BMW Group and NTT DATA Romania sign Joint Venture contract: Development and operation of business IT solutions in focus

• Joint Venture planned in the up-and-coming university town of Cluj-Napoca.
• Start with 120 talented software developers.
• Focus on the development and operation of IT solutions for the European region.

The BMW Group and NTT DATA Romania have signed an agreement to establish a Joint Venture (JV) in Romania. The BMW Group is thus continuing to expand its global network for its corporate IT and is securing talent and experience in the software sector. The execution of the JV contract is subject to review and approval by the relevant authorities.

The JV benefits from NTT DATA’s many years of experience in agile software development and its excellent network in the local Romanian IT community. The new location in Romania is intended to support the BMW Group IT in Europe and drive forward IT-projects and innovations for production, development, human resources, sales and BMW Financial Services.

“With NTT DATA, we are relying on another strong partner that has an excellent network in a lively technology region and enables us to build up additional software competencies quickly and in a targeted manner. In collaboration with companies like NTT DATA we can establish strong IT hubs and thereby give an answer to the shortage of IT experts,” says Alexander Buresch, CIO and Senior Vice President of BMW Group IT.

“We are proud to announce our plans to open a new software development center for software solutions in Cluj-Napoca together with BMW Group. This collaboration aims to assist the carmaker in leading the digital transformation,” says Maria Metz, CEO at NTT DATA Romania.

The JV is to be set up in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The university town offers a strong ecosystem for innovation with solid entrepreneurship, startups and a high number of talents in the tech scene. This creates high potential for long-term growth of the JV. The JV is expected to employ around 250 software developers at the end of 2024 and plans to grow to a four-digit number of employees by 2027.

The BMW Group and NTT DATA have been collaborating across a wide array of projects for over 30 years. The signing of the JV contract marks the next big step in this partnership.

The BMW Group is already well advanced in digitizing the entire company and its internal and external processes. For several years now, IT & software hubs in Germany, the USA, South Africa, India, Portugal (Joint Venture Critical TechWorks) and China (LingYue Digital IT Co. Ltd. and BA TechWorks) have been strengthening the premium manufacturer’s software expertise. They contribute significantly to the development and operation of innovative IT solutions for the BMW Group. A total of over 9,400 employees worldwide are already working in IT and software development for the BMW Group and the Joint Ventures.