Hightail has opened a UK office following its recent $34 million funding round to support international growth plans.
The global file sharing and storage service, formerly called YouSendIt, has appointed seasoned digital professional Frank Lombos to lead UK operations from its central London office, which is now home to a team of 15 people.
Hightail plans to create more UK-based jobs over the coming year, while exploring further openings in Europe, beginning with France and Germany.
Hightail has 45 million users in 193 countries. Although headquartered in Silicon Valley, 60 percent of its users are based outside of the US.
Lombos brings over 20 years’ experience at companies including SDL and Coremetrics, and a track record of successfully establishing European offices for a number of US-based software firms. As Regional Vice President of Hightail UK, he will be responsible for all sales and marketing activity in the EMEA region.
“We intend to establish Hightail as the number one cloud file sharing service among businesses and consumers,” said Lombos. “Hightail is unique in the space because of its level of data security and usability – we offer controlled access to shared files, individual file tracking and help businesses comply with privacy requirements.”
Hightail’s business customers can use the service to help employees access, share and update files across mobile, PCs and tablets, plus opt for unlimited online storage and advanced sharing controls. Activity tracking allows individuals to monitor downloads by person, date and time, while admin tools provide up-to-the-minute account overview and insights that help with content lifecycle management.
Hightail seamlessly integrates with widely used business applications including Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint and Salesforce. The file sharing service also benefits a company’s partners and clients, as recipients don’t need to be Hightail users to access files.
“2014 is the tipping point for the cloud services market. GigaOm predicts that the industry will be worth $220 billion by 2020,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Hightail. “Hightail is for anyone that deals with sensitive information, creates large files, collaborates on projects with others and needs a company-wide solution with control and oversight. Our renowned reliability, data security and innovation give us the opportunity to become the biggest player in the global cloud file sharing market.”
Hightail has recently signed a raft of new UK clients, which are due to be announced in the coming months.
www.hightail.com