Pune | 11 February 2026: Syensqo, the Belgian specialty chemicals company created from Solvay’s spin-off in December 2023, opened a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Pune. The centre has been designed to run core digital systems – including cloud infrastructure, enterprise platforms, cybersecurity, and advanced analytics – that strengthens the company’s worldwide operations.

A Strategic Node for Digital Transformation

The Pune hub is positioned as a core operational centre rather than a peripheral support office. Its mandate includes managing cloud architecture, enterprise resource planning systems, security operations, and AI-driven analytics – functions that directly influence global execution, resilience, and scalability.

The inauguration brought together Syensqo’s senior leadership including Frank Bolata, Chief Information Officer, and Amlan Das, Managing Director and Country Head for India.

Belgian government representatives Patrick Govaert and Bart Vandeputte also attended, signaling this is more than a corporate expansion, it’s part of broader Belgium-India economic collaboration.

Pune as the Next Tech Powerhouse?

Pune has emerged as a diversified capability hub hosting hundreds of GCCs across engineering R&D, analytics, and financial services. Its industrial heritage – particularly in automotive and aerospace sectors- has cultivated engineering talent that combines domain expertise with digital skills. For a specialty chemicals company, this hybrid capability is valuable. Engineers’ familiar with industrial processes are better positioned to design digital systems that reflect manufacturing realities, supply-chain complexity, and sustainability requirements.

Pune offers relative stability in talent retention, which is important for teams managing enterprise platforms that depend on institutional continuity and long-term system knowledge.

Deepening the India Footprint

Syensqo’s had operations in India since 2005, before the Solvay spin-off.  The existing footprint includes:

• Manufacturing facilities– Across Gujarat and Maharashtra handling production of specialty chemicals and advanced materials.
• Research & Innovation center– In Vadodara focused on product development and process optimization.
• Sustainability initiatives- Includes farming programs in Rajasthan.

European GCC Expansion in India

European companies are increasingly viewing India as a strategic location for integrated capability centers that combine engineering, manufacturing support, and digital delivery. Anticipated trade and investment frameworks between the EU and India are reinforcing this trend by encouraging long-term operational commitments. A combination of structural business needs, talent economics, and strategic repositioning of global operations – makes India an attractive destination. Engineering talent scarcity at home and the need to embed India into their core innovation and product development value chains – is a key driver. The rationale is concrete and observable across sectors (industrial, pharma, BFSI, engineering, and manufacturing).

For specialty chemicals and advanced materials firms, India offers a concentration of chemical engineering talent, digital expertise, and cost efficiency that supports end-to-end operational capability in a single geography.

Going Forward

From an industry perspective, Syensqo’s Pune GCC emphasizes a clear evolution in how global industrial companies are structuring their India operations – moving beyond isolated digital support roles toward integrated global control functions. Increasingly, enterprise platforms, cloud architecture, cybersecurity operations, and AI-driven decision systems are being anchored in India because they require a combination of scale, technical depth, and operational continuity that mature GCC ecosystems can reliably provide.

For European industrial firms in particular, this reflects a strategic shift to position India as a long-term digital backbone of global operations, where technology, domain expertise, and business process ownership converge to strengthen resilience, accelerate transformation, and support globally distributed value chains.

For Pune, the expansion reinforces the city’s evolution into a center for industrial digitalization, where domain engineering and enterprise technology intersect. As more European industrial firms pursue similar integrated capability strategies, India’s role in global operating models is likely to deepen, particularly in sectors where technical expertise and digital transformation converge.

Curated by SSF Global to track developments shaping the future of GCCs, enterprise ecosystems, and India’s commercial real estate landscape.

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About SSF Global
SSF Global is a Global Community for Enterprise Function Leaders and serves as a research & advisory platform focused on Global Business Services (GBS), Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and the evolution of enterprise innovation in India and beyond. We track, publish, and partner in narratives that shape how capability centres transform into hubs of trust, intelligence, and sustainable growth. We also evaluate, assess and benchmark the GCCs for their performance, maturity and other parameters using our proprietary tools built from the knowledge gained from direct interaction with our members (GCCs & GBS).