DUBLIN, Ireland - A Chicago-headquartered email marketing, sales & marketing automation, and CRM software company is to open an office in Dublin, Ireland to serve as its European headquarters.

The company, ActiveCampaign, on Wednesday in a statement said it had a growing customer base on the continent.

The company expects its Dublin presence to expand to more than 200 employees. Initial hires will focus on support, sales, customer success, and marketing.

ActiveCampaign said Wednesday that since it announced its focus on Customer Experience Automation earlier this year, thousands of new European businesses have subscribed to the platform, bringing the total number of customers to over 75,000.

The company said it is investing heavily to support this rapidly growing European market, which is its second largest.

ActiveCampaign said it sees great traction and opportunity in the U.K., Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. The company's plans for the region are broad, including hiring staff that can support customers in their preferred languages as well as launching country-specific marketing efforts. Aside from its new Dublin enterprise and its Chicago overall headquarters, the company has offices in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Sydney, Australia.

Ireland's Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection Pat Breen TD said Wednesday: "I would like to congratulate ActiveCampaign on the opening of their first European office in Dublin, which will result in the creation of over 200 highly skilled jobs. Their presence will add to Ireland's already strong reputation as a global hub for high-tech innovative companies and is a great vote of confidence in the attractiveness of our enterprise culture. I wish ActiveCampaign every success in their future operations in this country."

Commenting on ActiveCampaign's decision to establish its new European headquarters in Dublin, Mary Buckley, Executive Director IDA Ireland said Wednesday: "High growth international companies continue to be attracted to Ireland due to the ease of access to a talented workforce and the ability to scale their operations quickly. IDA Ireland supports ActiveCampaign's ambitious plans to grow a team of talented people at this exciting time of expansion for the company."