Deloitte and Ernst & Young (EY) are making big moves in Canada, bolstering their tech offerings via acquisitions. The two Big Four accounting firms recently acquired tech consulting and design firms based in British Columbia: Deloitte Canada acquired Striven, a boutique technology testing and quality engineering firm, and EY Canada acquired digital design studio FreshWorks Studio.

Striven, which was founded in 2014, provides project management, quality assurance, and technology delivery services. Its practice areas include business transformation, lean agile delivery, project recovery, and technology modernization. Since 2014, the company has grown to offer services in the telecommunications, retail, government, insurance, healthcare, and fintech industries, and it now serves 21 clients on the Fortune 500 list, in addition to startups from the U.S. and Canada.

Striven is just the most recent of several additions to Deloitte’s ever-growing list of subsidiaries. In June 2022, the firm acquired cloud consultancy AE Cloud Consultants, and it has also acquired several other Canadian firms, including MDB Insight Inc., Ouest Business Solutions, Dataperformers Company Inc., Clockwork Inc., Groundswell Group Inc., The Working Group Inc., and Isaac Reputation Group Inc.

Meanwhile, EY acquired FreshWorks, which was co-founded by Sam Mod and Rohit Boolchandani in 2016, to expand the digital strategy, design, and development capabilities of its EY Design Studio. FreshWorks specializes in designing and developing mobile and web applications and works with healthcare companies, governments, startups, and enterprises to build apps. The company has built more than 100 mobile and web products, including the BC Vaccine Card Verifier, Espri (for Telus Health), Critical Worker Benefits, Foundry BC, BC Registries and Online Services, and SEISM (Invasives BC).

All of FreshWorks’ more than 100 employees will join EY, while co-founders Mod and Boolchandani will become partners and will work on the EY Design Studio team. The EY Design Studio brings together design, art, and technology to develop digital products for businesses and has locations in New York, Charlotte, Portland, Philadelphia, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina. The FreshWorks brand will be eliminated, and the company will be fully integrated into the EY Design Studio.