First from South India, Kochi-based robotics company Sastra to invest £8 million in UK

Kochi: Sastra Global Business Innovation (SGBI), a robotics company based in Kerala’s Kochi, is all set to invest £8 million (Rs 90.17 crore) in the UK in the next three years. The investment was announced by British Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in the UK Government’s public sector information website recently after his visit to Delhi.

This will be the first investment from a robotics company from South India in the UK. SGBI, formerly Sastra Robotics, was founded by three youths in 2023 soon after completing their engineering studies.

Sastra’s £8 million-deal is part of the investment wins for the UK worth over £100 million from various Indian companies. In a statement, Reynolds said SGBI’s investment aiming to expand the company’s robotics innovation and development is expected to create 75 jobs in the UK.

Confirming the investment, Aronin Ponnappan, CEO and co-founder of SGBI, said the decision had been made following an export order received and executed by the company from a public sector department in the UK in October 2023 for 150 testing robots. “We delivered the order mainly from our 5,000-sq-ft facility in Kalamassery, Kochi, employing around 40 people,” he said.

“Within a few years from a startup in 2013 incubated at Startup Village, the company has emerged a global leader in specialised robotics and AI solutions for real-world device testing. In 2021, SGBI Inc US spearheaded our global expansion, with headquarters in the US and subsidiaries in the UK and India strategically positioned to serve the European and Asian markets, respectively. The decision to invest further in Europe is backed up with our confidence in those markets where demands for testing robots are on the rise,” added Akhil Asokan, CFO & co-founder, SGBI. Currently, SGBI’s clientele includes Robert Bosch, HCL Technologies, Honeywell, Qualcomm, ABB and Tech Mahindra among others.

British Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who visited New Delhi and Bengaluru in February 2025, accompanied by British Investment Minister Poppy Gustafsson, said Indian investors are particularly drawn to sectors such as AI, professional services, and textiles.