About us
The secret behind
many global brands
In MΔori mythology, Ikaroa is the long fish that gave birth to all the stars in the Milky Way. That is exactly what we do. We give birth to stars.
Our story
Ikaroa was founded in 2007 at One Market Street, San Francisco. Number one. It is where Market Street, the city's main artery, begins at the water's edge, looking across the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building and the Bay.
The address has a long record of ambition. The Southern Pacific Railroad built its headquarters there in 1916 and ran a railroad that crossed a continent from those offices. When we arrived, the same building was home to Salesforce's headquarters. Autodesk and Visa have worked from One Market, and Google later took 300,000 square feet of it. We learned early what it looks like when a founder's idea grows into something the whole world uses.
We kept the belief we started with: great brands are built by people who genuinely care about the work, not by agencies running through a playbook. Two years in we opened in Los Angeles, then moved our base to the UK, and grew from there into a full-service creative and technology studio with offices across five cities. We have worked with some of the most recognised brands in the world, and some of the most ambitious startups nobody has heard of yet.
In numerology, 1 is the number of beginnings and initiative. For a company named after the fish that gave birth to the stars, starting at number one felt about right.
We are designers, developers, strategists, and marketers who happen to work at the same company. We are the team you call when you need something done properly, on time, and to a standard that makes you proud.
Our journey
Founded at One Market Street, San Francisco. A small team with big ambitions.
Opened in Los Angeles. Not long after, we moved our base to the UK.
Opened our first office in the Middle East, in Dubai.
Launched AI implementation services.
Opened Abu Dhabi office at World Trade Center.
250+ team members across 5 offices worldwide.
The name
Why we are called Ikaroa
Ika roa: the long fish. In MΔori tradition it is the Milky Way itself, the great fish stretched across the night sky that gave birth to every star in it.
Most agency names are picked to sound clever in a pitch. Ours was picked because it describes the job.
The long fish does not make the stars shine. It gives them somewhere to begin, and it holds them while they grow. That is the role we want in a business. We are there at the inception, when a founder has an idea, a gut feeling and maybe a napkin sketch. We help turn that vision into a name, a brand, a product and a place people can find.
Some of the companies we work with are already burning bright. They are in growth stage, hiring fast, outgrowing the website they launched with. For them we sit at the centre of the next phase, as the creative hub the brand keeps coming back to for ideas and for the people who can build them.
We give birth to stars. Then we stay for the whole journey.
Every founder we meet is a future star. The name is a promise to treat them like one.
Yes, we chose our phone number on purpose. It took longer than it should have.
In numerology every digit carries a meaning, and a number is read by adding its digits together until a single figure is left. Most phone numbers land somewhere unremarkable. We went looking for one that would add up to something we believe about ourselves, and we were not willing to settle.
Every digit, added together
33 / 6
The Master Teacher
33 is one of the three master numbers, alongside 11 and 22. Numerologists write it as 33/6 but never reduce it, because the doubled 3 is considered too strong to fold away.
It stands for communication, creativity and service: using your talent to lift other people up. For a creative and technology agency whose whole job is helping founders be heard, we could not have written a better fit ourselves.
04
0 + 4 = 4
Reduces to 4
Structure and foundations. The number of builders, and the part of the work clients never see but always feel.
319
3 + 1 + 9 = 13
1 + 3 = 4
Reduces to 4
Four again. The middle of the number lands back on building, which is what we spend most of our days doing.
7333
7 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 16
1 + 6 = 7
Reduces to 7
Analysis, knowledge and technology. Then three 3s in a row: communication and creative expression, repeated until it is impossible to miss.
Read it left to right and the number tells our story. Foundations first. Building, again. Then knowledge and technology, followed by a run of creative energy that ends in a master number.
There is one more layer. 33 is also the master number of our founder, AJ Joshi. When the business line resolved to the same number as the person who started the business, we stopped searching.
Call it a coincidence if you like. We call it the right number to answer.
What we believe
Craft over speed
We take the time to get things right. Every detail matters and we do not cut corners to hit deadlines.
Honesty first
We tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. That is how the best work gets made.
Collaboration
We work with you, not for you. The best results come when we are an extension of your team.
Results that matter
Beautiful work that does not perform is just decoration. Everything we create has a purpose.
Since 2017
One global team.
We have five offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But the truth is, our best people are everywhere. We operate as a distributed workforce across the globe and have done since 2017.
It started when our CEO AJ Joshi picked up a book called Remote. The idea was simple: if you hire only people who live near your office, you are choosing from a tiny fraction of the talent that exists. Remove that constraint and you get the best people for the job, regardless of where they wake up in the morning.
But it was about more than talent. It was about giving our team genuine freedom. No commute eating into their day. No feeling of being locked to a desk from nine to five. The ability to do their best work from wherever they feel most productive, whether that is a home office in Berlin, a co-working space in Bali, or one of our studios.
The result? A team that is happier, sharper, and more creative. People who stay with us because they are trusted, not tracked. And clients who benefit from a genuinely global perspective on every project we take on.
Want to work with us?
We are always looking for great people and great projects.