It’s no accident that U.Group looked to Indiana when the Washington, D.C. digital consulting company was looking for its third major outpost.

Carlyle Davis, the company’s chief technology officer, was familiar with Indianapolis through a U.Group program at the National Football League Combine and work with other locally-based clients. Anuj Vedak, the company’s vice president of strategy and operations, grew up in Columbus, Ind., where he first met TechPoint Executive in Residence Jim Brown nearly 30 years ago.

Jim and fellow Executive in Residence Mike Meadows are leading TechPoint’s “company hunting” initiative in partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). The objective is to bring new tech companies and the high-wage jobs they create to Indiana.

“You might say it was a perfect storm for success,” Jim said. “They already have a key client here, and based on what they already knew of our tech ecosystem, Carlyle and Anuj believe we’re on the cusp of something great here. We helped them understand that we have the talent they need and a community that meshes perfectly with their company culture.”

TechPoint President and CEO Mike Langellier wants to see more of these kinds of “storms” in the state’s economic forecast.

“We know from experience that when people who are unfamiliar with Indiana come here to visit, they are blown away by our great tech community, our amenities and the fact that so many impressive tech companies are growing and thriving here,” he said. “Our ask of the ecosystem is to introduce us to other out-of-state tech leaders we can work with to bring here or help to establish new operations in Indiana like we did with U.Group.”

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U.Group which is still determining where its central Indiana office will be, plans to create up to 100 new highly-skilled jobs here by the end of the year. Their first hires will be 12 software programming, engineering, data science and development positions. Interested applicants should apply online.

U.Group CEO Lena Trudeau said her company had an “incredible” launch year in 2019 and doesn’t plan to slow down.

“Expanding our operations to a new city enables us to further accelerate our momentum—it will allow us to deliver broader capabilities, deepen existing customer relationships as well as forge new ones, and amplify the impact we create for our customers,” she said. “We’re grateful to be partnering with the IEDC to not only establish ourselves in area, but help bring new jobs to central Indiana’s already thriving economic ecosystem.”

Governor Eric J. Holcomb credited Indiana’s robust economy as well as its booming tech ecosystem for attracting U.Group’s attention. Along with a third consecutive, record-breaking year for economic development, Indiana’s tech ecosystem witnessed a 260% increase in venture capital and other funding investments from 2018, totaling nearly $360 million. Additionally, Indianapolis was recently recognized on Zillow’s list of top 10 markets for future tech growth.

The IEDC is building on that momentum by partnering with TechPoint and others to target business recruitment in high-skilled, high-growth sectors.

“Indiana’s tech community is sinking three-pointers all day long when it comes to showing off our tech ‘chops’ if you will,” Gov. Holcomb said. “We’re extremely grateful U.Group chose to grow in Indiana, bringing high-skilled career opportunities to the state, and we’re confident that Indiana’s talented tech pipeline will help propel U.Group’s new operations.”

U.Group employs nearly 300 associates nationwide and launched in 2019 as a new brand by ByteCubed, a technology firm specializing in government IT innovation, and CHIEF, a DC-based full-service digital agency. U.Group merges the two business operations and offers comprehensive customer-centric technical solutions for the public and private sectors. They  recently announced the release of seven proprietary products centered on helping customers modernize their digital assets, with a focus on user experience, content strategy, accessibility and more. These products are designed to help federal, commercial and nonprofit customers keep up with the demands of a digital-first world.