Ty Young
Phoenix Business Journal
Friday, January 11, 2008
SkySong adding Irish company
Arizona State University's Scottsdale Innovation Center, SkySong, is adding an Irish company to its roster.
Yougetitback.com, founded in 2005 in Cork, Ireland, will move its research and development operations to SkySong by the end of January.
The company builds tags with a telephone number and an identification code. People using its service attach the tags to personal property items such as laptop computers and set up an online account. If a tagged item is lost, a finder can call the number to report it and receive a $20 reward if it is claimed.
The company has about 60 employees throughout the world, but wanted to establish a base for research and development purposes. While it scouted other locations, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, the company settled on SkySong because of ASU's burgeoning research capabilities, said CEO Frank Hannigan.
"It was an easy decision to make," he said. "We were blown away by research that was being done at ASU."
The Irish company represents another piece of the global picture for ASU's entrepreneurial tech center, said Julia Rosen, SkySong's director of strategic marketing. She described the leaders of Yougetitback.com as "a very energetic, imaginative team."
SkySong now houses four international firms. In late December, the center added water purification company Litree Co. and solar technology firm Fscreen Sci-tech Co. Ltd., both of China. Its first international tenant was advanced semiconductor packaging manufacturer Aurigin Technology Pte. Ltd. of Singapore.