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AvidXchange Expanding, Creating 600 Jobs In Charlotte

Michael Tomsic

 A software company founded in Charlotte is expanding to create about 600 jobs. AvidXchange will also build a new headquarters at the Music Factory.

AvidXchange's first office was in an old fire station on the corner of Ninth and Brevard in uptown Charlotte. When Michael Praeger co-founded the company in 2000, he said that office consisted of five desks in what looked like a small, brick warehouse.

"Fourteen years ago, if you'd told me that we'd be building a corporate campus in Charlotte," Praeger said at a press conference on Monday, "I don't think I would've believed you."

Since then, Praeger's company has moved to the Metropolitan and grown to employ about 275 people in Charlotte. It develops software to help small to mid-size businesses automate their billing process. 

Now AvidXchange plans to hire about 600 more people by the end of 2018. As part of the expansion, the company will build a 115,000 square-foot headquarters at the Music Factory.

Governor Pat McCrory said he remembers when he was mayor joking that the developers behind the Music Factory were "nuts." But the site near uptown has grown into a nightlife and entertainment hub, and McCrory said AvidXchange's new headquarters will lead to more growth.

"That means there's going to be other construction in and around that area, and that's going to help the property tax base," he said. "And that's going to continue to bring even more jobs to Charlotte and to North Carolina."

The state is giving AvidXchange incentives that could add up to more than $7.5 million over 12 years. The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are also putting up incentives worth more than $1 million. 

AvidXchange plans to hire people from the Charlotte area for the vast majority of the 600 jobs. The average wage will be about $62,000.