PGH. PIPELINE

Cyber protection company may be lured by CMU’s tech talent

Drawn by the talent available at local universities, an international cyber protection company may set up office in Pittsburgh.

Acronis, with headquarters in Singapore and Switzerland, hopes to open a technology office in the region sometime this year, CEO and founder Serguei Beloussov said.

Mr. Beloussov met Monday with Mayor Bill Peduto and is planning to meet with officials at Carnegie Mellon University, which he hopes will be a pipeline for the talent he needs to staff a Pittsburgh office.

“I think it’s pretty definite,” he said of a possible local presence. “What is not definite is how many people we will have.”

Acronis currently has only two major offices in the U.S. — one outside of Boston and the other in Scottsdale, Ariz. Mr. Beloussov said the Arizona office has grown to employ more than 100 people since its opening in 2017.

The kind of office Mr. Beloussov envisions in Pittsburgh could start with a few as 10 people but could grow to 50 or more, depending on the available talent and the success in recruiting employees.

“It all depends on the availability of talent,” he said. “If we can find the right people, we will have a large office.”

Founded in Singapore in 2003, Acronis currently has nearly 1,500 employees worldwide, with more than 200 of those in the U.S., Mr. Beloussov said.

The company specializes in cyber protection software for consumers and businesses. It lists among its customers more than 500,000 businesses and 5 million individuals.

What attracted Acronis to Pittsburgh was Carnegie Mellon University and the tech and engineering talent it graduates, Mr. Beloussov said. The company has worked with the university in the past, he added.

“CMU is probably more famous than Pittsburgh itself globally,” he said.

“CMU is always pursuing good industry partners,” university spokeswoman Julie Mattera said. “We can confirm that representatives from CMU and Acronis have been meeting to discuss mutual interests. University representatives have interacted with the company in the past, as well.”

Acronis also sees potential ties with the University of Pittsburgh. It hopes to locate any Pittsburgh office within walking distance of those two institutions.