FDI of the Month

FDI of the Month September 2018: revenues surge at HubSpot Ireland

By Business & Finance
03 October 2018
Christian Kinnear, VP and  Managing Director EMEA, HubSpot speaks at a Business & Finance event.

Hubspot Ireland recorded a leap in turnover from €42.7m in 2016 to €70.6m last year, with growth in subscriptions at the Irish subsidiary of the US marketing software firm. 

HubSpot opened its European headquarters in Dublin in 2013 and in 2014 recorded revenues of €10.5m—it has been a dramatic ascent to the latest figures. From its original workforce of 150, it now employs over 500 people in the Irish subsidiary, known locally as ‘DubSpot’. 

In 2016 HubSpot announced a commitment to hiring an additional 320 Dublin-based employees over the following three years, and to accommodate the ambitious growth plans opened its 26,000 sq ft office at 1 Dockland Central. 

hubspot-living-room-working

This year, they added more space, with a new floor dedicated to Marketing, People Operations and Localization teams and a new ground floor space at the 2 Dockland Central location, complete with the 275-seater Higgins Conference Centre and Events Space, named after the 9th President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

It was reported during September that further expansion is afoot and a deal may soon be signed with Hibernia Reit to lease a 115,000 sq ft space at 1 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, which is due to be completed within the coming months. This move would suggest further substantial growth of the workforce, as the new office space would have capacity to accommodate 900 staff. 

Inspirational leadership

Earlier this yearHubSpot was named a Best Workplace by Great Place to Work Ireland. And last year, in a survey compiled by careers website Glassdoor, HubSpot ranked second best tech company to work for in Dublin, just behind Facebook, with 94 per cent of current and former employees saying they would recommend it.

HubSpot’s Dublin operation is headed up by Christian Kinnear. He joined in October 2015 as Director of Sales, and quickly proving his abilities as a cross-functional leader was appointed EMEA Managing Director. In July of this year, his new title was announced as Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA.

Christian Kinnear, VP and Managing Director, EMEA

 

On the announcement, Jeetu Mahtani, SVP and Managing Director, International at HubSpot said:

From building an impressive business growth model in our Dublin office, expanding our reach in new markets, to helping to hire many of our regional and segment leaders, Christian has played a significant role in getting HubSpot to the global company it is today. We can’t wait to see what he achieves as Vice President and Managing Director.”

An innovative operation 

Up until recently, the primary foci of the Dublin operation were customer relationship management, sales and marketing tools. A move towards greater efforts in the software development space has paid off with the success of ServiceHub, a new platform focusing on customer service. 

ServiceHub comes with tools for automated customer feedback and tracking, sentiment analysis and churn forecasting, testimonial capturing and knowledge management.

HubSpot history

HubSpot is a leading CRM, marketing, sales, and customer experience platform, founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shan in 2006 when they were both graduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The pair set out to create an online marketing platform that would replace outdated marketing techniques like direct mail and cold calling. Within 10 years—by 2016—it had grown to  over 1,500 employees, 23,226 customers, and $271 million in revenue. The company now has more than 48,000 customers in over 100 countries, with full year revenues of $375.6m in 2017. The guidance for global revenues for 2018 given at the time was expected to be in the range of $481 million to $485 million.