It’s no secret that Boston is one of the most important tech hubs in the country — known mostly for its entrepreneurial spirit, proximity to some of the most elite universities and seemingly limitless supply of top-tier talent. So it should come as no surprise that companies are choosing to call the Bay State home.
Over the course of this year, tech companies have come from all over the world to open new offices here in Boston. Meanwhile, homegrown startups have gotten bigger, and are having to expand their local footprint to accommodate their growing teams and ambitions. And none of these companies seem to be deterred by the uncertain nature of work amid the pandemic, choosing instead to bet big on hybrid and the power of in-person experiences once it is safe to have them. In fact, many of them are hiring.
Keep reading to find out what companies opened offices here in Boston this year, and how they plan to use their new digs.
Founded and grown in Boston, Perch has quickly become a top dog in the trillion-dollar Amazon aggregation space. After months of rapid growth, the startup announced it would be moving into a new 19,500-square-foot office in Back Bay to accommodate the 150 hires it plans to make in the next year or so. Last we heard, the company said it was “tentatively” planning to move its team into the office in the fall, but added that it will defer to public health trends when making the final call.
Whoop made a splash in May when it announced it was moving its corporate headquarters to the newly built Commonwealth Building in the heart of Kenmore Square. The health monitoring startup hit a unicorn valuation after raising a $100 million Series E last October, and has been growing steadily ever since. Going forward, it will add another 1,000 new employees to its ranks in the coming years, and has plans to adopt a “hybrid” approach when the new office opens in Q2 of 2022.
The life insurance company announced in November that it would be moving its more than 600 local employees to a new, 17-story office on the Boston Harbor waterfront, donating one floor of the building to MassChallenge in an effort to strengthen its partnership with the tech accelerator. MassMutual will remain headquartered in Springfield, as it has since its founding in 1851, and will use this new office in Boston to be in closer proximity to the city’s financial market, startup community and workforce.
Primarily based in Italy, Expert.ai is focused on applying AI natural language understanding to any application across any domain at scale with its core language engine, thus reducing cost and complexity while speeding up deployment. Now, the startup is establishing its North American headquarters here in Boston as a way to keep up with an overall explosion in demand for AI insights fueled by the pandemic. It will use the new office to better serve its customers across the financial, insurance and technology sectors.
Just a few months after raising a $130 million funding round, the home security startup announced that it will be relocating to a new office at 100 Sumner Street tower, allowing it to essentially double its local team of 500. The move is slated for fall of 2022, and is reportedly the largest office expansion in the Financial District since the pandemic began. Going forward, SimpliSafe says the new space will be customized to fit what it calls a “hybrid approach,” which will include a mix of independent workspaces, pods, a “lab maker” for its engineering team, as well as a rooftop patio for open-air socializing.
The Israeli cybersecurity startup has decided to make Boston its North American headquarters, with plans to double its team of 40 employees that it already has by the end of next year. Cynet has offices in Ukraine, Italy and the United Kingdom, and will use its Boston office for positions related to its go-to-market strategy, which includes roles in sales, pre-sales, marketing, business development, customer success and customer support.
As the life science space continues to heat up amid the pandemic, Ginkgo Bioworks announced in October that it is moving into a newly built lab in Boston’s Seaport District — a building formerly occupied by Au Bon Pain. Measuring a whopping 219,000 square feet, the building is still being worked on to fit the synthetic biology startup’s needs, with construction slated to start early next year. This news comes just months after Ginkgo announced its plans to go public via a $17.5 billion SPAC deal.
