{"id":41284,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/victorian-government-brings-zendesk-and-175-tech-jobs-to-melbourne-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:55","slug":"victorian-government-brings-zendesk-and-175-tech-jobs-to-melbourne-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/victorian-government-brings-zendesk-and-175-tech-jobs-to-melbourne-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian government brings Zendesk and 175 tech jobs to Melbourne – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Victorian government has made a \u201csignificant investment\u201d in Zendesk to bring the global IT software giant\u2019s Asia Pacific headquarters to the city and 175 new tech jobs along with it, in a \u201cproud day\u201d for Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The partnership, the first of its kind for both Zendesk and the state government, was announced by Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and small business minister Philip Dalidakis on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a confirming thing, and such a proud thing to have a company that\u2019s on the move and that\u2019s doing such great things around the world to look at Melbourne,\u201d Andrews says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very proud day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be the centre for innovation and new ideas unless you\u2019ve got companies like Zendesk headquartering here. It\u2019s a very important investment in a very competitive market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newly opened office will be Zendesk\u2019s Asia Pacific software engineering centre and will house 200 employees.<\/p>\n

The state government\u2019s investment will be in the form of a five-year grant, and will create a \u201cbaseline\u201d of 175 tech jobs for the state.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Reigniting the local rivalry<\/b><\/p>\n

While refusing to disclose just how much the investment is, Andrews says securing the headquarters from other cities was \u201cvery competitive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made sure Melbourne was up the top of the list and we won out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis headquarters could\u2019ve gone to other places, but it hasn\u2019t. It\u2019s right here where it belongs, where it will grow and prosper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just other capital cities onshore. You are competing against the entire region. These investments are really very, very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s crucial to have global players like Zendesk in Melbourne not just for the jobs, but for the culture that comes with it, Dalidakis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re setting up the infrastructure to support the ecosystem here at home so that those people that want to stay in Melbourne can, and those that want to return to Melbourne can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so they don\u2019t feel like they need to move offshore to see their dreams become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Securing Zendesk\u2019s presence is on the back of the Victorian government recently poaching Australia\u2019s biggest tech conference from Sydney earlier this month, and will no doubt serve to further ignite the rivalry between the two cities.<\/p>\n

During the announcement, Andrews says Victoria can be a global player in the tech industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sector is going to be another thing we can proudly state we are leading the nation, and our region, and there\u2019s every chance we can lead the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the premier of Victoria you won\u2019t find me ever apologising for working hard to create jobs in my state. We are very proud of what we\u2019ve achieved and we\u2019re very proud and optimistic about the potential of this sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Innovation fund still to come<\/b><\/p>\n

The money going to Zendesk won\u2019t be coming from the state government\u2019s much-anticipating $60 million innovation fund, which Dalidakis says will be announced by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

While moves like this are focused on the big international players, he says the fund will be helping local tech talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about just trying to attract overseas companies, it\u2019s about supporting the local ecosystem, and that\u2019s what the $60 million fund will do,\u201d Dalidakis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do both, we can walk and chew gum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first of many wonderful, exciting announcements that we\u2019re going to be making over the next ix-12 months, and they will continue to support the Premier\u2019s vision to drive innovation in Victoria and to support our companies at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people around Australia at the moment are talking about innovation, but I\u2019m very proud to be working with a premier who actually gets innovation, who doesn\u2019t want to just talk about it, but wants to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dalidakis says the innovation sector is a primary focus of the Victorian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do as a government in the tech sector is to support, embrace and encourage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo embrace the startup sector we need to make sure we\u2019re embracing those people that are having a crack, those people that are risking everything because of their vision and their desire to grow their own business to make something not only of their business but also for the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Victorian government has made a \u201csignificant investment\u201d in Zendesk to bring the global IT software giant\u2019s Asia Pacific headquarters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}