Software specialist WANdisco makes strategic office move to digital hub in Yorkshire

WANdisco plc is relocating its UK head office to Kollider in Sheffield.

Kollider is said to be the city’s new destination for digital, tech and creative communities. The public software company is moving into the newly refurbished Castle House, a former Co-op department store in the heart of the city.

WANdisco will occupy a 7,000 sq ft industrial-style space with meeting pods, breakout areas, balcony overlooking the city and a walk-in safe converted to a bar.

The company was founded in Silicon Valley in California in 2005 and chose Sheffield for its UK head office in 2009.

WANdisco deals with live data and distributed computing, employing 60 people in Sheffield including engineers, testers, customer success and IT infrastructure teams.

David Richards, chief executive and founder of WANdisco, said: “WANdisco has now been in Sheffield for more than 10 years and we are extremely grateful to the city.

“Opening in Sheffield was one of the best decisions we made as a business. There were some raised eyebrows among our peers in London at the time but the incredible supply of talent in the city, the fantastic universities and the support of Sheffield City Council have been instrumental to our growth.

“We are very excited to be joining the community at Kollider and proud to reaffirm our very strong commitment to Sheffield, the base for our core development and engineering teams and a great place to grow a global technology business.

“We really need to expand and the Kollider space gives us the ability to do that and keep the team together. I particularly like the fact that we are moving into an area of the city that is transforming and hopefully we can accelerate that.”

WANdisco was formerly based in the Electric Works at the Sheffield Digital Campus, owned by Sheffield City Council and the location of many tech companies.

Nick Morgan, director of Kollider Projects, said: “We are delighted to welcome WANdisco to our growing community of digital, tech and creative businesses.

“The company is a global success story with Sheffield roots and its presence at Kollider will help to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs in our city.

“David and I share a desire to support ambition in Sheffield and bring opportunity to people, attract talent and help start and scale up successful businesses.”

WANdisco has engaged Just H Architects to design a collaborative working space.