Romanian IT&C services supplier Ness, part of Ness Technologies, plans to accelerate growth in 2014, and more than triple its staff in the next two years, on the back of an expansion project for which it receives state aid.

The company wants to reach a sales level of EUR 4.4 million in 2014, up by almost a quarter from EUR 3.5 million in 2013, company representatives told Romania-Insider.com. In 2012, Ness Romania posted sales of some EUR 2.8 million. Its center in Iasi is the second largest among Ness Technologies centers in Europe, according to the same source.

The company wants to more than triple its staff at the development center in Iasi, where 122 people currently work. Ness will add 200 people to its team until 2016, most of which will be programmers.

Software development currently brings some 75 percent of the company’s turnover, but Ness Romania hopes the ratio will go up to 90 percent after the expansion project is implemented. With an approved EUR 5.4 million state aid, the expansion project at Ness is currently ongoing.

The company expanded its office space this year by an extra 650 sqm in the United Business Center 2 building within the Palas compound in Iasi, and how occupies 2,100 sqm on three floors. An all-Romanian team works at its Iasi office.

The state aid for Ness is based on the state scheme to support investments which promote regional development by using new technologies and creating new jobs, a scheme that was approved in 2012.

Worldwide, Ness has 6,500 employees, and runs technology and design centers in India, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, UK, Israel, the US, and Romania. Ness Technologies is fully owned by The Rohatyn Group.

The Romanian subsidiary was created by taking over the Iasi – based IT firm Radix in 2005 from Romanian entrepreneur Gabriel Mardarasevici, for some EUR 7 million in total, according to media reports at the time.

Ness Technologies is headquartered in Israel, which was founded in 1999. It has operations in Operations in North America, Europe, Israel & India. Its owner The Rohatyn Group is a New York – based emerging market asset manager headed by Nicolas Rohatyn, formerly of J.P.Morgan.

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com