R3, the enterprise blockchain software firm, has reaffirmed its commitment to London, doubling the size of its London Wall hub to accommodate its rapidly growing engineering team. The extra space will also support an aggressive hiring plan to increase the company’s global headcount from its current level of 215 to nearly 300 by the end of the year. Of this, over half of the new hires will be in the London office, with more than 40 new recruits being made in the capital. The firm’s roster of new hires will consist largely of software engineers, along with commercial and client-facing roles around the world.
This initiative is a cornerstone of R3’s rapid growth plans that include an additional engineering centre in a new city by the early of 2020. R3 is currently evaluating the best location for the second site and will make that selection in the coming months.
The expansion represents a strong commitment from R3 to London. London has gained a reputation as a global technology hub and last year, despite the ongoing uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations, attracted more Foreign Direct Investment than any other city. It was independently ranked as the top global fintech hub by EY and Deloitte and hosts over half of FinTech50’s leading fintech firms1.
While enterprise blockchain is still in its early years, it is now being deployed by some of the world’s largest companies across sectors as diverse as healthcare, insurance, capital markets and global trade. R3’s Corda blockchain serves as the foundation for many of these initiatives, becoming one of the leading blockchain platforms for enterprise use. The growth of the engineering team will ensure that the hundreds of businesses who build their applications on Corda can continue to deploy blockchain solutions simply and successfully.
David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, said: “There is enormous opportunity for London post-Brexit. While there clearly remain some uncertainties, we believe the city is well placed and established to thrive in the coming years. That’s why we are confident in making this substantial long-term commitment now.
"R3 is committed to ensuring the technology underpinning Corda is cutting-edge. To continue to do this, we need the very best people. It makes complete sense to look to London as we further develop the ways that blockchain can be developed and deployed. As our software gains more use cases and across more sectors, we will be looking to invest further in top talent – London and elsewhere.”
