Fast-growing Sheffield firm Zoo Digital moves headquarters to Castle House boosting city's tech hub

Zoo Digital is shifting all 160 workers into Castle House, the former Co-op department store on Angel Street in Castlegate.

WHO ELSE IS IN CASTLE HOUSE?

It joins another top Sheffield tech firm, WANdisco, which made the building home in October 2019.

Castle House is also home to popular food hall Kommune and a Barclays tech accelerator.

Zoo Digital creates subtitles and voiceovers for Hollywood films shown around the world.

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Chief executive Stuart Green said: “We are just finalising the fit-out of the second floor of Castle House.

“We’ll be introducing staff to the new facility during December with the intention of moving in properly in January.

“We have around 160 staff in Sheffield now, almost all of whom will be working in a hybrid way, splitting their working time between home working and the office.”

Zoo was based in City Gate on St Marys Gate but ran out of space and had some staff in nearby offices.

WHY IS THE FIRM DOING SO WELL?

Business surged during the pandemic after film and television companies made their back catalogues available to people on lockdown worldwide.

In March, the firm said it was on track for $100m annual sales in the mid-term after a rise in remote working. It is set to be $40m this year.

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It also raised £7.4m from a share placing to hire staff, establish hubs in India and South East Asia and expand international business.

Zoo dubs and subtitles films in 80 languages. But unlike rivals based in studios shuttered by the pandemic, its cloud-based tech can be used anywhere.

And it is so sophisticated it can stretch or compress vocals to synchronise one person's mouth with another person speaking a different language.

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The firm has 7,000 freelance voice artists and translators who mostly work from home.

It also has offices in London, Dubai and Hollywood. Total global staffing numbers are more than 270.

ZOO was established in 2001 by Stuart Green and Ian Stewart of Gremlin Interactive. In 2003 it had a worldwide smash with the first interactive DVD game, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Later, as DVDs nosedived, it developed new tech and made the leap into subtitling, dubbing, operating in the cloud and streaming.

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