Image of Belfast City Hall with Grand Central behind.

Northern Ireland

The ideal location for business expansion

Grow your business in Northern Ireland

More than 1,100 international firms are already operating in Northern Ireland. They benefit from our talented workforce, competitive operating costs, and world-class infrastructure. They also enjoy our high standard of living, business-friendly support packages, and easy access to global markets. For these reasons and more, 70% of our investors choose to re-invest.

Contact us to find out how we can help your company grow

  • Business friendly

    We are one of Europe’s most business-friendly regions of our size and offer financial incentives for employment, training and R&D.

  • Guaranteed talent pipeline

    A highly skilled, educated workforce and free, customized training and recruitment programs for investors.

  • Competitive costs

    Operating costs are up to 30% lower than other locations in the UK and Europe.

  • Global tech leaders

    Northern Ireland ranks globally for software development, fintech and cyber security investment.

What others are saying

Every time we open our doors to work every day in Northern Ireland, we save half a million dollars, and that is something that we don’t take lightly.

Suren Gupta, Technology & Operations Executive Vice President, Allstate

When we came to Belfast, we fell in love with what we saw. The people here were great. There was a warmth, there was a community around technology. The quality of the talent we’ve found here is beyond our expectations.

Keith Farley, VP & Managing Director, Aflac Northern Ireland

We had a real need for additional quality paralegal team support for our growing immigration practice. Northern Ireland’s strong pipeline of quality graduates accessible through Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, and strong staff retention rates, were keys to our decision to locate here. It gives us the confidence that we will have access to outstanding staff members to allow us to continue to expand, scale and be successful long-term.

Matthew Keen, Managing Shareholder, Ogletree Deakins

Our Northern Ireland team will add considerable in-house engineering and support resources and expertise. This will help us to achieve our international growth plans. We looked at various US locations but the calibre of talent made Northern Ireland the perfect fit for us.

Paul Vienneau, CTO, Payroc

The Northern Ireland team is central to our growth plans and will enable us to deliver 24/7 ‘Follow the Sun’ support to our global customer base. It will also support the development of our products and services for our planned European expansion.

Garvin McKee, Chief Revenue Officer, Agio

We selected Northern Ireland as the location for this new center based on the high-quality software engineers with industry skills, along with a strong pipeline of graduates from your excellent universities. This, along with the practical and financial support from Invest NI, made Northern Ireland a very attractive location.

Xuan Yong, CEO & Co-Founder, Workrise

We remain impressed with the excellent business environment in Northern Ireland, particularly the close working relationship between government, industry and academia. Our Belfast center allows us to scale up our operations and address a wider customer base in the US, Europe and Asia.

Corey Thomas, President & CEO, Rapid7

Why choose to grow your business in Northern Ireland?

Watch our video to discover why Northern Ireland is the ideal location to expand your business.

Our sectors

Technology

Area of sector expertise

  • Cyber security
  • AI & data analytics
  • Sports technology
  • Telecom, mobile & data networks
  • IT services
  • GovTech
  • Smart cities
  • Northern Ireland is the world's top destination for Financial Services technology investment and the number one international investment location for US cyber security firms (FT fDi Markets, 2021).
  • Belfast is one of the best cities in the UK to work in tech- and the best place to work as a software developer (TechNation).
  • Belfast has been named one of the world's top 15 Digital Economies of the Future and ranked 2nd in the UK (11th in Europe) in a poll of Top 25 Tech Cities of the Future (Financial Times fDi Intelligence).

Businesses here include

  • Rapid7 company logo
  • Imperva
  • Proofpoint logo
  • Puppet company logo
  • Payroc company logo
  • Bazaarvoice company logo
  • Workrise company logo
  • Slice company logo
  • Shopkeep by lightspeed logo

Financial services

Area of sector expertise

  • Fintech
  • Asset and wealth management
  • Banking and capital markets
  • Governance, risk and compliance
  • Insurance, assurance and insuretech
  • Northern Ireland is the world's top region for fintech inward investment.
  • $500 billion flows through Belfast each day, representing 10% of the global FX market.
  • Belfast is ranked in the top 3 Global Fintech locations of the future after London and Signapore (fDI Intelligence Fintech location of the Future 2019/20).

