Tech firm Square to open St. Louis office, hire 200

ST. LOUIS -- The company Square has opened an office in St. Louis and plans to hire more than 200 people over the next five years, offering a big boost to the effort to make St. Louis a Midwest hub for tech businesses.

The San Francisco-based company made the announcement Wednesday.

Square was founded in 2009 by two St. Louis natives, Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey. Dorsey co-founded Twitter.

Square offers a register service that accepts credit cards, tracks inventory and performs real-time analytics and invoicing.

Company officials plan to hire 40 full-time workers in St. Louis immediately.

Square says St. Louis is a prime location for expansion in part because of a rich pool of talent from top universities, research centers and training programs.