Food delivery service Deliveroo is to add jobs in Scotland after acquiring Scottish software design and development firm Cultivate, its first UK office outside its London base.
The two companies have worked together for some years with the Edinburgh-based company helping to build Deliveroo’s payments systems.
Nine Cultivate employees will join Deliveroo as part of the deal and Deliveroo says it will increase headcount in Edinburgh to 50 over the next three years. The purchase price was not disclosed
Andy Robinson, chief commercial officer at Cultivate, who becomes Deliveroo’s site lead in Edinburgh, said: “We have a fantastic relationship with Deliveroo, supporting them through an amazing period of growth. 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.”
Stephen Coleman, CEO of CodeBase, where Cultivate is based, said: “Cultivate has always been at the centre of the tech scene in Edinburgh and has supported events and initiatives across the board. We are really pleased for the Cultivate team and Deliveroo’s plans to grow here in Scotland and are looking forward to having one of Europe’s top tech companies based here at CodeBase.”
Deliveroo VP of engineering Dan Winn said: “Deliveroo is proud to be investing in Edinburgh and creating more high skilled jobs in the UK. 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.”
The company, founded in 2013 by American entrepreneur Will Shu and Greg Orlowski – who left three years ago – is a main sponsor at this year’s Turing Fest, Scotland’s largest tech festival, taking place at the EICC this month. Jonny Brooks-Bartlett, a data scientist from Deliveroo’s London team will also be speaking at the event.
Deliveroo works with more than 80,000 restaurants and take-aways, and has 60,000 riders.
Source: Daily Business