Spotlight: From lost luggage to global impact. How one engineer’s vision took flight

Sabesan successfully grew his company, PervasID, into a multimillion-dollar global enterprise providing solutions that transformed multiple sectors including retail, healthcare, industrial, logistics and supply chain.

Having been through the full circle of Academy support – winning the Silver Medal Award in 2021, to securing a place on both our start up and scale up accelerators, to becoming an elected Academy Fellow - this is a very special Hub Member profile, shining a light on his journey, achievements and advice to fellow entrepreneurs.   

When Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan left Sri Lanka for the UK to study engineering, he could hardly have imagined that one day his invention would be tracking aircraft tools, hospital medical devices and retail stock across 40+ countries.  Nor that he would earn a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, a Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering, and most recently, an OBE (officer of the order of the British Empire) in the King’s New Year Honours.

His story is not just one of individual brilliance - it’s a testament to the power of persistence, purpose, and the right support at the right time. 

Enterprise Fellowships transformed my understanding of business. I learned how to build teams, create go to market strategy and financial plans, perform market analysis, and pitch to investors.

Early Life: A Passion for Maths Amid Challenge 

Sabesan’s journey began in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, where his love for mathematics stood out from a young age. “Even at  thirteen years old, I used to score 100 out of 100 in maths,” he recalls. But growing up during a civil war, resources were limited. “Education became everything - it was our way out, and we had to focus like a laser,” he says. That intense discipline helped him to earn a scholarship to study Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield. 

Adapting to life in the UK wasn’t easy. The language barrier and cultural shift were steep learning curves, but they forged the resilience that would later serve him as an entrepreneur. “The first year undergraduate being a tough year, I think that truly helped me to build resilience”, Sabesan remarks.  

Cambridge and the birth of an innovation 

He went on to pursue a PhD at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof Ian White FREng CBE, where his journey took a pivotal turn. His research focused on solving the expensive and frustrating problem of lost luggage at airports. Airlines were losing hundreds of millions of pounds annually - and he wanted to fix that. 

What Sabesan developed during his PhD was revolutionary: a passive, battery-free RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking system powered by AI. Traditional tracking devices were costly and needed frequent battery replacement. His breakthrough made real-time asset tracking scalable and affordable - turning a decades-old technology into a state-of-the-art platform capable of tracking with near-100% accuracy over distances of 20 metres or more. 

“This technology can locate every item within a metre of accuracy. Like GPS, but without the battery or the cost,” he explains. That innovation is now transforming hospitals, airports, and retailers, tracking everything from surgical instrument to fashion goods. In one major hospital alone,, Sabesan’s technology tracks over 30,000 medical devices, resulting in improving safety, saving time, and boosting efficiency. 

From Lab to Global Business 

The innovation was only the beginning. Turning it into a business required a whole new skill set.  

“I knew everything about electronics, but nothing about business,” Sabesan admits. And that’s where the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub stepped in. In fact, the Academy has been part of his journey from day one. He won the ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award - a £40,000 grant that came with expert mentoring. “That helped me take the technology from the lab to the real world. In the lab, everything works. But in real life, nothing does, until you make it.” 

He then won a place on our deep tech accelerator for spinouts and startups, Enterprise Fellowships. “It transformed my understanding of business. I learned how to build teams, create go to market strategy and financial plans, perform market analysis, and pitch to investors,” he says. That experience, and the networks it opened, would prove crucial. One key introduction made at the Academy led directly to a multimillion-pound deal with Stanley Black & Decker, which became both a strategic customer and investor. 

Scaling Up and Overcoming Challenges 

That first commercial success wasn’t guaranteed. “The hardest part was finding the early adopter,” he says. They initially focused on aviation, tracking tools in aircraft manufacturing, where even a single forgotten tool could cost billions. But the real scaling came from the retail sector. 

Retailers were facing a $100 billion annual loss due to theft, misplacement, and poor stock visibility. Sabesan’s technology could change that. “Today, when you walk into certain fashion retailers in the US, Europe or Asia, look up. You might see our sensors tracking every item in the store.” 

His company, known as PervasID, supports customers across healthcare, logistics, aviation, and retail and continues to grow. But scaling from a PhD project to a global business wasn’t without its doubts. 

“There were moments I thought it might not work,” he confesses. “It took us sometime – years - to reach our first £1 million in revenue.. But we got there at the end.” 

He credits mentors with helping him through those low points. “Being a founder can be lonely. You can’t always tell your team or your family what’s going wrong. But the Academy gave me access to mentors, including Prof. Ian White FREng CBE, Prof. Bill O'Riordan FREng,  Sir Prof. Andy Hopper FREng and Bob Pettigrew, I could call any time to help me make better decisions.” 

Later, through the Enterprise Hub’s scale up accelerator, he attended Harvard Business School to deepen his leadership skills. “That taught me how to be an authentic leader - not just to build a company, but a legacy.”  

Learn the business side sooner. Build with your customers, not just in isolation. And when hiring, value character as much as skill. The wrong hire costs far more than you think.

Dream big. Don’t just aim for the ceiling - aim for the sky. Even if you don’t know the path yet, start walking.

Advice to the Next Generation 

If he could go back and advise his younger self in the Cambridge lab, what would he say? 

“Learn the business side sooner. Build with your customers, not just in isolation. And when hiring, value character as much as skill. The wrong hire costs far more than you think.” 

Sabesan’s story is a vivid example of what’s possible when talent meets tenacity and is nurtured by the right support ecosystem. From his early days as a math & physics -loving student in Sri Lanka to leading a global deep tech company, his journey embodies the values of engineering excellence, innovation, and social impact. 

It’s also a rare full-circle moment: From award recipient, to a place on our start up programme for spinouts, to a place on our programme for scale ups, to elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. “Without the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub,” he says, “I would be on a very different path.” 

For anyone standing at the start of their entrepreneurial journey, wondering if they have what it takes, Sabesan’s advice is simple: