Toronto, that beautiful Canadian city that some say is the most sophisticated urban center on the planet, is shaping up as a world-class fintech center as well. Thomson Reuters, whose Eikon terminals compete with Bloomberg, has pledged $100M to build out its growing technology hub in that city.
A Chicago-Toronto Fintech Corridor was also announced at a Fintech Sandbox event in Toronto recently, and we've featured numerous stories on the fintech ecosystem and players there, including Overbond, FutureVault, Impression Ventures, Stack and many, many more. Watch for this city to shine in the fintech spotlight as their ecosystem continues to grow.
(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)
"Thomson Reuters Corp. plans to invest $100-million (U.S.) to help build a permanent home for its growing Toronto technology hub.
The news and information company has snapped up naming rights and all of the commercial office space in a major redevelopment of the former Southam Press Building. Sitting at the corner of Duncan Street and Adelaide Street West, the original brick structure with a history steeped in journalism was built in 1908.
A year ago, Thomson Reuters announced it would add 400 high-tech jobs over two years to create a centre for exploring new technologies in machine learning, cloud computing and big-data analytics. The expanding centre has made a temporary home in a tower just south of the city's financial district but is ahead of schedule on its hiring plan and could outgrow its current space by the end of next year.
With a 12-year lease on the revamped Duncan Street building and plans to move in early in 2021, the company has secured a foothold that can accommodate its eventual goal of having 1,500 staff at the hub. And it sends a signal about its ambition to tap the hotly-contested talent pool in the region's technology sector. Thomson Reuters is emerging from a years-long turnaround plan and showing early signs of growing momentum in its financial results. But chief executive officer Jim Smith has cast the challenge of keeping pace with technological advances as a matter of long-term survival for his company.
"Our hiring experience [in Toronto] has exceeded my expectations," Mr. Smith said. "It's confirmed, frankly, my greatest hopes for the market as a place to source talent.
The building is being developed by Westbank Projects Corp. and Allied Properties REIT. Thomson Reuters will occupy a 10-storey office space that preserves part of the building's heritage facade, and its $100-million expenditure will pay the lease and build out the offices to meet the company's specifications..."
Full Story at The Globe & Mail