Bursting at the Siemens: Saskatoon tech company growing after global giant gobbles it up

A Saskatoon tech startup has been gobbled up by global giant Siemens, prompting a hiring burst at the local company.

Mentor Graphics, formerly Solido, was recently acquired by Siemens, an engineering conglomerate which is based in Germany.

That's sparked a lot of hiring at the Saskatoon company.

"Siemens is committed to creating a major research and development centre in Saskatchewan right in Saskatoon, so we're hiring rapidly," said Aaron Genest, Mentor Graphics' customer experience director.

"We're hiring for 20 positions right now. Those positions will just continue to grow over time. We're going to be one of the centres for machine learning worldwide for Siemens."

'Validates what we've been saying'

Mentor builds software that helps the companies who design semiconductors.

Translation: "If you have a phone," explained Genest, "about half of the chips in that phone were designed using software from [Siemens]."

Genest says Mentor has staffed its ranks almost entirely with University of Saskatchewan graduates.

Alex Fallon, the CEO of the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority, said acquisitions like these help put the city's tech sector on the map.

"It also validates what we've been saying for years: you can start and grow a successful tech company in Saskatoon that is world-class and attracts interest from some of the biggest companies in the world," said Fallon.