Square Expands Workspace and Could Be Set to Double Workforce

Square’s (SQ) hiring spree is about to swing into high gear. The signing of a 15-year lease agreement paves the way for Square to move into a new office space in downtown St. Louis. The move will allow the company to expand its footprint and add more jobs to cater to the growing business empire. The pursuit of new office space does not come as a surprise.

The payment giant’s business operations have expanded in the recent past, depicted by the company incorporating new business ideas. The company is fresh from launching a new Square Online store. The store seeks to make it easy for online sellers to combine online sales with in-person businesses. The company has also expanded its access to Bitcoin Deposits. The Square expansion drive could also explain robust revenue growth, as evidenced in the recent quarter.

Square plans to move to the St. Louis Post Dispatch headquarters to cater to the expanded business operations. Around 500 employees are set to move to the new office space from the Square’s Cortex location. The company already employs 300 workers in the St Louis area. It also operates from a temporary workspace at 4260 Forest Park Avenue.

The St Louis office downtown will become Square’s second-largest office behind the San Francisco headquarters. Plans to boost the current workforce from 500 people to 700 might well have necessitated the move.

The St Louis office downtown will allow Square to more than double its workforce should long-term plans require it. The new offices will act as the company’s second-largest operation hub, outside the headquarters in San Francisco.

Most of Square’s employees are in compliance and customer support. However, the company has kick-started a hiring spree targeting software engineers. According to CEO Jack Dorsey, who also doubles up as Twitter CEO, plans are underway to ensure that software engineers make up 40% of St Louis workforce. Similarly, the hiring spree in St Louis underscores a vote of confidence to the region’s workforce.

According to co-founder Jim McKelvey, Square’s expansion comes at a time when it has exceeded its growth expectations. The company has benefited a great deal from a wealth of local talent. In addition, the state of Missouri has provided the company with up to $1.8 million in tax incentives.

“A lot of the talent that Square and creative tech companies are looking to attract are people who want to live and work in the city of St. Louis,” added Mayor Lydia Rawson.

Despite generating a net loss of $24 million in the recent quarter, Square expansion drive continues to gather pace. The company has since strengthened its operations around cryptocurrencies. The launch of its mobile Cash App for rolling out Bitcoin affirms how confident the company is about cryptocurrencies. The app allows Android and iOS users to make Bitcoin deposits. Previously, crypto enthusiasts could only purchase and sell Bitcoin.

Square expanded its Omnichannel offerings, which is another development that firms the company’s push for market share in the payment sector. The company is trying to shrug off fierce competition from the likes of MasterCard’s Venmo as well as Visa, PayPal, and Shopify. Similarly, the launch of a new Square Online store should allow the company to attract clients looking to run professional e-commerce websites.

Square expanding in St Louis affirms the significant market community at stake worth pursuing. The company has already made it clear that it remains focused on reinvesting in the business to drive long-term growth. Full-year guidance, whereby the company expects $4.41 billion to $4.47 billion in revenues, already reflects investments and growing profitability.