It’s a little clichéd to say that Nearform have gone from ‘strength to strength’, but they really are a company who’ve managed to grow into a real success story. They have grown from a small firm in Tramore, Co.Waterford to a firm which is now located in more than 20 countries worldwide, and play a pivotal role in their industry.

Co-founded in 2011 by Tramore man Cian Ó Maidín, they landed their first major client in 2012, when they worked with Condé Nast. Since then, they’ve worked with some of the world’s other leading media organisations to deliver game-changing customer experience solutions including NY Times, New York Magazine, VICE Magazine, London Times, and the Ambassador Theatre Group in London.

Although they are headquartered in Tramore, Co. Waterford, they are located across more than 20 countries worldwide and work with clients both on-site and off-site.

Their success can be attributed to being the first professional services software company in Europe to go all-in on node.js and these days they contribute over 30% of all code written in Node V10 worldwide.

Known for their focus on high-performance accelerated innovation, Nearform achieved worldwide recognition in 2020 when they developed the Covid-19 Tracker App in Ireland. They then went on to build apps for other international jurisdictions including several US states and parts of the UK, to help in the fight against Covid-19.

Nearform CEO Cian Ó Maidín is delighted to have the company headquarters in his hometown of Tramore and he attributes the quality of life and the great sense of community that make Waterford a great place to live. “For those of us based in NearForm’s HQ, living and working in Tramore, we find that being 1-2 minutes in a car from the countryside, with loads of outdoor activities, good schools, nice people, and an affordable cost of living leads to a great quality of life”.

Cian also has some great advice for start-ups thinking about locating in Waterford.

He says “The starting point for any tech business starting out is to get connected into the community. We’ve worked with Enterprise Ireland over the years, and it’s been a really great experience, from their support for R&D and creating connections both here and overseas.

When I moved back here in 2005 there were only a couple of employers for programmers in Waterford City, now there are 8 or 9 significant companies based here. What that means for programmers and those working in tech, who are thinking of moving to Waterford for their career, or starting it from here, you now have numerous choices, and in another 10 years even more. We are on the right path”.