The roles will cover multiple disciplines including all phases of game design, marketing, finance, HR and business development, and will be the first stage of a much larger hiring plan. The announcement was made by Minister for Jobs Mr. Richard Bruton T.D. at Google’s European Headquarters in Dublin and coincides with the availability of KamaGames’ games in the Google Play Store.
The investment is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland. Making the announcement Minister Bruton said: “Growing Ireland’s vibrant technology cluster is a key aim of the Action Plan for Jobs, and in recent years we have seen some major wins and some really impressive growth in this area. Today’s announcement that Kama Games, an exciting and rapidly growing app developer, have committed to growing their workforce in Dublin is another great boost for the tech sector in the city. The fact that this announcement has come with support from a collaboration with Google shows the immense value of developing a technology cluster in Ireland. I wish Danny and the team every success with this exciting project”.
“As we look to expand into new markets we will agressively increase our headcount here in Dublin, bringing up to 50 jobs in the next year and double this again before the end of 2018” said Danny Hammett, KamaGames CEO. “We have reached a number of important milestones since we set up our business including reaching 80 million+ players worldwide and 1 million+ active daily users. Our business growth plans include continued game development with global brand partnerships, such as Manchester United Football Club, and additional continued success through aggressive growth in emerging markets such as ASIAPAC and Latin America.
He added, “We selected Ireland for our headquarters for a number reasons, it’s pro business environment, robust post-secondary educational system, availability of commercial real estate and most importantly the availability of a highly skilled workforce and a good quality of life for our employees. We’re excited about the growth opportunities ahead and we’re so pleased to be doing this in Ireland.”
Googles’ Head of Online Partnerships for EMEA, Anthony Nakache is excited at the prospect of working with KamaGames, he said "It's a really exciting time in the app space. We are delighted to help developers like KamaGames compete on a global stage and will continue to do so through our recently launched EMEAppHub at our Dublin Campus. The time is now for EMEA developers and Google is committed to supporting them to capture the opportunity ahead."
Welcoming the announcement Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA said “Online gaming continues to grow in popularity due to the ever increasing use of mobile devices - this affords KamaGames huge growth opportunities globally. KamaGames’ plan to establish games development teams in Ireland is welcome news and will add to the technology cluster in Ireland.”
The new jobs created will be in the areas of marketing, finance, operations and design, and new recruits will take part in Google’s EMEA AppHub. AppHub is a new initiative by Google to create a pan-EMEA Apps Centre of Excellence for Developers. Google is providing a dedicated space and forum, where emerging EMEA based developers can meet, exchange ideas, knowledge and collaborate to accelerate the success of their business.