Technology

Posted on August 1, 2019 by staff

Deliveroo acquires Edinburgh software firm for new tech hub

Technology

UK food delivery firm Deliveroo has acquired an Edinburgh software design and development firm.

Based at Edinburgh’s CodeBase tech hub, Cultivate will become Deliveroo’s new tech hub, the first outside of its headquarters in London.

Cultivate had previously helped Deliveroo to build its current payments system, and the acquisition is hoped to bring further innovation.

The firm said it plans to use the new tech hub to create an improved payments system for riders and restaurants, provide better data and financial planning for riders and restaurants, and development improvements to cash flow for both.

The UK firm will double its headcount in the next 12 months in Edinburgh and aims to house 50 tech jobs in the new Scottish office within three years.

Its new tech hub will be made up of engineers, product managers, user researchers, designers and data scientists, in an effort to help to further develop Edinburgh’s tech ecosystem.

It said it also continue to back community initiatives supported by Cultivate, including a Prewired, which helps young people learn to code, and codebar, which supports underrepresented groups to develop software engineering skills.

The firm has also committed sponsorship at Scotland’s largest tech festival Turing Fest.

“As a British company, Deliveroo is proud to be investing in Edinburgh and creating more high skilled jobs in the UK,” said Dan Winn, Deliveroo VP of engineering.

“Edinburgh is one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech hubs, with access to an excellent talent pool of highly skilled people and university graduates. Deliveroo is committed to offering riders flexible, well-paid work and helping restaurants to grow their businesses. Building on Cultivate’s expertise, we are excited to create new products and services that will help us achieve this.”

Cultivate’s CCO Andy Robinson will become Deliveroo’s site lead in Edinburgh as a result of the acquisition.

“We have a fantastic relationship with Deliveroo, supporting them through an amazing period of growth,” Robinson said.

“We were attracted by the array of interesting problems being tackled by their team, and how they are addressing them using modern and emerging technology.

“We’re proud to have built such a great team here in Edinburgh, and today’s announcement is a testament to their hard work and expertise in building world-class software. We are excited to continue this work, create highly skilled jobs, and build a centre of tech excellence here in Edinburgh.”

In May, Deliveroo secured $575m in a funding round led by Amazon.