Singapore Tech Company Opens EU Headquarters in Ireland

Singapore Tech Company Opens EU HQ in Dublin — 30 Staff on Irish Payroll Inside 90 Days

Background: closing enterprise deals required an EU billing entity

The Singapore parent had been invoicing its German and French enterprise customers from a Delaware sister company. Procurement teams in Frankfurt and Paris flagged this as a vendor risk — invoicing entities outside the EU complicate VAT, complicate data residency under GDPR, and complicate counterparty due diligence. Closing the next ten enterprise deals required an EU-resident contracting entity. Ireland was the obvious choice: English-language, common-law, EU-passportable, with a Tier-1 ecosystem of cloud, payment and SaaS counterparties already there.

The challenge: setting up an EU HQ as a non-EU founder, with employees

An Irish LTD with employees is not the same project as an Irish LTD that just bills customers. The company must register with Revenue as an employer (PREM), it must operate PAYE / PRSI / USC withholding through a real-time information (RTI) payroll system, and it must comply with the Workplace Relations Act, Organisation of Working Time Act, and the Employment Permits Acts where third-country nationals are recruited. Add Section 137 EEA-resident director compliance and a typical project that took rival agents three months to deliver.

The solution: incorporation, Revenue, payroll and bank in one workstream

Chern & Co ran the project as one engagement with one client lead. The sequence:

• Days 1–14: A1 incorporation with bespoke constitution, nominee director under Section 137, RBO declaration, registered office in Limerick
• Days 15–30: Tax registration with Revenue (CT, VAT and employer PREM), business bank account opened with Bank of Ireland
• Days 31–60: BrightPay payroll deployed (Chern & Co is a BrightPay reseller), 30 employee contracts reviewed for compliance with Irish employment law, ROS access for the directors
• Days 61–90: First payroll run, P30 monthly return filed, RBO confirmation issued, employer’s liability and public liability insurance brokered

The outcome: enterprise deals closed from an EU entity

The first three enterprise contracts closed in week three under the new Irish entity, unblocking €4.2M of pipeline. Employees received compliant contracts and Irish payslips on time, every time. The Singapore parent now invoices the Irish subsidiary on a transfer-pricing basis approved by its tax counsel, and Revenue accepted the corporation tax registration without query.

Why an integrated provider beats stitched-together vendors

Most non-EU groups end up with a CRO agent, a separate accountant, a separate payroll bureau and a separate bank introducer — and lose four weeks to email triangulation. As an authorised TCSP, Sage Gold Partner and BrightPay reseller, Chern & Co delivers incorporation, payroll, tax and banking under one engagement letter, one client lead and one fixed quote.