Hot on the heels of recent announcements from international IT firm Globant, and cryptocurrency startup Ripple, another international company has said it is opening a Toronto office.
Adaptavist, a digital transformation company, announced last week that it has selected Toronto as the location for its North American head office. The company said it will add up to 800 new jobs over the next five years, and invest more than $50 million to help incubate new startups, and drive public and private sector collaboration including initiatives with non-profits, and support academic and corporate R&D.
Adaptavist delivers enterprise software, solutions, and services across technology ecosystems, including Atlassian, AWS, Slack, Cloudbees, and Gitlab. Founded in 2006 in London, the company has 13 offices globally, including in New York, Madrid, and Kuala Lampur.
The new Adaptavist office and innovation hub is part of the company’s multi-year, strategic growth plans that include providing Atlassian leadership as well as support for more diverse technology ecosystems, including Aha!, GitLab and Slack.
Teams in the Toronto office will focus on major transformational practices like Agile, Cloud, DevOps, IT Service Management and Work Management including, for example, being a major product development center for products like ScriptRunner and Slack apps.
Adaptavist’s new 16,000 square feet of office will provide a hybrid work environment for its growing employee base and serve as an innovation hub for business partners, community groups, academics, and the arts. The building will have a dedicated space for displays and exhibitions as well as areas for skills-based training, which will be coordinated with partners throughout the community.
The first collaboration out of the new Adaptavist North America headquarters will be with Ascent Soccer, a nonprofit organization with operations in Canada and the United States, that enables talented young boys and girls in Malawi and Uganda, Africa to access education through scholarships in North American schools and colleges. Adaptavist is committing $150,000 a year for the next two years, along with mentoring and digital support, to help co-founder and Toronto native Adrian Bradbury, bring even more scholars to Ontario.
“We are delighted that Adaptavist, one of the fastest-growing software consultancies in the world and the largest Atlassian partner in Canada, is making Toronto its official North American home,” said John Tory, Mayor of Toronto. “Adaptavist has a long record of success in our city and country – they’ve been a great jobs creator, business and academic partner – and they are proof that our focus on tech and economic growth is working. We look forward to an even more productive relationship moving forward.”
Adaptavist first opened a Toronto office over eight years ago. Harp Athwal, head of client services and North American operations for the company, called it one of the smartest decisions the company ever made.
“Toronto provides an enviable mix of culture, collaboration, and support – the city is extremely welcoming to business and is serious about fostering and nurturing talent,” said Athwal. “Our company and this city have grown together as technology leaders, and we couldn’t be more excited to make Toronto our permanent North American home.”
That mix of culture, collaboration, and support might explain why a number of major firms have opened Toronto offices in recent months.
Within the last year, besides Globant and Ripple, Walmart announced that it would open a technology hub in Toronto; the CRM management company Hubspot opened its first Canadian office, hiring over 50 people; and American proptech firm Alfred swooped in with $75 million USD for hiring and acquisitions.
As well, the Swedish payments company Klarna opened a product development and tech hub in Toronto, marking its first in North America, and announced plans to bolster the tech hub by hiring more than 500 engineers by 2025, alongside opening offices in Vancouver and Québec.
Adaptavist claims 40 percent annual revenue growth in 2021, and more than 13,000 customers representing more than half of the Fortune 500. Adaptavist has over 500 staff.
Photo by Berkay Gumustekin on Unsplash