1901 Group expanding into Washington County

Reston-based information technology services company 1901 Group will invest $1.15 million in Washington County to establish its third Virginia operations center, creating 150 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Monday.

The new center will be located at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon, where small businesses can pay $1.05 per square foot to be a tenant, according to its website. Established in 2002, the incubator helps startups and existing businesses to expand in Southwest Virginia. Virginia competed with Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia for the project.

“Our commonwealth has the second-highest concentration of technology workers in the nation, and we are happy to see more companies recognize the benefits of locating technology jobs in Southwest Virginia,” Northam said during the investment announcement in Washington County. “1901 Group’s operations across diverse parts of Virginia are benefitting from our world-class workforce and higher education institutions that prepare the next generation of IT professionals for the 21st century jobs offered by the company.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Washington County to secure the project for Virginia, and the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $140,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project. The company can also receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program. The Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide funding and training for the project.

“1901 Group is committed to investing in growing talent to address the deficit of cloud engineering and cyber talent in the public sector,” 1901 Group CEO Sonu Singh said in a statement. “Our business model is based on engaging rural communities to create the next wave of IT talent focused on automation, streamlining, and continual improvement in large scale IT environments. Abingdon fits that profile with its access to embedded talent at nearby universities and community colleges.”

1901 Group was founded in 2009 and offers cloud, cybersecurity and enterprise scale-managed services. It has clients in the federal, state and local governments, as well as law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. 

In 2018, 1901 Group invested $4 million in its Montgomery County and Fairfax County operations centers, creating a total of 805 jobs. The Montgomery County project includes a 45,000-square-foot facility, which began construction in August 2019.

1901 Group’s name comes from the year the assembly line began to disrupt manufacturing, according to the company website.