Lightricks to build an 8,600 square feet R&D center in Haifa

Lightricks is building an R&D center in the Matam high-tech park in Haifa, where it has leased an area of over 8,600 square feet, half of which is a garden. The new center, which the company has begun recruiting employees for, will operate alongside the company's headquarters and R&D center in Jerusalem.

In the first phase, 35 employees will work in Haifa, including developers, product managers, designers, recruitment staff, and others, while the center is expected to develop into additional fields. The new R&D center will be managed by Idan Megidish, who also serves as the company's Operations Lead.

Lightricks, which develops apps for video editing and photo designing on smartphones, raised $130 million last month at a value of $1.9 billion (after money). It was founded in 2013 by CEO Zeev Farbman, Nir Pochter, Yaron Inger, Amit Goldstein and Itai Tsiddon, and currently employs over 450 employees in Israel and around the world, most of them in Jerusalem.

“As the largest Israeli-Jerusalemite company in its field, it is important for us to grow, invest and produce a strong infrastructure here in Israel, as well as to cement our existing model in other cities,” said Farbman. “The investment in a city like Haifa is very natural, as a city known for many academic institutions and a talented workforce. The opening of the center in Haifa will allow us to reach a large population located in the north of the country."