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Columbus, Ohio – Columbus 2020, the economic development organization for the 11-county Columbus Region, today announced that Smartrac Technology Group, a global leader in RFID products and IoT solutions, plans to significantly expand into the Region. The company, headquartered in the Netherlands, will invest a substantial amount, resulting in 30 new jobs over the next three years. Hiring for program and portfolio management, research and innovation, and solutions development positions will begin immediately. A specific location within the Columbus Region has not yet been determined.
Smartrac is a global success story with a comprehensive regional presence in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. With this investment, the technology leader is now concentrating its U.S. East Coast expansion in the Columbus Region. Here, the company has found the ideal location and conditions to further strengthen its capabilities and workforce, and provide its many business customers with a comprehensive set of award-winning hardware and software IoT solutions for product digitization, authentication, sensing, tracking and consumer engagement, with integration to enterprise systems such as ERP and CRM.
“The Columbus Region offers a vibrant tech community, a startup ecosystem and access to excellent academic and research institutions such as Battelle, The Ohio State University and the Columbus College of Art and Design. These characteristics provide the capabilities we’re looking for and create a talent pipeline that can fulfill our needs,” said Dinesh Dhamija, chief technology officer at Smartrac. “We looked for a place with a strong startup culture, and the Columbus Region was a standout choice as the emerging smart city leader and home of innovative software entrepreneurs.”
Smartrac will primarily augment its software, solutions innovation and technology portfolio management functions in the Columbus Region, with support for other company operations.
“Smartrac is well established in several U.S. locations, but it chose to build a new software development center here in the Columbus Region,” said Ted Griffith, managing director for information technology at JobsOhio. “We and our partners at Columbus 2020 welcome the confidence in Ohio’s strong IoT economy that this investment demonstrates, as well as the 30 new IT jobs Smartrac is bringing to the Region.”
The Columbus Region has become an IoT and smart city leader thanks to the D.O.T. Smart City Grant (which Columbus won in 2016), its dynamic IT ecosystem, as well as the growth of local tech jobs thanks to the attraction of IoT companies like Smartrac. In fact, Columbus was ranked No. 1 on SmartAsset’s list of “The Best American Cities to Work in Tech in 2017.”
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About Columbus 2020
As the economic development organization for the Columbus Region, Columbus 2020’s mission is to generate opportunity and build capacity for economic growth across 11 Central Ohio counties. In 2010, hundreds of business and community leaders developed the Columbus 2020 Regional Growth Strategy, and the Columbus Region is now experiencing the strongest decade of growth in its history. The Columbus 2020 team conducts business outreach, promotes the Columbus Region to market-leading companies around the world, conducts customized research to better understand the Columbus Region’s competitiveness, and works to leverage public, private and institutional partnerships. Funding is received from
more than 300 private organizations, local governments, academic institutions and JobsOhio. Learn more at ColumbusRegion.com.
About Smartrac
Smartrac is a leading vendor of RFID products and IoT solutions, providing both ready-made and customized offerings. We make products smart, and enable businesses to identify, authenticate, track and complement products and solutions. Our portfolio is used in a wide array of applications, such as animal identification, automation, automotive, brand experience, industry, library and media management, laundry, logistics, retail, supply chain management, and many more. Leveraging our global Research & Development Centers, production and sales network, and IoT-enablement platform Smart Cosmos, we embed intelligence into physical products, empowering the ecosystem of connected things. Smartrac has its registered headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.smartrac-group.com, follow Smartrac on Twitter, or sign up for a quarterly newsletter.
Columbus 2020 Media Contact
Irene Alvarez
614-225-6941
ia@columbusregion.com
Smartrac Media Contact
Karin Fabri
+49 711 656 9260
karin.fabri@smartrac-group.com