Uber is shedding some of the secrecy around its forthcoming engineering hub in Toronto, revealing its location and new priorities for the company.
The San Francisco-based tech giant will vacate three offices in the city to move most of its Toronto workforce to the top five floors of 121 Bloor St. E.
It will dedicate several floors to its first engineering hub in Canada, which will develop at least two new areas for the company: grocery delivery and internal financial-technology tools.
The office will initially house 200 workers, but eventually accommodate 400 employees, including some currently being hired, engineering hub site lead Kare Kjelstrom revealed to the Star.
“The Toronto tech office is going to build software that is going to be used by Uber worldwide,” he said.
“We are creating a synergy effect ... and opportunity here, so I am pretty sure that as soon as it’s known that Uber has a strong tech presence in Toronto, it will attract Canadians abroad to come home.”
The move comes after trouble befell Uber’s initial public offering. The company, valuated at $120 billion (U.S.), went public in early May with shares priced at $45 each. They quickly sank to about $41, landing Uber a market capitalization of about $69 billion.
Those who had already invested in the company reportedly felt the stock prices were too high to purchase more, while mounting losses and slowing growth in some markets spooked others from backing the company. The IPO was dubbed a “train wreck” by experts and analysts said it lost more than any other American IPO since 1975.
Despite the debacle, Uber is determined to move forward and is now turning its attention to Toronto, a city with which it has strong connections. Toronto was the company’s first Canadian market to host its ride-sharing service and later became the birthplace of its popular UberEats offering and the home of its only autonomous research hub outside the United States.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi further solidified his commitment to the city last September, announcing Uber would invest $200 million over five years in its Toronto operations and build an engineering centre— now its 11th globally — there.
Source: The Star
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