Tech firm moving headquarters from San Francisco to Indy

Technology consulting firm Appirio Inc. plans to move its corporate headquarters from San Francisco to Indianapolis and boost its local employment by more than 425 workers over the next five years, the company announced Friday.

Appirio opened its Indianapolis office with about 20 people in 2012 and has since grown employment to more than 150 in its office at Pan American Plaza. The company doubled its space to 25,000 square feet earlier this year to accommodate growth.

The cloud services provider said will invest $7.7 million over the next five years, with the goal of having a total of 577 local employees by the end of 2020.

Appirio said new employees will make average salaries “more than 75 percent higher than the state’s average wage,” which would be more than $65,000 per year.

Pending approval by its board of directors, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. plans to offer Appirio up to $3.85 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $150,000 in training grants based on the job-creation plans. The city of Indianapolis will consider additional incentives.

Appirio also reached an agreement with the IEDC in 2012 when it opened its local office but has not yet met hiring goals. That contract called for the company to receive up to $5.6 million in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants if it had 300 employees by the end of 2015.

That agreement was extended last year until the end of 2016. So far, the company has received only about $291,000 in tax credits related to the initial agreement.

Founded in 2006, Appirio has more than 1,200 employees worldwide and additional offices in Dublin, London; Jaipur and Tokyo. Its customers have included Cardinal Health, Yahoo, Starbucks, Facebook and IBM.

“The designation of Indianapolis as our headquarters reflects the office’s important role as a global training center and recruiting hub as we look to support our growing list of customers and partners,” said CEO Chris Barbin in a written statement. “We know Indianapolis will make a strong home base for global operations, and we look forward to an even more interconnected future for Appirians, our customers and our partners.”