Xero strengthens Australian presence with new office
Xero has announced it is expanding its presence in Australia with a new office opening in Canberra.
As part of the opening of the new office, 15 new staff will take Xero's Australian staff numbers to a total of 144 across five offices. The staff are a team of developers that have been working with Xero since their company, Paycycle, a small payroll cloud software provider, was acquired by the New Zealand cloud computing software firm in 2011.
Xero Australia managing director Chris Ridd said the opening of the office will tap into the talent pool that exists in Canberra, which is "unexpected".
"It has been a real bonus to pick up some very experienced developers that continue to build out payroll for the Australian market," he said.
"We're also going to use that team to build payroll for the New Zealand market."
There are plans a number of additional developer roles will be made available in the second half of the year, with Ridd noting that payroll development now forms part of the company's core product development, and it is therefore necessary "to continue to invest in people, and we expect that team will continue to grow in the months and years ahead".
Ridd said during a time when public sector jobs are under threat following this year's federal budget announcement, Xero is committed to creating employment opportunities in the ACT.
"We see the value in investing in our ACT partners and customers, and continuing to grow our presence in the region," he said.
"We are dedicated to providing localised support across Australian business hubs, such as the ACT, that have shown a real eagerness to adopt cloud based accounting software."
Customers in Australia now exceed 120,000, according to the company.
Xero Limited said in May 2014 it hit a monthly recurring subscription revenues of NZ$8.6 million, passing NZ$100 million in annualised revenue for the first time. The company also reported full year operating revenue to March 2014 was NZ$70.1 million.
Ridd attributed the growth to the continued execution of its cloud strategy in the small business sector.
"We're just really riding the wave of enormous uptake of cloud computing within the small business sector," he said.
"It proves that the model of being able to monetise with small businesses is really starting to play out.
"Behind our success of course is that, in Australia in particular, there are now over 120,000 small businesses that are benefiting from moving to the cloud, which means they can reduce costs and they're way more productive than using desktop systems."