Rent the Runway opens first-ever international tech office

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Apr 24, 2019

Following its latest expansion into childrenswear, Rent the Runway has announced that it is expanding its operations with the opening of its first-ever international technology office.

Set to open in Galway, Ireland, in May, the office is expected to enable the company to expand its engineering and product development footprint. The office will be temporarily located at the Portershed and will move to a more permanent home later this summer.

“We are thrilled to open our first-ever international office in Galway, where we’ve had overwhelming support from the Irish Government and the IDA,” said Rent the Runway Chief Technology Officer, Josh Builder, in a news statement.

“From the start, it was clear that Galway was the perfect location for our new office - the city has an atmosphere of creativity, mirrors Rent the Runway’s cultural values, and excitingly, will be the European Capital of Culture in 2020. There’s an incredible opportunity to tap into the growing STEM talent in the region, and we’re eager to begin establishing our Irish footprint.”

The fashion company, valued at $1 billion, plans to hire 150 engineers and tech developers over the next three years who will “will tackle core technology challenges that are critical to Rent the Runway’s overall success and will influence the future of the next generation of services,” according to a press release.

The team in Galway will undertake new in-house software, as well as support U.S. operations, particularly the company’s mobile and desktop platform. The Irish teams will also be working on projects to expand and enable the company’s fulfilment network, leverage data science to bring personalization and insight to all aspects of Rent the Runway’s systems, and experiment with new data driven applications.

The privately owned company has five physical locations in the U.S., 11 million members, and 1,800 employees. Rent the Runway, is headquartered in New York City, and was founded in 2009 by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss.