Aries Solutions plants its flag with new Easton HQ after four years of rapid growth

Aries Solutions has moved into its own suite at Easton Town Center, closing out a four-year run inside COhatch's shared workspaces and giving the Columbus digital transformation firm a headquarters in the middle of the retail district where many of its clients operate.

The move arrives alongside back-to-back appearances on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Aries placed No. 130 overall in 2025 on three-year growth of 2,783%, ranking No. 2 in information technology services, No. 1 in metropolitan Columbus and No. 5 in Ohio. This year the firm came in at No. 2,404 overall on 139% growth, along with No. 123 in IT services, No. 16 in metro Columbus and No. 57 statewide. According to the company, fewer than half of all Inc. 5000 honorees make the list in consecutive years.

By the numbers

• 225 employees globally today, up from roughly 40 when the firm moved into COhatch Polaris
• 2,783% three-year growth on the 2025 Inc. 5000, good for No. 130 overall and No. 1 in metropolitan Columbus
• 139% three-year growth on the 2026 list, at No. 2,404 overall
• 25 to 30 team members the Easton suite can hold on a given day
• Two COhatch locations, Polaris and Westerville, over four years
• One acquisition completed to date

Founded in 2020, Aries began at COhatch Polaris, where the team built the early version of the company around retail composable commerce. As headcount climbed, the firm shifted to COhatch's Westerville location when it opened, then outgrew shared space altogether.

"COhatch gave us the right environment for the chapter of Aries we were building there," said Jake Mays, co-founder and CEO of Aries Solutions. "We arrived as a startup and are leaving as a mid-sized company with national recognition and full-service practices."

Aries counted about 40 people worldwide at Polaris and employs roughly 225 today across a delivery footprint that spans North America, Latin America and India. Mays described the rest of the change as a shift in range, from specialists in a single domain to a team working across industries on problems that sit anywhere in a client's technology stack.

Space to grow at Easton

The new suite solves a practical problem first. It accommodates 25 to 30 people daily, which Mays noted gives a hybrid workforce room to expand without another move required. Easton also puts Aries inside a working retail environment, surrounded by the stores its customers and prospects run.

"I liken it to being in Finance and on Wall Street," Mays said, adding that proximity keeps the team current on how retailers are competing and lets Aries adjust its offerings accordingly. He also volunteered an endorsement of the lunch options.

Asked to describe a typical engagement, Mays started with the challenge that prompts the first call. "Most of them start with a customer whose platform or technology is in the way of their business goals," he said. He offered a common example: a marketing team that wants a new landing page and waits two months to get one live.

The fix involves replacing the specific components creating the drag, whether that is a commerce engine, a content management system (CMS) or a search tool, then connecting them through application programming interfaces (APIs). Mays contrasted that approach with buying one large suite and living with the pieces it handles poorly. Aries is a member of the MACH Alliance, the industry group behind the standards underpinning that model, and its practice centers on composable implementations.

The firm structures projects in phases so clients see value early, and Mays emphasized knowledge transfer during delivery so customers can support the new capabilities on their own once the engagement ends.

Agentic commerce and more deals ahead

AI shapes much of the year ahead, specifically the agentic commerce strategies moving through the sector. Mays pointed to customer wins in the category. "The rate of change demands constant attention," he said.

Acquisitions make up the other priority. Aries recently completed its first, and Mays indicated the company plans to stay active in mergers and acquisitions where a target adds talent or skill sets that strengthen the core practice and fit the culture.

COhatch builds its coworking model around nonprofits, startups and small businesses growing into something larger, and Aries spent its entire early arc inside that system before moving out on its own.