After 12 years in the local market, American technology giant Google opened a new office in Bucharest, where teams work on "supporting the digital transformation of local businesses and advanced solutions for Cloud customers."

The new office is located in the Unirii View building in downtown Bucharest, not far from the capital city's Old Town. The tech company said its design was inspired by traditional Romanian symbols, with rooms named after prominent Romanian personalities, such as Nadia Comăneci and Constantin Brâncuși.

Other small design details also refer to legendary names from Romania's history: the traditional costumes worn by Queen Marie or the inventions of the pioneer of aeronautics, Aurel Vlaicu. (see more pictures below)

"While the design pays homage to Romania's past, the new space is designed for the future: the future of Google Romania as a hub for technology development that will be the basis of many of Google's most advanced products," the company said.

Google's local team has grown to more than 350 people following the integration of the smartwatch and wristband maker Fitbit in February 2021. Thus, the tech giant now has a regional technology hub in Bucharest, which supports the entire product development cycle: Engineering, Product Management & UX.

The local Fitbit hub, located near Victoriei Square, is Google's largest development center for wearables in EMEA. Many of the services and functionalities developed here are found on Google's wearable devices, such as the electrocardiogram (EKG) application, sleep analysis or stress management functionalities. The Google team in Bucharest currently designs and develops Google Wearables Health Experiences and Fitbit Consumer Services, alongside the Google Research area and Google Cloud infrastructure solutions.

"The technologies developed here in Bucharest are incorporated into products and services used by people around the world, whether it is a smartwatch, a tracker or a phone. We are committed to developing and increasing investment in technology that drives innovation," said Lavinia Neagoe, Bucharest Site Technology Lead at Google Romania.

Google also said that it would continue and expand the programs dedicated to digital education and supporting entrepreneurship, with the main goal of "accelerating Romania's digital transformation at all levels."

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photos source: the company)