Businesses here include

  • CME Group logo
  • Cowen Group company logo
  • Peak6 company logo
  • Allstate logo
  • Alfac company logo
  • Agio company logo

Legal and professional services

Area of sector expertise

  • Legal services
  • Legaltech
  • Accounting
  • Management consultancy
  • Tech for professional services
  • Two of the top 15 law schools in the UK are in Northern Ireland.
  • Belfast has been identified as one of the top 10 global emerging lawtech scenes alongside London, San Francisco, Singapore and Tel Aviv (Law Society England & Wales, 2019).
  • PwC and Google's first European Innovation lab was established in Belfast in 2015 (PwC).
  • Operating costs for a legal services center in Northern Ireland are up to 50% lower than London and 40% lower than New York.

Businesses here include

  • Baker McKenzie logo
  • Ogletree Deakins company logo
  • iManage company logo
  • Herbert Smith Freehills
  • Gateley company logo

Global business services

Area of sector expertise

  • Customer experience
  • Financial and accounting
  • Technical support
  • Human resources
  • Operating costs are 33% lower than London, 11% lower than Dublin and 51% lower than New York.
  • 20,000 people are employed in 40 shared services, contact or knowledge centres.
  • 5,500+ graduates with a degree in areas including finance, accounting, economics, maths, law and computing.

Businesses here include

  • Concentrix
  • OneSource Virtual company logo
  • Alexander Mann
  • Santander company logo
  • BNP Paribas logo
  • AXA Insurance logo

Life and health sciences

Area of sector expertise

  • Precision medicine
  • Pharma and biotech
  • Clinical trials
  • Diagnostics
  • Medtech
  • Vibrant cluster of 250+ businesses, international investors and indigenous companies, employing 8,500.  Exporting globally to over 140 countries.
  • Over 17 world-leading research centres with more than 1,000 researchers
  • 10% of the world's cholesterol tests are made in Northern Ireland.

Find a supplier from our life and health sciences directory

Materials handling

Area of sector expertise

  • Mining and construction
  • Recycling
  • Handling equipment and vehicles
  • Agri-machinery
  • Supply chain
  • 40% of the world’s mobile stone crushing and gravel screening equipment is made in Northern Ireland.
  • When you buy from Northern Ireland, you buy 60 years of leading the world in Mobile Bulk Materials Processing equipment.
  • 8,000 people are employed in over 100 companies.

Find a supplier from our materials handling directory

Aerospace and defence

Area of sector expertise

  • Interiors
  • Structures
  • Supply chain
  • 1 in 3 aircraft seats are manufactured in Northern Ireland.
  • Companies are internationally accredited AS9100, ISO9001 and NADCAP.
  • SC21 - NI Aerospace has 5 Gold, 8 Silver and 5 Bronze awards, with more Golds than any other UK region.

Find a supplier from our aerospace industry directory

Businesses here include

  • Collins Aerospace
  • Spirit Aerosystems company logo
  • AVIC Logo

Advanced manufacturing and engineering

Area of sector expertise

  • Aerospace and defence
  • Automotive
  • Construction
  • Materials handling
  • Electronics
  • Green growth and renewable energy
  • Consumer products
  • Products exported to over 100 countries.
  • 44,000 employees in 2,000 companies.
  • Operating costs up to 34% lower than USA, 30% lower than France and 36% lower than Germany.

