Losses narrow at Irish arm of software company Zendesk

Revenues rose by 32% last year to €27.1m as losses fall from €3.03m to €1.96m

Zendesk officially moved premises to a six-storey standalone block near the Grand Canal in June.
Zendesk officially moved premises to a six-storey standalone block near the Grand Canal in June.

Zendesk, a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based customer service company that last year announced plans to take on an additional 300 people in Ireland, saw turnover jump by a third at its Irish operations in 2017.

Accounts recently lodged with the Companies Registration Office show Zendesk International Limited, which is headquartered in Dublin, show a 32 per cent rise in revenues from €20.5 million to €27.1 million.

The accounts also reveal that losses after taxation fell from €3.03 million to €1.96 million.

The San Francisco-headquartered company, which was founded by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It now has more than 2,000 employees worldwide, including more than 200 in Ireland.

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In July 2017, Zendesk announced the signing of a lease for 55 Charlemont Place, a six-storey standalone block on the edge of the Grand Canal in Dublin and said it intended to take headcount to more than 500 within three to four years.

Helpdesk service

The accounts show the company has agreed a 12-year non-cancellable lease worth €32 million for the 58,000 square foot office, which became its official home in June.

Zendesk’s software allows organisations to provide helpdesk service across multiple channels. The company has more than 125,000 paid customer accounts globally in more than 150 countries and territories. More than 35,000 paid customer accounts are in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

The company employed 224 people in Ireland at the end of last year, up from 178 in 2016. Staff costs rose to €20 million from €16.4 million. This includes a share-based payment of €4.4 million.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist