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Tech firm Appirio plans move, 400 new hires in Indy

Jeff Swiatek
jeff.swiatek@indystar.com

Tech firm Appirio wants to bulk up its Indianapolis workforce, with plans to hire as many as 426 more Hoosiers in the next five years.

The company first set up shop in Indianapolis in 2012 and has grown its local workforce from 20 people to 151. Now it wants to quadruple that local workforce to up to 577 employees by 2020.

Appirio, a provider of cloud computing services, including crowdsourcing, also said Friday it will move its headquarters to Indianapolis from San Francisco. The company’s local offices are Downtown in Pan Am Plaza, where it recently doubled its leased space to 25,000 square feet.

All told, the company employs about 1,200 employees, whom it dubs Appirians, with other offices in Dublin, London, Tokyo and Jaipur, India.

Appirio recruits new hires heavily from Indiana colleges. “The designation of Indianapolis as our headquarters reflects the office’s important role as a global training center and recruiting hub as we look to support our growing list of customers and partners,” said Chris Barbin, chief executive officer of Appirio.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp., which announced Appirio’s plans, has offered it up to $3.85 million in state tax credits and up to $150,000 in training grants if it carries out its hiring.

Appirio said its jobs pay average salaries more than 75 percent higher than the state’s average wage.

The company’s customers include Cardinal Health, Yahoo!, Starbucks, Facebook and IBM.

The city of Indianapolis will propose additional incentives to Appirio through the Metropolitan Development Commission.

“Indianapolis is becoming a hotbed of talent in the tech sector, and companies like Appirio are recognizing the quality of our workforce as well as the benefits of our business friendly environment,” Mayor Greg Ballard said in a statement.

Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 44-6483. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffSwiatek.