Box lands a knockout with Austin office, 200 employees

AUSTIN – California-based Box Inc. has announced plans to open a 200-worker office in downtown across the street from its biggest competitor which also happens to be adding 200 jobs.

Box, which provides an online file-sharing service much like Dropbox Inc., said it will open an office this fall at One American Center with workers in several areas such as customer experience, finance and technical operations.

It plans to employ up to 90 local workers by the end of 2014, with plans to eventually expand the workforce to 200.

The new office would be across Congress Avenue from Box’s chief competition, Dropbox, which also plans to employ 200 workers in Austin by the end of 2015.

Box, founded in 2005, claims more than 25 million users and operates offices in San Francisco, London and Japan. In March, Box disclosed plans to raise up to $250 million in an initial public offering.