Zivaro CEO Greg Byles talks about the expansion during Friday's announcement at the Chamber & EDC. Scott Prater
Colorado Springs city and El Paso County leaders announced Friday that a Denver-based information tech company is expanding to Colorado Springs.
The company, Zivaro, plans to expand its operations in the city and will bring more than 300 high-paying jobs to the area. The IT-focused services and solutions company specializes in serving governments, national defense partners, health care and financial companies.
Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, said Zivaro will focus on modernizing legacy systems that serve both space and command and control (C2) programs offered by the U.S. government.
Currently, the company employs roughly 50 workers in Colorado Springs, but has plans to employ more than 300 in the Pikes Peak Region during the next few years. Zivaro recently opened its Colorado Springs office near Interquest Parkway and Interstate 25.
“We’re excited about Colorado Springs,” said Greg Byles, Zivaro’s co-founder and CEO. “We started up in 1998 and have slowly grown over the years. “We know we can grow this company and we believe this location attracts the right people. The premier talent within Colorado Springs rivals anywhere in the United States. We’re a proud Colorado company and there’s no better place in the country.”
Most Zivaro employees work as software or infrastructure engineers, as well cyber and tactical engineers, according to Byles — jobs that pay average salaries of $165,000 a year or more.
Mayor John Suthers, on hand for the announcement event at the Chamber & EDC offices, applauded the move.
“Bringing highly paid job opportunities to Colorado Springs has been very positive for our trajectory as a city,” Suthers said. “We’ve emphasized it throughout our history, but particularly in the last eight years. This expansion brings more than 300 well-paying jobs that provide mission-critical services within the rich aerospace and defense ecosystem that is thriving here in Colorado Springs.
“More than 250 companies, all committed to providing advanced technologies and national defense, global positioning systems, cybersecurity, and satellite communications, have chosen to be in our city, making Colorado Springs an important hub in supporting the nation’s defense efforts in space.”
Zivaro’s expansion comes a few months after the chamber announced it would form a public-private partnership Deal Closing Fund in an effort to attract more businesses and investment capital to the area. Zivaro is the first company to receive cash from the Deal Closing Fund — half a million dollars, according to Suthers.
Byles explained that Zivaro employees currently work at multiple locations throughout the city and that he expects the company’s labor expansion to take time.
“Strategically, we’re looking at an 8-year plan,” he said. “That’s a conservative estimate, but we are attracting people, we’re comfortable with the plan and if everything goes well, we will probably end up constructing a building near our current location.”
Zivaro had a multitude of options available when it decided to expand, including Huntsville, Alabama where former President Trump reportedly influenced military leaders to move U.S. Space Command. A final decision of where the command will be permanently located is expected in the near future, but Byles said that won’t affect Zivaro’s decision to expand in Colorado Springs.
“Even if they ultimately move U.S. Space Command to Alabama, elements of the command will remain in Colorado Springs,” he said. “So, we’re comfortable with our decision to expand here.”
While the decision on U.S. Space Command’s location is still in doubt, Suthers remains confident that the city can continue to attract high-tech industries.
“More than 50 percent of our country’s Space Force is based in Colorado, and many of the nation’s leading companies in this industry are based in Colorado Springs,” he said. “According to a broad survey of Americans by US News World Report, we clearly have a lot to offer as a place to live. Colorado Springs has proven itself a community where people want to live, work, and raise their families.”