Covid app firm secures new investment

NearForm is planning to expand across North America and Europe

NearForm's sourcode for their Covid app is now being used for free by public health authorities all over the world.

The Waterford tech firm who developed Covid tracker phone apps for Ireland, Scotland and a number of US States has secured a multi-million investment from Columbia Capital to support market penetration into North America and Europe.

Headquartered in Tramore, NearForm develops software to help corporate and public sector companies scale their platforms. The company produced a working prototype of the Covid tracing app in just ten days and helped the Irish Government deploy it publicly within four months. With the support of the state, their code is now being used for free by public health authorities all over the world including Northern Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and the US states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Outside of Covid, the firm counts Walmart, IBM and Condé Nast amongst their clients.

NearForm said it will use the additional capital to scale operations and accelerate recruitment in sales, marketing, engineering and design, across North America and Europe to meet market demand from companies seeking digital solutions. The company currently employs more than 150 people.

“The unprecedented events of 2020 have shown that both public and private sector companies must react quickly to meet the challenges of today’s world," Cian Ó Maidín, Founder and CEO of NearForm said.

"NearForm was founded on the belief that open source technology has become best practice for delivering cost-effective, scalable and secure digital platforms at speed for the most challenging projects. Our open-source software solutions are already used by many of the world’s biggest companies, like Facebook, Netflix, and Uber, and can help others meet consumers' digital expectations faster than traditional methods.” said Cian Ó Maidín, Founder and CEO of NearForm.

Jason Booma, Partner at Columbia Capital said NearForm has an engineering-led culture that translates to achieving positive and cost-effective customer outcomes. 

"We look forward to working with the company as it scales and expands globally," he said. 

“As digital becomes the default form of interface for both commercial and civic organisations, creating software stacks that emphasise agility can unlock attractive options for even those with the most complex enterprise architectures."