Braintree (https://www.braintreepayments.com), the Web’s fastest growing payment
gateway, has opened the doors of its expanded headquarters in downtown Chicago. Mayor
Rahm Emanuel joined Braintree in an onsite visit to showcase the company’s plans for
growth as an example of the increasing demand for developer talent in Chicago’s growing
technology corridor.
The move further supports Braintree’s ability to attract top engineering talent and produce
disruptive technology in the payments space. Braintree plans to add 150 new employees
over the next few years to fill out the new space, which holds 220 people.
“Braintree is an asset to the city of Chicago, and the company’s booming demand for top talent is a prime example of the depth, breadth, and vitality of our local tech sector,” Mayor
Emanuel said, “Braintree’s commitment to jobs growth within Chicago is emblematic of
more high-quality jobs to come to this high-growth sector, and I support Braintree’s push
to draw more top-tier engineers, developers and tech minds to Chicago.”
In 2011, Braintree raised $34 million dollars in Series A funding from Accel Partners, one of
the most prestigious venture capital investors in the world. Accel Partner Ryan Sweeney
sits on Braintree’s board.
“Accel spends a lot of time searching for, and investing in, the most successful, high growth
technology companies around the World - such as Braintree, “said Ryan Sweeney. “We fully
expect Chicago’s burgeoning tech community to produce many more disruptive companies
and future Accel investments."
More than three times the size of Braintree’s former office space, the newly renovated
Chicago headquarters will provide Braintree ample space for its growing staff. Braintree is
currently hiring for high-quality, full-time jobs across the tech spectrum, from product
managers to software engineers. The company has plans to hire 40 additional staff by the
end of 2012.
“We’re staffing up quickly to meet the exploding market demand for our online and mobile
payments tools,” Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree said. “Braintree’s full-stack payment
platform was designed specifically to make payment integration easy for developers. That
is why we’re attracting the nation’s top developers to use and build our products.”
Braintree relocated its headquarters to Chicago’s West Loop, part of the city’s central
business district community. Braintree is adding over 100 new merchants to its client
roster each month and is actively working to recruit tech talent from the Chicago area to
support this growth. The new office will allow Braintree the ability to better support its
existing clients while scaling quickly to further enable technological innovation around the
world.
Braintree is similarly committed to being an outstanding corporate citizen in Chicago. The
company has agreed to be part of the innovative College to Careers program, through City
Colleges of Chicago. Braintree will be involved in curriculum and training development at
the financial services campus, which will be located at Harold Washington College.
Additionally, Braintree has agreed to be a part of ThinkChicago, slated to take place in
October 2012. ThinkChicago brings 100 of the best and brightest students from around the
Midwest to Chicago to learn about Chicago’s economy and get a sense of the opportunity
that exists here for after they graduate. It is coordinated with Chicago Ideas Week.
Braintree will be one of the companies that the students have the opportunity to visit
during the week.
Braintree has benefited from working with World Business Chicago, which worked with
Braintree’s leadership to build personal connections with local and regional universities
that offer strong computer science and engineering programs. Given that many of the
positions for which Braintree is hiring are slated for individuals with technical
backgrounds, the company is intent on working with local universities to create a pipeline
that ensures graduating talent remains in Chicago. Mayor Emanuel is the chair of World
Business Chicago, which is focused on this effort and has worked with Braintree (and other
companies) to build this pipeline.
This is the 33rd jobs related announcement made by Mayor Emanuel in his tenure, totaling
more than 20,000 jobs. Last week, he announced that Google’s Motorola Mobility would
move to Chicago in 2013, which was the 7th headquarters announcement the Mayor has
made. Improving the technology sector and promoting entrepreneurialism and growth in
key industries are central tenets of the Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs, produced by
World Business Chicago at the Mayor’s request earlier this year.