10 years of ameria – article in the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung
On twenty fifth of October, 2011 the Rhein-Neckar newspaper published an interview with the CEO and company founder Albrecht Metter on the occasion of the 10 years anniversary of ameria GmbH. History, structure and arrangement of Heidelberg company are described in the article "Where it is “cool” to be a swot".
Where it is “cool” to be a swot
ameria: German-Ukrainian Software Company
Everything started over ten years ago, from the contact of the city Heidelberg to Simferopol in Crimea. Back then when two computer freaks from these cities got to know each other while studying economics in Heidelberg, the decision to found an own company was made very quickly. In 2001 Albrecht Metter from Heidelberg and Dimitri Belich from Ukraine established the company called Ameria, in Heidelberg as a GmbH, in Simferopol as the Ukrainian pendant of the GmbH called TOV.
A 35 square meters digs in the historic city center served as the office in Heidelberg and also was the place where Albrecht Metter had to live. A typical start-up story that has just celebrated its ten years anniversary. At the moment the company has 165 employees at both locations and the duties are clearly separated between Ukraine and Heidelberg. In Heidelberg these are 15 people of top- and project management while in Simferopol 150 IT developers and engineers are creating software by the order of the company in Heidelberg. Back then they started designing homepages for companies; nowadays they are developing software for the mobile end applications of the customers. On the one hand, ameria’s reason to establish the subsidiary company in Ukraine was 50 percent lower labor cost there, on the other hand, the shortage of IT specialists in Germany. “There you are considered to be “cool” when you´re good at mathematics, here in Germany you are labeled as a swot“, so the Albrecht Metter’s explanation.
