• Fortech was founded 2003 and is headquartered in Cluj-Napoca. With 1,100+ people, the company operates out of four cities in Romania.
• Throughout nearly two decades of operation Fortech accomplished more than 1,000 digital projects for hundreds of clients and positioned as one of Romania’s largest leading independent digital engineering firms.
• Fortech delivers full-spectrum digital engineering services including Architecture Design, Software Development, DevOps, Quality Assurance, and Data Analytics. It holds deep domain experience in six key high growth verticals: Automotive, Banking/Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Professional Services, and Technology/Media/Telecom.
• Fortech also has been recognized as one of the 2022 Best Managed Companies in Romania in the first edition of Deloitte’s Romania program.
• The acquisition will help GlobalLogic further expand its customer and talent base. Additionally, Fortech’s seasoned leaders will bring valuable technical and domain experience along with strong relationships across European markets and marquee clients.

“This acquisition will further enhance GlobalLogic’s presence in Europe, and accelerate our access to the rich technical talent in Romania; it will arm Fortech with the resources and strong backing of GlobalLogic and Hitachi. We are excited to welcome Fortech and their talented people to the GlobalLogic family,”

Nitesh Banga, President and CEO of GlobalLogic, stated.

• Under the agreement, Fortech will continue to operate with its existing leadership and staff as a wholly owned subsidiary of GlobalLogic. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of Calendar Q4, 2022.

“Joining forces with GlobalLogic, backed by Hitachi, takes our reach to a whole new level. Additionally, finding a partner that shares our cultural values with a strong emphasis on people, customers, and societal benefit is extremely gratifying,”

Calin Vaduva, CEO Fortech, said.

• GlobalLogic’s investment in Fortech is part of a multi-year strategy designed to establish a wider European footprint while enabling it to better serve its customers worldwide from a delivery perspective. This acquisition will further enable GlobalLogic to augment Hitachi’s strengths in Information Technology (IT), Operating Technology (OT), and Products, and accelerate its growth helping expand the Lumada business.
• The U.S. company GlobalLogic was acquired by Hitachi in March, 2021 for $9.6 billion. The company has big offices in Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Germany, Slovakia, and Romania.

• GlobalLogic is aimed to build a team of 120 people in Gdańsk. It will work on the latest solutions in embedded systems development, cybersecurity, IoT, or communication. 
• The company currently has more than 1,100 open positions all around the world, more than 400 of them are in Poland, and 35 are in Gdańsk, including Embedded Software Developers, DevOps Engineers, and Automation Testing Engineers.
• In February 2022, GlobalLogic opened the 1,000-person development center in Wrocław. It has innovative IT laboratories for development testing. There, engineers are creating, developing, and testing IT solutions in the field of automotive technology, Industry 4.0, cloud service, or telecom.
• As GlobalLogic told AIN.Capital, the company also plans to launch a new development center in Katowice in the nearest future.
• Meanwhile, the company continues its global expansion. By the end of 2022, GlobalLogic’s offices will appear in at least three new countries. The scaling will allow the company to strengthen technical expertise in the regions and facilitate the exchange of experience between specialists.

• More than 500 specialists now co-work with GlobalLogic in Wrocław. The opening of the center will allow the company to continue its development in the city and to double the team of IT specialists by 2024.
• GlobalLogic currently has more than 300 open positions in Europe (Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Sweden, Switzerland), more than 160 of them are in Poland. This gives additional opportunities for professionals if they need to relocate.
• The designer modular co-working spaces and conference rooms of the new Wrocław office resemble development centers in the US and Japan. The office has professional equipment, so engineers can communicate and collaborate effectively. Also, there are isolated booths where the specialist can stay alone.
• The new office has innovative IT laboratories for developments testing. There, engineers will create, develop, and test IT solutions in the field of automotive technology, Industry 4.0, cloud service, or telecom.
• GlobalLogic is a Hitachi Group IT company. It was acquired by Hitachi Ltd in 2021.
• In Ukraine the company has offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Mykolaiv. According to the DOU, in summer 2021, the company employed about 6,000 tech specialists, which made it one of the largest IT companies in Ukraine by the number of employees, right after EPAM and SoftServe.

For the first time, a company with over 11,000 employees (EPAM) appeared in the ranking, and in general, the staff of the top 50 Ukrainian IT companies grew by 12%.

Here is the full list of the top 50:

• This year, Together Networks was included in the ranking for the first time. In 2020, the company was actively growing with its product in the field of dating. Beetroot returned to the 50th position in the ranking. AllSTARSIT and Brightgrove were also included for the first time.
• This edition of the ranking does not feature Murka Games, Jooble, Netpeak Group, Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine.
• During the first half of 2021, the number of professionals at the top 50 companies grew by 12.7% (9,719 people). As of July 1, 2021, these companies employed over 86,000 people.
• Twenty-three companies included in the ranking grew by over 100 professionals in six months. In the second half of 2020, similar trends were observed in 16 companies.
• Only eight companies from the top 50 opened new offices in the first half of 2021.
• Thirty-two companies said they plan to hire 100+ new professionals in the next six months.
• Only three companies are ready to relocate 50-100 specialists. The majority of companies (28) do not have such plans.
• Most of the companies from the ranking (36) have employees practicing a hybrid work model — they mix work in offices and from home. Only three companies on the list work completely remotely.

