LiveTiles picks Rochester to establish $17M hub
Software firm LiveTiles has picked Rochester’s Downtown Innovation Zone for its North American Intelligent User Experience hub, creating at least 500 jobs over a five-year period. The $17 million project is expected to be completed in 2023.
Empire State Development will provide up to $7 million for the transformative project—the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative and the Excelsior Tax Credit Program each will provide grants of $3.5 million, in exchange for job creation commitments. These investments will support the facility’s renovation, furnishing and the purchase of equipment including computers and servers.
Dan Diefendorf, LiveTiles’ SVP for the Americas, was instrumental in the selection of Rochester for the company’s IUX Hub.
“Being a Brighton resident I am witnessing first-hand how the downtown revitalization and the state-of-the-art technical curricula at local universities, such as RIT in Rochester, are setting a strong foundation for substantial growth in this region,” he said. “Coupling that with the city’s close proximity to our NYC headquarters, made Rochester the clear leader in the national search for our IUX Hub.”
The company chose the city of Rochester over North Carolina and other locations in the Eastern United States, Gov. Cuomo’s office said. LiveTiles already has hired 60 employees for its Rochester office.
The new IUX hub will be located in Rochester’s High Falls District at 61 Commercial Street. The expansion project will include outfitting the new facility and hiring new employees. Staff will range from client-side teams such as customer success managers and business development roles, to technical teams such as solution engineers and artificial intelligence deployment specialists. These teams will also support the rollout of additional platform offerings that are currently under development.
LiveTiles, which was established in Australia in 2014 and is now based in New York City, has offices on three continents. It develops software that is user-centric and helps organizations and businesses collaborate more easily through their suite of complementing products that serve small, medium and enterprise businesses across all industries. The company’s applications give both developers and business users tools to easily create dashboards, employee portals, and corporate intranets that are enhanced by artificial intelligence and analytics features.
LiveTiles CEO Karl Redenbach said: “As we continue through this phase of extended, rapid advancement, we considered many cities for the base of our expansion, not just nationally, but globally. Rochester quickly became the standout choice. The city, as well as New York State, are looking for the same considered growth as LiveTiles, with an eye to both leading-edge innovation and longevity.”