U.S. ride booking company Lyft has confirmed its plans to open a research and development center in Kyiv, Ukrainian tech media Dou.ua reported on May 25. Lyft wants to hire at least 80 local tech specialists, in addition to 20 techies that the company already employs in Ukraine.
Lyft doesn’t plan to launch its service in the Ukrainian market that is now dominated by local ride booking company Uklon, Uber from the U.S. and Bolt from Estonia.
Lyft’s R&D center in Kyiv will focus on improving online maps that the company’s users need to navigate in nearly 700 cities across the U.S. and Canada. The company wrote on LinkedIn that accurate navigation is at the core of its success in the highly competitive ride-booking industry. Lyft’s online maps help users to find scooters or bikes faster, while drivers use them to navigate congested streets “safely and swiftly.”
Ukraine is the third country in Europe to host the company’s R&D centers — Lyft already has centers in Munich and Minsk. Ukraine has many qualified tech specialists and a developed information technology sector, making it “an ideal place” to hire people, Lyft said. Ukrainian hires will work with colleagues in San Francisco, New York, Mexico City, London and Montreal.
Ukraine has been in the spotlight of many global companies that entered the country to open R&D centers and hire tech specialists. In April, Spanish food delivery firm Glovo announced that it plans to open an office for research and development in Kyiv to expand its business in the country. French car-sharing service BlaBlaCar said in April that it wants to build an engineering center in Ukraine, one of the company’s fastest-growing markets.
Ukraine also hosts R&D centers of big tech companies, including Google, Samsung and Ubisoft.
