Citi opens innovation lab in London
Citi is expanding its network of innovation labs with the opening of a new tech hub in London.
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The bank is staying active in the creative space, as last month Citi Ventures revealed it was hunting out young talent with the launch of its Citi University Partnerships in Innovation and Discovery (Cupid).
In the latest development, the London lab will be headquartered at the WeWork offices in Moorgate, and will initially employ 75 technologists from a variety of backgrounds with a focus on software development skills across a range of unnamed sectors and disciplines.
Paco Ybarra, global head of markets and securities services, Citi, says the lab “highlights our commitment to the UK as a strategic hub for innovation”.
The lab will host the EMEA operations of Citi Ventures, the team in charge of venture capital investing and external partnerships, as well as Citi’s D10XSM Programme, which enables its employees to take new business ideas from concept to launch.
The lab will also support Citi’s markets and securities services business with a focus on technologies, including data science, visualisation and computing. Recent investments include distributed ledger technology (DLT) providers Cobalt and R3.
Citi established its first innovation lab in Dublin in 2009 and has since expanded – such as Israel, Singapore and Mexico, with more than 250 senior technologists globally.
