Dutch software firm Bird to leave Europe due to onerous regulations in AI era, says CEO

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Cloud communications software firm Bird, one of the Netherlands’ most prominent tech startups, plans to move most of its operations out of Europe, its CEO said, citing restrictive regulations and difficulties hiring skilled technology workers.

“We are mostly leaving Europe as it lacks the environment we need to innovate in an AI-first era of technology,” CEO Robert Vis told Reuters on Monday.

“We foresee that regulations in Europe will block true innovation in a global economy moving extremely fast to AI,” he said in a text message response to Reuters queries.

Bird’s operations in future will be mostly split between New York, Singapore and Dubai, he said.

Vis first announced the move abroad in a LinkedIn post over the weekend. 

Bird, formerly known as Message Bird, was founded in Amsterdam in 2011. It is a competitor of U.S.-based Twilio in the market for helping companies manage their communications with consumers across digital mediums such as messaging, email and video apps. It says it has developed an AI-powered platform that automates and streamlines business operations across entire organizations including tech leaders.

Last year the European Union introduced the world’s first comprehensive set of rules regulating the use of artificial intelligence, drawing criticism from the United States that European regulations could strangle development of the technology.

Vis said Bird will no longer have a single operational headquarters. In Europe, the company will retain an office in Lithuania and the company’s tax base will continue to be the Netherlands for the time being.

Bird reported a 17 million euro ($17.80 million) net profit in 2023 on sales of 555 million euros, according to its most recent filing with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

($1 = 0.9552 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Susan Fenton)