From Physical Infrastructure in Africa to Healthcare Systems Serving the NHS - Inside the Team That Builds Technology for the Real World

Sumit Dubey, Partner and Asia Specialist at YAVA, in discussion with the development and engineering team at YAVA’s Technology and Innovation Centre in Kolkata, India.

Much of YAVA’s work supports critical infrastructure. These systems manage assets, revenue, compliance, and operational oversight for governments and large operators. Downtime in these environments has direct and visible consequences.

At the same time, the same development team builds platforms for startups, particularly those operating in public interest sectors such as healthcare.

One example is Find Care Compare, a public facing healthcare platform (supported by the UK's NHS, Oxford University, Kings College London, Royal Academy of Engineering and Impact U) designed to help people understand, compare, and access care services more easily. The platform enables users to search and compare healthcare providers, view service information, and make more informed decisions about where and how to access care.

YAVA helped to build the Find Care Compare platform from the ground up. While the user experience is deliberately simple, the underlying system reflects the same engineering discipline used in infrastructure projects. Data handling, governance, scalability, and compliance were treated as first order requirements from the outset.

Healthcare platforms of this kind face challenges that closely resemble infrastructure delivery. They handle sensitive data, operate within regulatory constraints, and must scale reliably under demand. Public trust is central. Failure is not an abstract risk.

YAVA applies the same standards to these platforms as it does to national systems. The difference lies in the audience, not the quality of engineering behind the product.

A global delivery model

YAVA’s development team operates across 15 countries, coordinated through regional offices in London, Dubai, Nairobi, and Kolkata. This structure reflects the environments in which its systems are deployed.

Engineers work alongside regional specialists who understand local regulatory, operational, and cultural constraints. Systems are not designed in one market and imposed on another. They are developed with deployment conditions in mind from the start.

This model allows YAVA to deliver consistently across borders while remaining responsive to local requirements. It also ensures continuity. Systems are supported, adapted, and extended long after their initial deployment.

Scale with restraint

Over time, this approach has produced a body of work that is broad without being unfocused.

YAVA has delivered more than 35 deployed solutions and works with over 20 government clients. Delivery is supported by a wider network of more than 1,200 professionals and experts across engineering, analysis, and advisory disciplines. At the centre sits an in house development team of 25 engineers responsible for the architecture and delivery of bespoke platforms.

What defines the team is not size or speed, but consistency. The same standards apply whether the system manages national infrastructure or enables access to public services.

Built to last

In an industry often driven by short development cycles and constant reinvention, YAVA’s development team takes a more measured view.

Systems are designed to endure. They are built to evolve without disruption, to integrate new technologies without undermining existing operations, and to maintain clear lines of accountability.

This approach is not fashionable, but it is practical.

In the end, YAVA’s developers are shaped by the environments they work in. Infrastructure exposes weak assumptions quickly. Public systems demand trust. Operating across borders requires patience and discipline.

The team builds accordingly.