Businesses here include

  • SDC Trailers logo
  • Spirit Aerosystems company logo
  • Ulster Carpets Logo

Green growth and renewable energy

Area of sector expertise

  • Low carbon energy (including onshore/ offshore wind)
  • Energy efficiency
  • Energy storage and intelligent energy systems
  • Water and waste water
  • Low carbon transport
  • Data centres
  • Waste and resouces
  • The low carbon sector employs more than 12,000 people in over 300 companies.
  • Northern Irish companies have the capability of providing a range of innovative products and services to address the specific needs of the various energy, water and transport supply chains.
  • 15 competence and research centres.

Find a supplier from our energy directory

Businesses here include

  • B9 Energy Logo
  • Harland and Wolff logo

Creative technology

Area of sector expertise

  • Animation
  • Gaming
  • EdTech
  • Interactive content
  • Film & TV production
  • HBO series Game of Thrones was filmed in Northern Ireland.
  • Belfast's Titanic Studios is one of the largest film and TV production studios in Europe.
  • Oscar-winning live action short film The Shore was filmed in Northern Ireland.

Businesses here include

  • Jam logo
  • Dog Ears logo
  • Flickerpix logo

Food and drink

Area of sector expertise

  • Meat
  • Dairy
  • Drinks
  • Other
  • World leader in traceability and food security. We created APHIS, an electronic cattle tracing database.
  • Food and drink products from Northern Ireland are available in more than 70 countries.
  • Home to Bushmills, the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world.

Find a supplier from our food and drink directory

Businesses here include

  • Moy Park logo
  • Bushmills logo
  • Dale Farm logo

Construction

Area of sector expertise

  • Construction contractors
  • Manufactured construction products
  • Construction services
  • 10,000 firms within the sector of which 215 achieved sales in excess of £5M per annum.
  •  Northern Ireland firms have worked on major projects such as:
    •  London 2012
    •  Crossrail
    •  Titanic Signature Project
  • Northern Ireland firms have also worked on:
    •  National schools and hospitals projects
    •  Fit-out on iconic buildings such as 1 Hyde Park
    •  Fit-out on a range of retail projects across Europe

Businesses here include

  • Lagan construction logo
  • Farrans logo

International education

Area of sector expertise

  • Queens University
  • Ulster University
  • University-affiliated teacher training colleges
  • English language teaching
  • Boarding schools
  • Vocational education and training
  • Northern Ireland hosts 45,000 students from over 100 countries.
  • Northern Ireland is recognised as having one of the best education systems in Europe. We’re also renowned for our high quality of life, low cost of living, clean environment, lively social scene and the friendliness of our people.
  • Queen’s University is in the top 1% of universities in the world.
  • Ulster University ranks in the Times Higher Education Supplement’s 150 under 50 – a global comparison of young universities.

Businesses here include

  • Queen's University Belfast logo
  • Ulster University logo

How we can help

Invest Northern Ireland is the region’s economic development agency. We help U.S. companies scale internationally by introducing them to Northern Ireland’s high-quality, cost-effective, scalable talent pool, while providing guidance and support throughout the lifespan of their investment. We offer tailored overseas expansion guidance and soft landing support, which can include…

  • Talent validation

    We’ll help assess whether the talent you need can be found in Northern Ireland, and make relevant introductions to help you source it.

  • Training and recruitment support

    Our unique Assured Skills program ensures you have access to an appropriately qualified, skilled talent pipeline. It’s 100% funded and organized by the Northern Ireland government.

  • Property search and selection

    We can help with your search for suitable premises, connecting you to relevant databases and property agents in the region.

  • Introductions to centres of excellence

    We’ll help you connect with our universities and colleges so you can tap into our world-leading research capabilities and access talent.

  • Financial incentives

    We offer one of the most attractive financial support packages available in Europe, including grants for employment, training and R&D.

  • Business networks

    We can help connect you with business networks across a range of sectors including technology, financial, professional & business services, advanced manufacturing and life & health sciences.

Contact us

Get in touch to discuss how Invest Northern Ireland can help support your company's international growth.

Contact a member of our team directly via LinkedIn.

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