ASTI: Transforming Tech in Spain and Manufacturing Around the World

At Endeavor, we believe: To understand impact, you need to go beyond numbers and look to people. We’re proud to share what impact means to Endeavor’s network through stories of the people powering big ideas, and the lives Endeavor Entrepreneurs have transformed. These are Endeavor’s Faces of Impact. 

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In 2008, when Veronica Pascual Boe acquired ASTI, her family’s small conveyor-belt firm, Spain’s economy was heading into a crisis. Between 2008 and 2013, Spain lost 9% of its GDP, unemployment was surging, and most Spanish multinationals were limited to regulated sectors such as banking, telecoms and infrastructure.

Today, transformed and scaled under Veronica’s leadership into an international intralogistics mobile robotics company, ASTI is not only a beacon of change in Spain but also a pioneer in tech globally. The company designs, manufactures, implements and maintains industrial autonomous vehicle systems for the biggest corporations.

Veronica sees a huge opportunity for ASTI—not only because by credible estimates robots may be performing 45% of all manufacturing tasks within the decade. Equally as important to Veronica is building up a highly employable workforce. The company launched ASTI Academy and College, programs dedicated to fostering job experience and training in STEM and hard sciences for vocational and college-aged students. So far, ASTI has dedicated over 10,000 hours and trained over 100 students—70% of whom ASTI themselves hired after.

“Even in school, through ASTI Foundation, we encourage girls to pursue STEM careers,” said Jael Pozo, a 23-year-old Mechanical Designer who started working at ASTI when she was 19. “Qualifications at ASTI have nothing to do with age or gender. I’m a young woman, passionate  about technology, and going against all the stereotypes. But because ASTI empowers my passion, I feel like I can show girls that this can be their future too.”