American technology company sets up European engineering headquarters in the historical Centre

Five9 provides cloud solutions for call centres and will be based in Porto where, from a new research and development hub, it will create solutions in the areas of artificial intelligence, software engineering, and cloud operations. The American technology company expects to have 300 people working in the offices located in the Historic Centre.

In a statement to the newspaper ECO, Five9, which has over 2,500 customers worldwide, believes that the facility in Porto, its engineering headquarters in Europe, will “help scale the company's growing international presence”.

Currently with about a hundred people working in the Portuguese site, the company says that, in the medium term, it expects to go up to 300 employees. For Porto, the setting up of a new fantastic centre for professional and customer support is also in the works.

Porto, the Invicta (unconquered) city, as the “clear” choice is explained by Five9 Managing Director Mike Burkland: “The city is an emerging, well-connected technology hub with a large engineering talent base, and it will enable us to continue our mission of bringing innovation in customer experience and business transformation to companies around the world.”

Speaking to Lusa, the Managing Director added that “frankly, we also wanted to have a place that was attractive to our employees and family” and this “is a great place to live,” he said.

In the joint statement, the outgoing president of the Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency (AICEP), Luís Castro Henriques, points out that “Porto is proving its attractiveness for IT companies due to a pool of highly qualified talent and a multilingual and multicultural work environment.”

The expansion of the North American technology company to Europe over the last two years has seen the opening of data centres in the Netherlands and Frankfurt, in order to meet the growing demand of global corporate customers, who come not only from Europe, but also from the United States, the Middle East, and Africa.