Uber is opening a new engineering hub in downtown Toronto that will focus on new products such as a new grocery delivery service.
In an emailed announcement to MobileSyrup, the ridesharing service said the new hub, which will be located at 121 Bloor St. East, is one of a five-year $200 million investment. The hub will take up the top five floors of the building and will be the 11th engineering hub globally.
The company intends to house 200 employees when the office opens and expects “more than 400 staff” to join “within the coming years.”
For a while, Uber has been teasing that it will be launching an Uber Grocery service, one that would deliver groceries to customers.
In January, the company’s head of Uber Eats Canada confirmed the company was hiring a grocery team and it as one of the company’s priorities for this year.
Uber said in its announcement that the hub intends to focus much of its efforts on this new service.
It also intends to focus on Uber Marketplace health, a new service that will offer “real-time insights into the business, ensuring that Uber always has the right number of drivers on the road, pricing is fair for riders, food arrives fast and fresher.”
It also will focus on Uber Fintech tools, where Uber will “leverage artificial intelligence and big data to create tools that analyze risk and generate intelligence that will help Uber make smart investment decisions.”
