We are excited to announce our new Research and Development (R&D) center, Castlight India, a wholly-owned Castlight subsidiary located in Hyderabad, a city so thriving with tech and engineering talent that it’s also known as HITEC City and Cyberabad.

The R&D center will further enhance Castlight’s innovation capabilities, helping the company stay at the forefront of new technologies, deliver value to our customers, and establish Castlight as the leading healthcare navigation platform.

“Expanding our presence in one of the largest and fastest-growing tech cities in the world gives us the ability to scale and meet the growing demand for Castlight’s digital and high-touch navigation platform,” says Vijay Anand, executive vice president of Engineering at Castlight.

While the business entity itself is new, our relationship with the Castlight India team is not, nor is our commitment to R&D. Over the past 10 years, Castlight has invested almost $400 million in R&D—and since 2014, we have had a successful partnership with more than 100 exceptionally talented colleagues in Hyderabad. They have led or played a crucial role in some of Castlight’s most important initiatives, including Castlight Behavioral Health and our work on VaccineFinder.org.

The Castlight India team is full-stack R&D, including developers, product managers, analytics and more. For the past seven years, they have regularly participated in Castlight’s biannual Hackathons, in addition to hosting their own. Of the Castlight India team members we offered a full-time role to, 96% accepted.

“Creating a Castlight India entity and bringing everyone on board formally as employees has been a seven-year dream for many,” Anand says. “We are happy we could fulfill that dream, especially since many of them have been committed to Castlight and its mission for years.”

Being able to bring these team members in-house, transitioning them from a third-party relationship to full-time employees, gives Castlight the ability to expand in India in a substantial way, further increasing our R&D resources and our ability to provide our customers with a first-class experience supported by cutting-edge products and features.

“This is a momentous occasion,” says Vijay Simha, Castlight’s India head. “It gives me great pleasure to welcome all the folks in Castlight India to our Castlight family. We have ambitious growth plans, and we know that these cannot be achieved without the right talent. It’s going to be a phenomenal journey, and I’m looking forward to a fantastic future.”

By the end of 2021, the India team, which will be working out of a brand new Castlight location in Hyderabad, is estimated to grow between 30 to 50%. They recently hired an HR site leader and are currently hiring for engineers, technical managers, and more. This group of best-in-class talent is a vital part of Castlight’s growth strategy, and we are proud that we were able to invest in this partnership in such a significant way despite the pandemic.