The Ukrainian office of GlobalLogic did not comment on the deal, but representatives of the headquarters of GlobalLogic told AIN.UA what will change for the company’s Ukrainian offices and their specialists due to the acquisition.

What will happen to the Ukrainian office after the deal is completed: are there any plans to close it and move the employees to other offices? Will the management change?

Ukraine is a very important engineering center for GlobalLogic. It will remain so after the completion of the deal. GlobalLogic is planned to become an independent subsidiary of Hitachi. That means that all our offices, including those in Ukraine, will work as before. Over time, our business will grow due to the increasing number of customers we work with together with Hitachi.

Will the company continue to operate under its brand and with its own representative offices? Will the structure of the global company remain the same? Will the head office and top managing executives change?

GlobalLogic will keep its name and brand. No changes in the company’s structure and management are planned.

Will Ukrainian employees/management team receive bonuses or other payments? Will they be offered to relocate if the company structure changes after the deal?

No comment.

Will the company expand its presence in Ukraine, open offices in other cities, and recruit employees?

GlobalLogic has been growing dynamically in Ukraine even before the announcement of the acquisition. So, we believe this trend will continue after the deal is closed. We cannot give any specific growth forecast right now. However, we plan to keep growing, and developing our business in Ukraine is an essential part of this strategy.

How much has GlobalLogic grown globally in the last year?

Over the past year, GlobalLogic has grown in the number of specialists, from 16,000 to 20,000, due to organic growth as well as mergers and acquisitions of other companies.

Editor’s note: According to Hitachi, over 2020, Global GlobalLogic had revenue of about $771 million and EBITDA of $179 million:

• The magazine notes that the deal is part of an expansion of the Japanese business portfolio, which includes the acquisition of ABB Ltd for $7 billion in 2020.
• The ownership structure of GlobalLogic is as follows: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Swiss investment firm Partners Group own 45% each. The rest is owned by the company’s management.
• GlobalLogic in Ukraine has offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Mykolaiv. According to the DOU, in January 2021, the company employed 5,712 specialists, which makes it one of the largest IT companies in Ukraine by the number of employees, right after EPAM and SoftServe.

The editorial team of AIN.UA requested a comment on the deal from the Ukrainian office, but the local management has not yet commented on the situation.

• Annual revenue growth in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Belarus slowed from 20-25% to 10-15% amid the pandemic but began to grow rapidly in the fourth quarter.
• The revenue of 5 CEE players out of the 50 largest IТ service companies exceeded $100 million, 6 others exceeded the mark of $200 million. Among the companies with offices in Ukraine are Epam, Luxoft, GlobalLogic, and SoftServe.

• The total volume of IT exports generated by Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Belarus is over $18 billion.
• The total number of IT professionals in the region is over 660,000.
• The annual number of tech graduates is more than 60,000 people.
• Number of mergers and acquisitions in 2015-2020 – 137; in 2020 – 29.

Among the major deals for 2020-2021 in Ukraine are:

• Sigma Software acquired the Kharkiv-based outsourcing company IdeaSoft. According to AIN.UA, the transaction amounted to $1.5 million.
• The US company Cprime acquired the Ukrainian Archer Software. According to experts, 100% of the company could be valued at $5-8 million.
• SARS Capital invested in the outsourcing company S-PRO.
• Grid Dynamics acquired the technology company Daxx.
• IT company Ciklum raised strategic investments from the technology investment platform Recognize Partners.

Violin Memory provides integrated enterprise hardware and software solutions for data storage based on flash memory. The company employs over 260 employees globally and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Their core staff of developers is also there, while sales managers work in regions of South America, as well as Europe and Asia.

Now about 50 specialists in Ukraine will join the Californian company’s developers and engineers. In Ukraine, the company plans to develop software for its solutions.

According to Ebrahim Abbasi, СOO of Violin Memory, in addition to software development, the Ukrainian team will also handle QA. “We will begin with 50 developers in Ukraine and their number will increase as our products grow,” he explained to AIN.UA, adding that they do not plan to relocate Ukrainian employees to California.

This is how Abbasi explained the choice in favor of Ukrainians: “Firstly, Ukraine is in the top five most educated countries worldwide and developers here are in abundance. That’s why it is a suitable destination for tech companies. Before making a final decision in favor of Ukraine as the place for creating our remote R&D, we evaluated many places, including Romania and India. We paid attention to demographics, level of education, availability of resources, and most importantly, the willingness to go an extra mile. As a result, GlobalLogic in Kyiv became our best choice.”

