Ride-hailing firm Lyft is planning to open a new technology hub in downtown Toronto in the second half of next year. This would be the company’s second-largest tech center after San Francisco. The office will be located in Toronto’s financial district and will host several hundred employees across engineering, product, operations and marketing.
This expansion underscores the company’s efforts to strengthen its international footprint as part of a broader strategy to diversify growth beyond its core U.S. market. The company also reported that sales in Canada grew more than 20% in the first half of 2025 compared with a year earlier, highlighting the market’s increasing significance to its overall business. Toronto has been one of Lyft’s key international markets since the company launched ride-sharing services in the city in 2017. Lyft also operates bikeshare services in Ontario and Quebec.
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The expansion, which builds on Lyft’s existing Canadian footprint, aims to attract local talent from the Greater Toronto Area’s large technology workforce.
Lyft recently completed its $197 million acquisition of Europe’s Freenow, expanding its footprint in Europe. This was the company’s first expansion outside North America. According to Bloomberg, this means Freenow users will be prompted to download the Lyft app when travelling in the U.S. or Canada, and vice versa for Lyft riders in one of the nine countries or 180 European cities Freenow currently operates in.
Eventually, users will be able to book a taxi on either app without having to switch. Lyft also announced the opening of a new global tech hub in Barcelona under Freenow. That office already employs a few hundred workers with plans to expand to several hundred. Freenow also said that riders can expect more consistent pricing, faster matching and new features as a result of the Lyft acquisition.
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The company had a global workforce of 2,934 employees at the end of last year, according to an annual filing with the U.S. SEC.
Lyft also acquired Glasgow-based TBR Global Chauffeuring for $110.8 million in cash, a move that expands the company’s ride-sharing options to the luxury category. Global Chauffeuring operates across six continents, 120 countries, and over 3,000 cities. Lyft is strengthening its position in the high-value premium chauffeur space through a network of independent fleet partners.
Lyft, which is the second-largest ride-hailing company in the U.S. is also looking to introduce more autonomous vehicles into its network from 2025 onwards after partnering with Mobileye and several other companies last year.