A high-profile Utah company’s headcount will explode over the next decade as American Fork-based Domo more than triples its size.
The company, which provides technology allowing companies to leverage its data, made the expansion announcement after being approved for a tax credit of up to $23.3 million by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board. The incentive is tied to the creation of up to 2,230 high-paying jobs over 10 years.
“We should have one of these at every meeting,” joked Mel Lavitt, chairman of the GOED board’s incentives committee. “It’s a great way to start the year.”
Domo is a cloud-based software company that helps companies gain more value from their business data by making it accessible and actionable for everyone, from the CEO to the frontline worker. The company also has expanded into state government work. It was founded in Utah County in 2010 and became a public company in 2018.
“This is not only a serious expansion with high-paying jobs but a great retention story for Utah,” Lavitt said. “This [incentive] fits right into the story.”
Lavitt added that the world is beginning to learn “that Domo’s become not a like-to-have software product but a need-to-have product for companies, not only in the U.S. but worldwide.”
“We’re proud to call Utah home,” Josh James, Domo founder and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve always believed that great tech companies could be built and flourish here, providing great opportunities for Utahns. I’m looking forward to our next decade in business and demonstrating through continued growth that Utah is the place for tech.”
The new jobs from the $30 million expansion are expected to pay an average of about $142,000. The project is expected to result in new total wages of nearly $1.8 million and new state tax revenue of nearly $93.3 million.
In Domo’s most recent quarterly financial announcement, it reported a net loss of $22.2 million, or 75 cents per share, which compares with a loss of $29.1 million, or $10.5 per share in the prior year. Revenues in the most recent quarter totaled $53.6 million, up from $44.8 million in the prior-year quarter. James said during the GOED board meeting that Domo recently became cash-flow-positive.
“This expansion is a big win for Utah, with the potential to create thousands of jobs for the state,” Dan Hemmert, GOED’s executive director, said in a prepared statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to start the new year off with this announcement, and we wish Domo success as they continue to grow and help anchor Utah’s strong technology industry.”
In a prepared statement, Theresa Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, described Domo as “one of the bright lights of Utah’s Silicon Slopes, but the company is also a leader in recruiting, hiring and retaining a diverse workforce.”
American Fork Mayor Brad Frost told the GOED board that Domo “is synonymous with American Fork.
Frost said he has friends who work for the company. “I ask them, ‘How’s your job?’ That’s all you have to say to someone who works for Domo, because at that point, they just take off and they just tell you the wonderful things they love about their jobs. So internally, they foster an environment [so] that just their employees are very beholden to them.”
“Domo is a wonderful partner within our city and within our chamber, and we couldn’t be more pleased to think that they’re staying here and they’re going to grow.”
Frost said the city “is prepared to do all that we can to make a transition to a new building as seamless as possible.”
“We’ll do everything we can,” James told the board, “to use that extra money to try to find ways that we can invest that back into the community to just make it better for everybody, so I really appreciate your vote of confidence.”
Carine Clark, the GOED board chair, excused herself from the incentive discussion and vote because she is a member of the Domo board of directors.