Developers of Violin Memory in Ukraine will work as consultants of GlobalLogic and will be housed in the R&D center of GlobalLogic in Kyiv. Abassi calls this cooperation a “hybrid model”, without mentioning the working conditions of Ukrainians. “Cooperation with GlobalLogic will allow us to utilize a hybrid model where internal and external resources will allow us to scale on the market in a shorter time,” he says.

In contrast, SimilarWeb has upped the ante in Ukraine. Recently it became known that the global giant of web-analytics has been having its own team of developers in Kyiv for about a year now. Moreover, it is called the official office of SimilarWeb in Ukraine, although it has existed on the basis of Kyiv’s own Ciklum during all this time.

According to AIN.UA’s source in SimilarWeb, Tel Aviv, it all started as a partnership with Ciklum, but currently, all employees of its Kyiv office (15 people) are full-time salaried employees of SimilarWeb. “The office was founded in June 2015 with the goal of rapid strengthening and expansion of development resources. Kyiv team is involved in developing of all key elements of the product in sync with the teams located in Tel Aviv (for example, main website similarweb.com development team, mobile application analysis development team),” said Pavel Tuchinsky, Marketing Analyst of SimilarWeb.

SimilarWeb is not the only partner of Ciklum who hires Ukrainian developers according to such a model. The opening of R&D centers on the basis of outsourcers is not a novelty for Ukraine, there are quite a few similar cases, but rarely companies are ready to announce it openly and most of the projects are strictly confidential. However, R&Ds in Ukraine are also opened by Western customers on the basis of smaller outsourcers.

On July 28, 2016, the first R&D center of the European media platform glomex (part of the German media holding ProSiebenSat.1.) was launched in Kyiv. The office was created on the basis of Ukrainian IT company Team Technologies with headquarters in Lviv. Ukrainian team of glomex has over 20 developers working in various directions: Machine Learning, Big Data, Android, iOS, Ruby, PHP, and JS. The company plans to expand its Ukrainian office.

“Ukrainians participate in the development of a new product, which was presented by  German ProSiebenSat.1, one of the key players of the European media industry, in April 2016. It is a glomex media exchange platform, which has gained wide popularity on the territory of German-speaking countries, particularly, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany,” Team Technologies shared with AIN.UA.

So far, cooperation with outsourcers is more convenient and profitable for Western companies than opening their own full-fledged R&Ds in Ukraine. Igor Beda, managing Director of GlobalLogic in Ukraine, explained the reasons why international companies prefer to enter Ukraine through outsourcing:

“Ukraine is interesting to international companies with a large number of talented engineers and good expertise in R&D for a broad spectrum of business areas. However, the unfavorable investment climate and changing business rules slow down the emergence of many international players in Ukraine. Partnership with us not only minimizes these risks but also gives customers access to the necessary engineering expertise, reduces the time of bringing new products to market, promotes the qualitative transformation of their business, for example, through the use of our experience in software development.”

Some companies go the other way – they acquire their IT partner along with their entire team. That’s what Ericsson did. It has been present in Ukraine for over 100 years, but it did not have its own R&D centers before the acquisition of the Ukrainian-Polish IT Company Ericpol. Now Ericsson has its own development center with 120 developers.

[Editor’s note: The original article was published on August 10, 2016, and information contained therein is valid.]

“Over 1,500 Specialists”Category

This year, Infopulse was recognized the best employer among the largest Ukrainian IT companies. SoftServe and GlobalLogic got into the top-three. Luxoft and NIX Solutions were not represented in this rating as they had not overcome the barrier of 10% votes of the total staff quantity.

“800-1,500 Specialists”Category

Genesis won in this category with minimum 95 scores in each question pool. The last-year winner Intellias took the second place, and SigmaSoftware – the third one.

“200-800 Specialists”Category

Govitall is the winner in this category. Trionika and Netpeak go behind. Terrasoft, the last-year silver medalist, did not overcome the barrier by minimum number of votes.

81-200 Specialists”Category

Codemotion wins the second consecutive year, and now in the “81-200 specialists” category. 52 interviewed employees gave maximum scores to the company. Ringostat, Technorely and ActiveBridge also got the highest scores and took the second, third and fourth place, respectively.

Food Companies

This year was the first time when DOU made the food companies rating. Ringostat took the first place, and M2E Pro and Terrasoft also got to the top-three.

In addition, the rating includes the employers breakdown by cities:

• The best employer in Kyiv — Codemotion
• Kharkiv — ITOMYCH STUDIO
• Lviv —  Leobit
• Dnipro — LANARS
• Odesa — Netpeak
• Vinnytsia — Pillar
• Cherkasy — Active Bridge