Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster has announced that US based Proofpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) is creating 94 new jobs in Belfast in an investment of more than £6million.
With global headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, Proofpoint, Inc. is a leading security-as-a-service vendor that delivers data protection solutions. The Belfast operation will become the Research and Development and Operations Centre for Proofpoint Essentials and will act as an Operations and Support Hub for Proofpoint’s global customer base in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Proofpoint Essentials is a suite of SaaS security and compliance solutions specifically designed for small- and medium- sized enterprises.
Arlene Foster said: “This investment follows Proofpoint Inc.’s acquisition of local company, Mail Distiller Limited, last year. They also attended the Northern Ireland Investment Conference last October. Proofpoint recognised the benefits of establishing a European centre here, including the availability of high quality technical and sales staff, as well as the high-speed telecoms links between Northern Ireland, North America and Europe.
“I had the pleasure of meeting with Proofpoint’s CEO Gary Steele during my visit to the US last month and took the opportunity to highlight the strength of our growing IT sector and our track-record of partnership working between our ICT and academic sectors. I am delighted to be able to make this announcement so soon after that meeting.”
Gary Steele, CEO of Proofpoint Inc, said: “Proofpoint Essentials leverages the same core Proofpoint technology used by the world’s largest and most successful, security conscious companies to benefit a new set of customers served through broad security resellers and MSP partners who are currently experiencing a lot of pain.
“In Belfast our strategic objective is to broaden the distribution and support networks for our current suite of products. The acquisition of Mail Distiller provided us with a platform to grow the small and medium sized businesses segment of our business.
“With the support of Invest NI, we have committed to make a strategic investment in Northern Ireland, to drive innovation through Proofpoint Essentials, and to establish a base of customer and network support operations for EMEA.
“We have been very impressed with the technology ecosystem in Northern Ireland, which shares many of the characteristics of Silicon Valley, including access to world-class cyber-security research at Queen’s University.
“We are very grateful for the advice and support we have received from Invest NI and Minister Foster.”
Invest NI has offered more than £600,000 of support for the new jobs.
Following the acquisition of Mail Distiller Limited by Proofpoint Limited, a wholly-owned UK subsidiary of California-based Proofpoint, Inc., Mail Distiller Limited changed its name to Proofpoint NI Limited.
Proofpoint NI Limited currently employs eighteen people at its new premises in Weaver’s Court in Belfast. The new jobs are expected to be in place by the end of 2016.
