Services

European Presence

There comes a time in every company’s journey that it needs to reach new markets. To do this effectively, it needs a local presence. For any company expanding its international footprint, Europe is an obvious destination. Home to an estimated 447.7 million consumers, it is a sophisticated, mature market that is open to new products and services. But serving customers in Europe requires a direct presence on the continent itself. So, the next question is: where? We believe Ireland is that place.

Ireland’s Advantage

For North American and APAC headquartered companies, Ireland has the advantage of being English-speaking, as well as being a committed member of the European Union. This makes it the ideal launch-pad into the European market, for business growth and customer operations, world-class manufacturing, or research, development and innovation. Ireland is socially diverse, politically stable and economically strong. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ireland was the Eurozone’s fastest growing economy and ahead of the OECD average.

In terms of talent, culture, and cost, Ireland compares very favourably to other countries across Europe. Its business-friendly environment and common law jurisdiction makes it easy to navigate for North American and Asia Pacific (APAC) companies, offering many attractive investment incentives for activities like R&D. For employers, Ireland provides access to a skilled talent pool, drawn from its existing industrial and educational base, and beyond. In addition, Ireland is renowned the world over for its open, welcoming culture. The country is home to an increasingly multicultural and diverse society, so it’s a highly attractive destination for key hires who are relocating from other countries. Competitive living costs mean a person can live well for less money in Irish cities than in other global tech hubs like San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, or London.

Decision Time

Making the decision to invest in a country is never easy. Any business that wants to succeed in their field needs to find the best place to lay the foundations for growth to happen. Every detail is important. You have several decisions to make, and our goal is to make those crucial early decisions as simple and straightforward as possible.

Evaluating how to expand

As your company looks outside of your home country, the starting point is evaluating what markets you want to be in, when and how will you serve them, and which locations to consider expanding into. There is a lot of information required to benchmark what might be the right locations for your business.

Boots on the ground

Your approach will depend on your stage of growth: public or pre-IPO companies typically hire a head of Europe or country manager who usually has authority over local strategy. For companies in customer acquisition mode, hiring a VP of sales may be a more logical step. For engineering focused operations, a landing team may be the fastest way to ramp up. Ireland’s ready availability of suitable technical, managerial and multilingual talent enables companies to quickly scale a team.

Making your choice

Think about how big your Irish operation is likely to be: what functions do you intend to carry out there? Will you need them all on day one? How big is your anticipated headcount? How fast will you need to scale?

Access to talent

How do you plan to recruit? Ireland doesn’t just have a skilled domestic labour force. As an EU member, Ireland benefits from access to a potential visa-free labour market of close to 210 million people from across the continent. It already has Europe’s fastest growing tech worker population and it has processes to help companies looking to recruit skilled workers from outside the European Union.

Legal

Ireland’s legal system is based on common law, so it has many aspects that North American and APAC legal practitioners will find familiar. As an EU member, Ireland also implements regulations and laws made at European Union level. The process for incorporating a company in Ireland is transparent, fast and straightforward. The strong legal and regulatory landscape makes Ireland an attractive and stable place to do business.

Human Resources

For companies at any stage of their growth, access to talent is vital. Ireland offers the best of both worlds: it has the youngest population in Europe (one-third is under 25 years of age) and has a highly educated workforce; 56.3% of 30-34 year olds in Ireland have a third-level qualification, compared to the EU average of 40.7%. Ireland also attracts top talent from across the European Union, while the visa process for workers outside the EU is very streamlined.

Banking

Ireland has several banks and financial institutions for establishing corporate business banking facilities, both domestically headquartered banks and local divisions of global banks. New companies typically need to complete a bank mandate that has been approved by a resolution of the company directors. The company will also need to comply with KYC and AML banking rules. eurHQ can arrange introductions to help achieve a faster landing.

Corporate Tax Benefits

Ireland’s corporate tax rate is 12.5%. This rate applies to all Irish corporate trading profits

Ireland offers generous tax incentives for research and development and an excellent intellectual property regime. A 25% tax credit is available for all qualifying R&D activity. It can be combined with other grant funding from Government and is calculated on the company spend, net of grant aid.

As well as supporting a new investor’s upfront spend in R&D through tax credits and grants, the Irish Government also operates the ‘Knowledge Development Box’ initiative that can increase a company’s after-tax profits on any patents and qualifying IP generated from R&D activity that takes place in Ireland. The KDB offers a 50% reduction in the standard corporate tax rate and is open to all companies engaged in research, development and innovation activities.

Step-by-step support

Making the decision to invest in a country is never easy. Any business that wants to succeed in their field needs to find the best place to lay the foundations for growth. Every detail is important, from the quantity of office space and domestic housing to international air links and taxation rates. Our goal is to make those crucial decisions as simple and straightforward as possible.

Next steps

So, if you’re considering investing abroad, talk to us about what Ireland can do for your business. Once you complete your site visit, you prepare a detailed investment project proposal which we present to our management and board. Once that’s approved, everything swings into action to get you up and running on Irish soil. Depending on the company and the project, this can take as little as six to 10 weeks from first contact to your company being up and running from their new European base in Ireland.