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Thoughtworks was founded in Chicago in 1993.  At that time, information technology was regarded as a cost center — and one with an appalling track record of delivery and wastage. 

 

Thoughtworks aspired to change this through experimenting and learning to drive continuous improvement and the pursuit of excellence in the craft of software development. Our commitment to engineering excellence has seen us grow to become a leading technology consultancy with over 10,500 Thoughtworkers across 48 offices in 19 countries.  Today we help our clients to create their own path to digital fluency and to build organizational resilience to navigate the future.

Key milestones

2024

Acquired people and technology assets from Watchful.

2023

Acquired Itoc, a privately-held, AWS-focused cloud infrastructure company based in Brisbane, Australia.

30th anniversary of Thoughtworks.

Two colleagues talking
Two colleagues talking

2022

Acquired Connected, Canada

Acquired Handmade, Brazil

Named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Modern Application Development Services, Q3 2022

Opened office in Vietnam

Named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cloud Migration and Managed Service Partners in China Q4 2022

Named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cloud Migration and Managed Service Partners in Asia Pacific, Q4 2022
Two colleagues talking
Two colleagues talking

2021

Acquired Gemini Solutions, to strengthen European presence and Fourkind, to deepen machine learning and data science capabilities. Opened first offices in Romania, Netherlands and Finland.

Great Place to Work-Certified™ in many global locations, with additional regional rankings such as Best Workplaces for Women™ in Brazil and the UK.

Launched Decoder, the business execs' guide to technology and Looking Glass report.

Launched new brand position and unveiled new logo and visual identity.

Thoughtworks became a publicly listed company with Nasdaq.
Awarded IT Vendor of the Year by the UK IT Industry Awards.
Awarded IT Vendor of the Year by the UK IT Industry Awards.

2020

Named strong performer in digital product development by Forrester Research Inc.

Committed to the Valuable 500, the global movement putting disability on the business leadership agenda.

Awarded IT Vendor of the Year by the UK IT Industry Awards.
Decorative image
Decorative image

2019

Published The Digital Transformation Game Plan: Thirty-four tenets for masterfully merging technology and business.

Published How to Move Beyond a Monolithic Data Lake to a Distributed Data Mesh, introducing a radical new paradigm for data platforms that can enable enterprises to realize value from their data investments.
Awarded Daimler supplier of the year for innovation for 2017.
Awarded Daimler supplier of the year for innovation for 2017.

2018

Awarded Daimler supplier of the year for innovation for 2017.

Surpassed 5,000 Thoughtworkers.

Launched Perspectives: a publication for digital leaders.
The Apax Partners acquired Thoughtworks.
The Apax Partners acquired Thoughtworks.

2017

The Apax Partners acquired Thoughtworks.

Opened first offices in Thailand.
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Decorative image

2016

Opened first offices in Spain and Chile.

First awarded the winner of the AnitaB.org Institute’s top companies for women technologists, winning again in 2017 and 2018 and recognized as a leader in 2019 and 2020.
Collaborated with Save the Children in the fight against Ebola
Collaborated with Save the Children in the fight against Ebola

2015

Collaborated with Save the Children in the fight against Ebola, including developing an open-source and adaptable electronic medical record system that was used in Sierra Leone.

Published Building Microservices.
Image of a building in Italy
Image of a building in Italy

2014

Opened first offices in Italy. Published the seminal article Microservices and Building Microservices.

Surpassed 3,000 Thoughtworkers.
Image of Ecuador landscape
Image of Ecuador landscape

2013

Opened first offices in Ecuador.
Image of two people working on a computer
Image of two people working on a computer

2012

Opened first offices in Singapore.

Started building Bahmni, an open source Electronic Medical Record (EMR) designed specifically for healthcare providers in low-resource settings.
ThoughtWorks Technology Radar
ThoughtWorks Technology Radar

2011

Published first edition of Thoughtworks Technology Radar, tracking the new developments in technology across techniques, tools, platforms, languages and frameworks.
Image of code on a laptop
Image of code on a laptop

2010

Opened first offices in Germany.

Published Continuous Delivery: reliable software releases through build, test and deployment automation.
Image of Brazil
Image of Brazil

2009

Opened first offices in Brazil.

Surpassed 1,000 Thoughtworkers.
Established Thoughtworks University.
Established Thoughtworks University.

2005

Established Thoughtworks University.
Thoughtworkers collaborating with a client
Thoughtworkers collaborating with a client

2004

Opened first offices in China.

Selenium, the leading web application testing framework today, was developed based on work started internally at Thoughtworks.

Surpassed 500 Thoughtworkers.
Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler

2001

Opened first offices in India and Canada.

A 27-year-old Guo Xiao was featured in The Economist as an early adopter of Extreme Programming (XP), an agile software development framework.

Manifesto for agile software development was published (co-authored by our Chief Scientist Martin Fowler).

Released CruiseControl open source software.
Thoughtworkers working together at a desk
Thoughtworkers working together at a desk

2000

Opened first offices in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Led the industry in adopting a distributed agile development approach.
Guo Xiao and Dr. Rebecca Parsons joined Thoughtworks.
Guo Xiao and Dr. Rebecca Parsons joined Thoughtworks.

1999

Guo Xiao and Dr. Rebecca Parsons joined Thoughtworks.
Thoughtworks was founded in Chicago.
Thoughtworks was founded in Chicago.

1993

Thoughtworks was founded in Chicago.

We're passionate about sharing our expertise across technology, business, and culture.