A new report by Index Ventures has named Dublin as the second most preferred location in Europe for US Start-ups.
The San Francisco based global venture capital firm ranked each European country on number of factors including Salary, Cost, Corporation tax and availability of Senior Talent.
Dublin ranked 1st alongside London for ease of set up. Dublin and Berlin were named the cheapest cities to operate in. Dublin and London came out on top for the availability of junior hires with the report noting a deep multilingual talent pool in both cities.
Dublin also scored high for the availability of senior hires with the greatest availability in London for senior talent followed by Dublin and Amsterdam. Dublin also received a high grade for its competitive corporation tax at 12.5%.
When it comes to setting up the headquarters in Europe, London was the most popular location. London was the choice of 17 of the 31 Index-backed companies that were surveyed. The U.K.’s capital city is not only Europe’s wealthiest and most cosmopolitan, but its high concentration of financial companies and other big corporations with ample IT budgets make it the natural choice for any company in the fintech or enterprise space.
According to the report, London also boasts the deepest pool of tech talent in all of Europe, and because of the shared language, it is the most attractive relocation destination for talent from the U.S.
However, disadvantages of setting up in London included high costs, salaries, office space and the cost of living, as well as more recently Brexit-induced uncertainty. This Brexit uncertainty could prove an advantage for Ireland.
According to the report, "Dublin came in as the second-most preferred city for European headquarters. Four Index companies (Dropbox, Zendesk, Slack and Squarespace) chose Dublin, which has for 20 years been the choice of large U.S. tech companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce with strong customer support and inside sales needs. It also has the lowest corporate taxes in Europe (12%). So if customer support is your priority, which often it is, start with Dublin."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
