Bristol defence tech company, Rowden Technologies, and London manufacturer, Isembard, are planning to create around 100 new job opportunities across the South West over the next 12 months.
Rowden Technologies announced that its partnership with Isembard was a “joint effort” aimed at scaling sovereign UK manufacturing of advanced sensing systems that are relevant to national security.
Rowden was established by Rob Harper in 2016, to help the government become less reliant on multinational defence contractors. Since then, he has grown the company’s sales to £20.4m last year and saw Rowden named on the Sunday Times’ list of fastest-growing companies this year.
The collaboration forms part of the Bristol company’s multi-million-pound investment strategy for boosting sovereign production of the sophisticated sensing systems.
The partnership will combine Rowden’s system design, integration and in-house manufacturing expertise with Isembard’s software-defined production facilities, the companies said.
Jake Reynolds, vice president of product for Rowden Technologies, commented: “This marks an exciting expansion of our supply chain, built around shared engineering ambition and outstanding British engineering talent. “Working with innovative businesses like Isembard, we’re creating a production base capable of delivering assured UK variants of critical sensing systems – a real step forward in sovereign capability that can be exported and deliver meaningful operational value to users in Europe and beyond.”
Andrew Kramer, strategic deployments at Isembard, said the partnership deliveried “sovereign capacity now” and laid “the foundation to export British engineering at scale”. He added: “Industrial strength is national strength. By combining MasonOS-driven factories with Rowden’s world-class mission systems, we can turn years into days and prototypes into production – here in Britain.”
Image source: Rowden Technologies
