Argentinian tech giant Globant plans to double down on Europe: A chat with Fernando Matzkin, who's leading the charge

Tech.eu

Founded two decades ago, Argentinia-born Globant has become a technology partner for some of the world's leading organisations. Increasingly, it's looking at Europe to expand its business and grow its now 28,000-strong workforce.

Globant may not be a household name in the global tech field, but arguably it should be.

Founded in Buenos Aires by four friends back in 2003, the software development giant went public in 2014 and currently has a market cap just south of $8 billion, bringing in hundreds of millions in revenue on a quarterly basis from clients all over the world.

Its relationship with Europe goes back a long way. The company opened an office in London around a year after its founding, and one of its first key clients was the UK-based Lastminute.com.

Since then, the company has built up its business in this part of the world and opened quite a number of talent hubs, from the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy to smaller countries such as Romania, Poland, and Denmark.

It also captured attention globally at the tail end of last year by scoring a multi-year agreement with football's world governing body FIFA to "supercharge the growth of the FIFA+ streaming platform and support football’s flagship events".

We caught up with Fernando Matzkin, Chief Business Officer and GM of Europe for the company, to learn more about its future plans for European expansion.

Matzkin, who's been with Globant for more than 14 years, previously headed up the company's business in North America, and is now tasked with growing its business in Europe, where it already has more than 11,000 staff.

Globant aims to do that through client recruitment and partnerships, as well as opening new and further boosting existing talent hubs, but also through targeted acquisitions and startup investments, Matzkin says.

The company has a CVC fund called - simply - 'Globant Ventures' but also operates the 'Be Kind Tech Fund', which invests in startups that tackle the misuse of technology in society.

Currently, Europe represents only 15% of Globant's revenue, but the desire to grow that footprint to a bigger percentage is clear.

Recently, it made acquisitions in France (Pentalog), Denmark (Vertic), and Italy (Sysdata) and announced back in September 2021 it would invest £65 million over a number of years to bolster its business in the UK.

Stay tuned for much more Globant activity in Europe in the near future.