A company picked in the UK Ministry of Defence's search for future tech leaders builds its training software in Colombo. Meet SimCentric

In May 2026, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded contracts to 13 companies under a new scheme to find Britain's next billion pound technology firms. The contracts were issued through Commercial X, the ministry's accelerated procurement vehicle.

One of those winners runs its entire engineering operation out of Colombo.

Software for safer training

SimCentric builds high fidelity simulation and virtual reality training software. It lets forces train and rehearse in synthetic environments, reducing real world risk to people on the ground. Its focus areas are training transformation, range safety and risk reduction.

Two friends from Oxford

SimCentric was cofounded in 2009 by Dr. Romesh Ranawana, a Sri Lankan, and Adam Easton, an Australian. The two met while doing PhDs in Artificial Intelligence at Oxford. They built the engineering centre in Colombo, and the core technology has been built there ever since.

The managing director today is Haridhu Abeygoonaratne, who joined SimCentric as its fourth employee and rose from Chief Operating Officer to MD. He also serves as Vice Chair of SLASSCOM, the apex body for Sri Lanka's IT and BPM industry.

Where it stands

SimCentric has 100+ engineers in Sri Lanka, based at Orion City, with commercial offices in the UK and Australia. Its products are used by 80+ organisations worldwide. It is a pioneer in bringing Epic Games' Unreal Engine into professional simulation, and it is ISO 27001 certified, the global standard for information security.

That is the level Sri Lankan engineering now reaches.