Georgia lands 2 new BSC/ITO investments

Lineate, a global software consultancy based in New York, established its Georgia office in 2022 and currently employs around 85 people. As part of the FDI grant, agreement the company will invest $700,000 in Georgia and create at least 50 new jobs.

Lineate became the first company that will benefit from the state program to support foreign investment projects. After fulfilling its investment obligations, the company will receive 15% cashback of the invested amount in form of a grant. The program can be used by international companies operating in the advanced manufacturing (electrical parts, auto parts, and aviation parts), business processes outsourcing and IT, logistics and aircraft maintenance (MRO) sectors.

“We aim to create a model tech ecosystem and grow local talent, working with Georgian universities and other responsible stakeholders and helping to put Georgia on the wider map as an up-and-coming regional tech hub,” the company has said.

True to its word, in addition to opening its primary European development center in Tbilisi, the company has launched a development school for university engineering students.

Another foreign firm investing in Georgia is Lithuania-based Girteka, the largest asset-based transport company in Europe, which chose Georgia as the location for its Global Business Services hub and is aiming to create 300 jobs there by the end of 2023.

“The decision to grow in an additional international market is strengthening the company’s bid to be among the top 10 logistics companies in Europe by 2026,” says Tomasz Weber, Girteka’s head of corporate communications. “We chose Georgia out of a list of six countries, all of which went through a very deep due diligence process by us, where we looked at several factors, including the talent pool, education and competence level, business climate and the cost of doing business in the country over the following years. During the whole process of establishing Global Shared Services, we had support from Invest in Georgia, which provided us with all the information we needed to make the right decisions.”

Asked about the talent base thus far, Weber says, “The labor market itself is quite competitive, especially if we are talking about IT employees or developers. However, we already have noticed many options in the market with very good candidates in the areas of accounting [and] customer care.”

“We’ve seen a significant increase in the services sector with BPO and shared services centers, especially in IT,” says David Tavlalashvili, head of the Investment Department for Invest in Georgia. This process has accelerated since conflict erupted north of Georgia in February 2021. “A lot of companies and employees from the region need to find a new home, and a lot of them chose Georgia.”

Much like its new shared services client Girteka, which has played a major role in delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Georgia has been at the forefront in funneling support in the other direction too, channeling the energy of its Produce in Georgia campaign into “Produce for Ukraine.”