TomTom to increase India headcount to 1,000 by end-2016

TomTom today inaugurated its first global state-of-the-art Innovation Hub in Pune and aims to increase its headcount to 1,000 employees by end-2016.

The innovation hub is a strategic platform that will enable employees to upgrade their skills, innovate, raise ideas and think like entrepreneurs and will be accessible to all 800+ employees in India.

With this facility, TomTom aims to develop a deeper culture of innovation in the company with a free-flow of information and ideas across the globe, allowing experimentation and cross-boundary cooperation to drive change throughout the organization. The Pune innovation hub will allow employees to transform their ideas into proof of concepts and prototypes leading to new innovations.

"Innovation is at the core of everything we do at TomTom and we’re excited to open this new facility in Pune. It is great to build on our existing R&D and innovation centres around the world. Of course, at TomTom, we believe that innovation can happen anywhere and encourage all our employees to be innovative in everything they do," said Alain De Taeye, Member of the Management Board, TomTom.

Commenting on the development, Barbara Belpaire, General Manager - India, TomTom and Head of the Innovation Hub, said, "The Innovation Hub reiterates TomTom's approach of being an innovative company with a focus on nurturing the talent in India. This will give employees a platform to develop new software, technology, applications, services and futuristic consumer products in the wearables, map making and data services space. We aim to contribute to the Indian government's 'Make in India' plan where our India team will contribute significantly to innovation globally."

Pune is one of the key centers in IT, automotive and smart cities in India and therefore a great location for the new Innovation Hub. The facility is segregated into three sections: The Demonstration area is made visually appealing with videos and will offer hands on product experience, the Experimentation area will house TomTom and other technology products for reverse engineering, and the Break-Out Room will provide the right atmosphere to cultivate new ideas.

TomTom will also look at combining the fun of innovation with a social impact to give back to the society. In future, the company plans to partner with top technical universities and tech start-ups to innovate jointly.