5 years transforming mobility: from a Lab to the innovation powerhouse of SEAT & CUPRA
We are about to tell you a story of how the eagerness for digital innovation and the ambition to transform mobility led to the foundation of SEAT S.A.’s digital hub: SEAT CODE.
Everything started in 2017, when a small experimentation hub called Metropolis:Lab was created with a team of 5 people. In its early days, the lab was based on pure experimentation and a very small number of projects, but everything changed in a few months.
2019, the beginning of the adventure
A talented, ambitious and growing team demonstrated its innovative potential, leading to a refocused plan from which SEAT CODE was born. It was 2019 and the company already had 40 employees. This wasn’t just a change of name, it was a strategic shift, a commitment to scale the digital core business and become a digital hub that powers SEAT & CUPRA and other Volkswagen Group brands.
The global pandemic did not stop the company from continuing to grow. More people joined the team, and the return to the offices brought together more than 100 Coders by the end of 2020. With over 40 projects ongoing, SEAT CODE needed a new space that could welcome everyone, so the company moved its offices to the heart of Barcelona: Les Rambles, in the Gothic Quarter.
“It was like changing your job. Before the pandemic we were a small team of 40 people and suddenly we grew to more than 100 employees. Although it may not seem like it, it was a smooth change,” said Jordi Garcia, Head of SEAT CODE Product Portfolio and member of the company since its inception in 2017.
The re-founding of SEAT CODE brought a new purpose to the company, which became the digital machine for creating digital products and solutions for SEAT S.A., playing a cross-cutting role as a lever to boost SEAT and CUPRA, as well as providing digital solutions for the Volkswagen Group.
Different Business Units emerged as new projects integrating urban data, in-car technology, and software development came along, creating a solid internal structure to organise the people. “Customer Journey was the first one, focusing on the development and improvement of the customer journey for SEAT and CUPRA clients. After that, we had Production and Logistics, which focused on improving SEAT S.A.’s supply chain value and accelerating the internal transformation through IT products,” explained Jordi Garcia.
From there on, other Business Units came up, such as Mobility, in charge of leading the digital transformation and providing shared mobility solutions; Data Analytics, a unit willing to tackle problems using analytics and fostering data literacy; and Digital Garage, focused on experience design and product architecture for CUPRA and SEAT.
SEAT CODE, committed to the mission of being a catalyst for the digitalization of mobility, expanded its ambition beyond SEAT S.A. The company started working on independent projects scalable beyond the VW Group. This is how Giravolta was born as a multimodal mobility platform to operate and manage vehicle fleets 100% digitally. “This is currently our best-known product, but it’s far from being the only one. We continue creating and seeking new solutions that can improve the digital experience for users,” said the Head of Product Portfolio.
Walking towards a promising future
2023 took SEAT CODE into a new phase. As the company overcame the 270 Coders and delivered 60 projects, it needed a new place to grow further, a space representing SEAT CODE’s core. “We found our new home at 22@, Barcelona’s most innovative district, a place that gave new impetus to our hunger to continue driving end-to-end digital excellence for CUPRA’s users,” stated Jordi Garcia.
The new offices embody the new ambitions of SEAT CODE, which aims to be a digital hub transforming the future of mobility from the heart of Barcelona. This is a story for a future post, so prepare yourself for a journey where innovation meets excellence and passion. Stay tuned because we are starting the revolution of mobility.
