Fanatics opens India tech centre in Hyderabad

Fanatics, the global leader in licensed sports merchandise, on Tuesday opened its first India technology innovation centre in Hyderabad.

It plans to hire around 100 engineers at the facility over the next couple of years.

The company partners some of the largest sporting operations and clubs in the world, including Real Madrid, Manchester United, Big Bash Cricket, NBA, NFL and the Wimbledon Championships.

Matt Madrigal, Chief Technology and Product Officer, told reporters here that opening of this innovation centre is part of Fanatics' commitment to growing its technology, data and analytics platform which fuel the company's innovative vertical manufacturing model.

"In order to scale our vertical commerce model, that includes a global e-commerce presence and wholesale capabilities to design and manufacture our own apparel, we need to invest in world-class engineering talent and we're thrilled to scale and invest in our India development centre," he said.

The India tech centre is one of several global offices the company has recently opened as it introduces its vertically-integrated, end-to-end omnichannel retail capabilities to partners worldwide. In addition to Hyderabad, Fanatics now has operations in the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong and the UK.

This wide-sweeping expansion is due in large part to a $1bn investment Fanatics received in 2017 from SoftBank's Vision Fund, the largest tech fund in history, which identified Fanatics as one of the world's transformative companies with the ability to shape the future of global commerce.

"The Fanatics business is growing so fast and becoming more complex. To keep pace with this growth and continue to evolve our technology ecosystem, we are aggressively hiring technology talent across our US locations and the new India Tech Centre in Hyderabad," said Ramana Thumu, Senior Vice-President of Engineering at Fanatics.

Satish Umale, who heads the India operations for Fanatics in Hyderabad, said the company is looking to fill up various technology roles, including full-stack software engineers, data and BI engineers, data scientists, UX developers and supply chain specialists.

--IANS

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