The regional attraction: Cutting-edge tech companies are settling in Cork, Limerick and Galway

Balanced regional development is a priority for both the Government and the American Chamber of Commerce, and multinational companies are increasingly choosing to locate in regional locations. Last year, 53 per cent of all FDI went to regional locations. Meanwhile, we are also seeing the emergence of industry clusters in various regions such as pharma and ICT in Cork, med-tech in Galway, and engineering in Limerick and the Midwest.

Communications technology specialist Qualcomm chose to locate in Cork for a variety of reasons, most notably the availability of highly qualified talent and the existence of a very well developed research ecosystem.

“Qualcomm is the world’s number one wireless communications company,” says senior director of engineering Paul Kelleher. “Our Snapdragon system on chip (SOC) suite of products does everything in a mobile phone. We recently diversified into adjacent markets such as the automotive sector and IoT [Internet of Things]. We see the future as connecting everything to everything – cars, smart cities and so on.”

The decision to locate in Cork goes back a decade. “Back in 2012 and 2013, the company was looking for a new site in Europe,” Kelleher explains. “This would be the first greenfield site in a long time. Qualcomm usually acquired other companies and tended not to start new sites from scratch. The company visited a few cities, had conversations with IDA and Enterprise Ireland and settled on Cork. Talent availability and having UCC, Munster Technological University (MTU) and the Tyndall Institute all located here contributed to the decision to set up and build global technology delivery centre here in Cork.”

The company has grown rapidly since then and now employs 420 people, 360 of them engineers. In late 2020, the company announced a further €78 million in a new research and development centre in Cork. “We have experienced phenomenal growth over the last five years and teams based here contribute to every single chip that Qualcomm delivers. We been very successful here in Cork and been very lucky to have great support from the IDA. The universities – UCC, UCD, Queen’s, UL, MTU, and Waterford – have all contributed talent. We are also able to get talent from outside Ireland and Europe. Brexit has helped us as it allows talent to come to Ireland.”

The location itself is important. “Cork is a smaller city and much more accessible than big cities,” he says. “New employees like it. We are in a brand-new building on Penrose Dock. It’s a beautiful building and a place where people want to work. It has access to all the facilities of the city. That makes it easy to come and work here. Cork is well placed to support companies like Qualcomm. Other multinational companies considering Cork can look at what we have achieved starting up from scratch here. There is also a major technology hub developing in the Cork and Munster region and that helps too.”

Analog Devices

It might surprise some people to learn that Ireland’s longest-established semiconductor company is not located in Leixlip, it’s in Limerick. And we probably interact with the company’s products every day without being aware of it.

“Analog Devices is a b2b company,” says Shane Geary, vice-president Internal Manufacturing and general manager at Analog Devices Limerick. “You don’t see our brand on the outside of boxes, but you find our chips everywhere.”

He explains that Analog designs and delivers the chips that turn cars on and off, operate smart watches and smartphones, make 5G mobile networks operate and much more besides.

Founded in 1965 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company now has annual sales of $10 billion and employs 25,000 people worldwide. “We have always gravitated towards high-performance end of market, and we have always invested in R&D,” says Geary. “About 18 to 19 per cent of revenue is invested in R&D. Only the pharma industry is on a par with that. We serve 125,000 customers around the world with 75,000 different products. We have created three products a day for the entire existence of the company. It’s a fantastic time for industry – everything from cars to consumer products are driven by semiconductors.”

The company arrived in Ireland in 1976. “We brought the most complex manufacturing processes in the world to Ireland in the mid-1970s. We have had an emphasis on R&D here from day one. That was a challenge when there was no chip industry here. But we are seeing long-service employees retire now. Those people have helped us develop over 1,000 US patents here. We now have 1,200 employees in Limerick, 100 in Cork and 100 in Dublin.”

What brought Analog to Limerick in 1976 is much the same as what brings companies to the region now, he adds. “Three factors probably brought us here. The government support with IDA as the lead agency. The availability of talent with graduates coming out of UL. We also managed to convince UL president Ed Walsh to change some engineering courses to incorporated some of what we needed. The corporation tax rate was important as well. When you take the three factors together it’s very powerful. When I speak to executives of other firms about coming to the region, those three factors are still important to them.”

Signify Ireland Technology

Among the newest kids on the FDI block is Signify Ireland Technology, which announced plans to locate in Galway earlier this year. “This is our first foray outside of the US,” says Elaine Murphy, site lead and vice-president with the company. We are setting up an R&D centre in Galway city and we have a beautiful office in Bonham Quay.”

Founded in 2017, Signify Health is a technology-enabled services company whose mission is to lead the transformation of the US healthcare system to one that aligns payers, providers and patients to achieve the best health outcomes for individuals.

“Our mission is to transform the way healthcare is paid for,” Murphy adds. “We are using data to drive efficiencies in healthcare. We look at the system through a wider lens. It’s not just a moment in time but a longitudinal journey for the patient. We use the wider picture to deliver better outcomes for patients.”

Galway is going to be a key R&D site for Signify, which will eventually employ 125 people, with 50 of them in place by Christmas. “We have hired 20 people so far and nine of them have already started working with us,” she says. “We are operating in the Porter Shed in Galway at present. That’s a fantastic space for start-ups and scale-ups.”

As with many other FDI companies in the regions, talent availability was instrumental to the decision to locate here. “The timing was right for us. Talent is in such demand, post-pandemic, and candidates want to get involved in something with values they share. Working for Signify, people can close up their laptops at the end of the day knowing they have changed somebody’s life for the better.”

“The talent pool here and the ability to partner with academia is very important. We are also in a position where we can cluster with other companies in the medtech and healthcare space. Galway is a phenomenal, vibrant city and the availability of real estate is good.

“Galway Chamber of Commerce is very engaged on the future development of the city and has developed the Future Galway Future West initiative led by Mark Gantly, formerly of HP Galway, to bring together the best of Galway to better access ideas and capital to accelerate key projects in the city and region.”