UK food delivery firm Deliveroo has acquired an Edinburgh software design and development firm.
Based at Edinburgh鈥檚 CodeBase tech hub, Cultivate will become Deliveroo鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 largest tech festival Turing Fest.
鈥淎s a British company, Deliveroo is proud to be investing in Edinburgh and creating more high skilled jobs in the UK,鈥� said Dan Winn, Deliveroo VP of engineering.
鈥淓dinburgh is one of the UK鈥檚 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鈥檚 expertise, we are excited to create new products and services that will help us achieve this.鈥�
Cultivate鈥檚 CCO Andy Robinson will become Deliveroo鈥檚 site lead in Edinburgh as a result of the acquisition.
鈥淲e have a fantastic relationship with Deliveroo, supporting them through an amazing period of growth,鈥� Robinson said.
鈥淲e were attracted by the array of interesting problems being tackled by their team, and how they are addressing them using modern and emerging technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e proud to have built such a great team here in Edinburgh, and today鈥檚 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.鈥�
In May, Deliveroo secured $575m in a funding round led by Amazon.