R3 Doubles London Office Space for Blockchain Hiring Spree

Enterprise blockchain firm R3 is adding a second floor to its London office to accommodate a hiring spree.

R3's efforts to add 50 staff members to its 80-strong London office, which serves as its main engineering hub, is a demonstration of its commitment to the U.K. months ahead of its potentially messy EU departure.

R3 is opening a second engineering hub, which will be located in either the San Francisco Bay Area - staking a claim in Silicon Valley - or in another large European city.

The firm said likely alternatives to San Francisco include Dublin, Berlin and Amsterdam.

The new hub will comprise a team of some 10 to 15 engineers, which is expected to be in place sometime in January 2020, according to R3. Re-affirming R3's commitment to London, David Rutter, CEO of R3 said there was an "Enormous opportunity for London" after the October 31st Brexit date that the newly-minted Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pursuing.

R3 is taking the new floor directly under the one it currently occupies in its London office.

"We are doubling our office space in London with a second floor that opened several weeks ago, to accommodate the significant amount of hiring we need to grow the engineering team."

Regarding the opening of the second hub, Cooper pointed out this was definitely not a secondary engineering center in terms of being low cost or compromising on quality in any way; the hiring standards outside of London would be the same as in London, he said.

"Outside of San Francisco, the European city we haven't nailed yet," added Cooper, "I can just tell you that some of the cities that are being seriously considered are Dublin, Berlin, and Amsterdam. There are others like Cologne and Manchester we are looking at."

Also shrouded in secrecy was the firm's settlement with Ripple over a sizable trove of XRP cryptocurrency, which may have come R3's way.