Shopify Inc. is expanding its presence in Toronto, opening up a new office today at 620 King Street West as part of its plan to double its workforce in the city.
This will be its third office in the Toronto area. It currently has offices at 80 Spadina Avenue and 420 Wellington Street West.
Shopify says this will create approximately 800 jobs by 2022, with a majority of the new positions focused around R&D — designers, product managers, content strategists, engineers, data analysts.
Shopify’s director of UX for app and partner platform Amy Thibodeau says the decision to further expand in Toronto as opposed to cities they have no current presence in, like Vancouver, was based on the experiences they have of the Toronto business landscape – which they found to be quite supportive of the tech industry – as well as Toronto’s reputation as a great place to live. She says both of these elements will play a major role in attracting talent.
“We’ve been invested in Toronto for a long time, and what we found is that it’s a great place to scale a company like Shopify,” said Thibodeau. “It has a thriving community of engineers, and designers, and entrepreneurs. “And it’s also a really multicultural city, which is important to us because Shopify is currently used by over 800,000 merchants in about 175 different countries around the world. It’s really important that we attract a workforce that’s representative of that kind of diversity. And then the other thing that we find about Toronto is that it’s a great place to live — not just a great place to find talent but also a great place to attract talent to.”
Like the previous offices, the new office will contain a space for organizations in the community (with a focus on tech-related organizations) to put on events completely free of charge, which includes a stage, bleacher seating, and a video wall. Last year alone, its other offices helped put on more than 150 events, hosting more than 10,000 people over the year. Thibodeau said this was a no-brainer for Shopify and is a continuation of its mandate to engage the community.
“This is just part of our ongoing strategy … and this is just part of that continued commitment to the community. We want to be part of the community. We want the community to be able to access our space.”