers.

The company initially set up a software innovation centre in Belfast, creating 75 highly skilled jobs and dozens of student placement opportunities. The investment helped them tap into the region’s world-class technology talent and unique Assured Skills programme, which is free for investors and helps companies train and recruit employees with specific skills that fulfil their business needs.

In early 2020, Rapid7 announced plans to double its workforce in the region, adding 200 new roles and signing a 10-year lease on a larger office space. After going remote during the pandemic, Rapid7 was able to open its expanded Belfast office in early 2021.

Michael Keimig, Rapid7’s Global Real Estate Senior Manager, said the new 49,000-square-feet space in Chichester House signals the company’s long-term commitment to Northern Ireland: “We are committed to expanding our base within the Belfast cyber security hub, solidifying our position to help our European clients and to attract the best cyber security talent … We want this office to not only house our current employees, but also those we’ll be bringing on as part of future expansion in the region.”

Rapid7 was drawn to Northern Ireland’s unique, globally recognised cyber security ecosystem, which includes both international firms and innovative, home-grown start-ups. The sector continues to grow thanks to the region’s compelling combination of technical talent, cost competitiveness, and breadth of academic R&D – Northern Ireland is home to the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast, the UK’s official cyber security knowledge centre and commercialisation hub.

The company also utilised support from Invest Northern Ireland towards new job creation, and a range of soft landing support.