Festo opens Bengaluru global capability centre, plans 600 jobs

The centre will support engineering, software development, and data analytics for Festo’s global operations as India marks 40 years of the company’s incorporation

Germany headquartered automation and technical education company Festo on Wednesday opened a 71,000-sq ft global capability centre (GCC) in Bengaluru with an eventual capacity to accommodate 600 people.

The facility near Electronics City, Bengaluru, currently houses more than 250 employees and has 50 open positions. The company hired over 100 people in the past year. The centre will support engineering, software development, and data analytics for Festo’s global operations as India marks 40 years of the company’s incorporation.

Ravi Sastry, Managing Director, Festo India, said, “This GCC is not just another building; this is a strategic footprint for the future”. He said Bengaluru was chosen for its engineering talent base. The centre will use automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to support global research and development initiatives.

Natural partner

“With global realignment, India is playing a huge role,” Sastry said, referring to India-EU trade progress and discussions with the US. He said India is becoming a natural partner for Europe, which could support the relocation of production volumes over time.

Sebastian Beck, Member of the Management Board for Human Resources and Finance, said localisation is central to the company’s Asia strategy. “Being localised to provide local market needs with locally engineered, procured, produced products becomes critical for market success,” Beck said. He added that the Bengaluru centre brings together multiple steps of the value chain and may export software development and digital services to Festo operations worldwide.

The GCC integrates software, research and development (R&D), production support and domain engineering under one roof. The structure enables end-to-end product development, from design to manufacturing and global deployment.

Alok Maheshwari, Head of GCC, Festo India, said the India team will grow two-fold following the expansion. He said around 30 to 35 per cent of the workforce will comprise domain engineers to support product development.

Hiring will include data scientists, embedded AI specialists, full-stack developers and product security engineers, he added.

Festo entered India in 1963 and established its presence as an incorporated entity in 1986. It employs more than 1,000 people in India and works with 25,000 customers and institutions.

The company is headquartered in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. It employs over 20,000 people across 250 locations and reported revenue of about 3.5 billion euros.

(The writer is an intern with businessline)

Published on February 18, 2026