A builder before the AI era
Harshana Kelasha Withanapathirana is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sellora, an Australian enterprise AI company developing intelligent digital colleagues for organisations that operate across people, software, equipment, data and real-time physical conditions.
Long before artificial intelligence became a mainstream business category, Kelasha was working on the problems that now define Sellora: disconnected operational systems, limited visibility across physical assets, manual decision-making, fragmented data and the difficulty of coordinating work across teams, locations and technologies.
His career has followed a consistent pattern. He identifies a difficult real-world problem, brings together people with different capabilities, secures the support required to move forward, and builds a system that can perform under real operating conditions.
Academic foundation
Kelasha was educated at Nalanda College Colombo before earning admission to the University of Moratuwa. His Advanced Level Mathematics results placed him approximately within the top one percent nationally, with an island rank of 228 among 24,886 candidates.
He earned a BSc Engineering (Honours) degree specialising in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa. His technical education included automotive engineering, thermodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, engineering simulation, mechanical systems design and computer-aided engineering.
His final-year research focused on the mathematical modelling and simulation of automotive suspension hydro-bushing technology, completed in collaboration with an international automotive design team under confidentiality arrangements. The project strengthened his ability to combine physical engineering, simulation and data-led decision-making, capabilities that later became important to Sellora's digital twin and physical AI technologies.
Kelasha also completed CIMA studies covering business accounting, performance operations and financial operations. This combination of engineering and commercial knowledge allowed him to move comfortably between technical architecture, customers, finance, partnerships and business strategy.
Taking Sri Lankan engineering to Silverstone
While studying at the University of Moratuwa, Kelasha helped create something that had never previously existed in Sri Lanka: a Formula Student team capable of representing the country at one of the world's most established student engineering competitions.
As the founding Team Leader of Team SHARK, he brought together 18 engineering students to design, manufacture, test and present the D-MORA P1, Sri Lanka's first Formula Student racing car. The project required far more than vehicle engineering. It demanded sponsorship, financial planning, supplier coordination, manufacturing support, team recruitment, technical governance, international travel and the ability to keep a multidisciplinary team aligned under intense time and resource constraints.
Kelasha was instrumental in securing more than LKR 20 million in private sponsorship, with DIMO providing substantial financial, workshop, technical and logistical support. In July 2016, Team SHARK became the first Sri Lankan team to compete at Formula Student UK at the Silverstone Circuit.
The team competed in Class 1, which required the construction of a working Formula Student vehicle together with demanding engineering, safety, costing and business assessments. On its first attempt, Team SHARK secured three awards: Best Newcomer in Class 1, the Dedication to Formula Student Award, and the Top Individual Driver Award, received by team member Induwara Munasinghe. The achievement received national media attention and recognition in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
Team SHARK became more than a single competition entry. It created a platform for future University of Moratuwa students to develop new vehicles, gain international engineering exposure and continue representing Sri Lanka. For Kelasha, it became an early demonstration of how an ambitious vision can be converted into a sustainable organisation.
From Formula Student to industrial IoT
Kelasha's understanding of operational businesses began through early exposure to transportation and logistics. Working with his family's logistics operations, he handled customer acquisition, driver and vehicle-management issues, strategic service partnerships and the implementation of a vehicle-management system. This provided direct experience with the realities of running asset-intensive operations.
From December 2016 to June 2023, Kelasha served as Managing Director of Ingenii Lanka, an Internet of Things and software engineering company. His responsibilities covered company formation, financial planning, legal and regulatory requirements, IoT and software architecture, product demonstrations, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, supplier networks, international logistics, team recruitment, staff development and overseas business coordination.
During this period, the company developed connected solutions across fleet management, transportation, agriculture, workforce management and other industrial environments. These projects taught Kelasha that collecting data alone was not enough. Businesses needed technology that could understand what the data meant, preserve operational context and help people act at the right time.
Ingenii products received multiple distinctions at the 2022 National ICT Awards. Ranger Fleet was named Best Internet of Things Technology of the Year and received Bronze in the Industrial Transport category. Smart Agri received Merit recognition in Industrial Agriculture, while X Squad received Silver in Professional Services.
Founding Sellora
Drawing on his background in mechanical engineering, fleet operations, industrial IoT, software, simulation and enterprise customers, Kelasha founded Sellora Pty Ltd in Australia in November 2023.
Sellora was created around a simple but far-reaching observation: most organisations already have software, machines, sensors, databases, procedures and skilled employees, yet these resources rarely operate as one intelligent environment. Critical information remains separated between systems, operational context is lost, and employees spend substantial time manually coordinating work.
Kelasha's vision for Sellora is to give every employee access to an intelligent digital colleague connected to a shared enterprise intelligence system. These digital colleagues are designed to understand the organisation, support decisions, coordinate authorised work and act across existing business tools without requiring companies to abandon the systems they already trust.
Enterprise AI for real-world operations
Under Kelasha's leadership, Sellora has grown from an industrial IoT foundation into a broader enterprise AI ecosystem. Sellora ONE acts as an AI business operations manager, while Sellora TWO provides each employee with a personal digital assistant connected to the organisation's shared intelligence.
Sellora SPIKE combines real-time asset information, digital twins and simulation for physical operations. Sellora Nexus and the Sellora IoT Core connect machinery, sensors, SCADA systems and external IoT platforms. Laura Logic adds natural voice interaction, allowing organisations to handle inbound and outbound conversations, update business systems and activate operational workflows in real time.
This combination allows Sellora to work across environments where digital systems and physical operations meet. Its industry solutions include Sellora Vector for transport and logistics, 4EverPulse for hospitals and aged care, and specialist applications for agriculture, manufacturing, mining, critical infrastructure, energy, buildings and other asset-intensive operations.
Sellora has moved beyond concept development into real operational deployments. At Greensill Farming in Australia, Sellora combines equipment data, field activity, intelligent filtering, digital twin correction and enterprise reporting to improve visibility and decision-making across agricultural operations. Company-reported results include an approximately 80 percent reduction in work-area calculation time and an estimated return on investment within two to four months for the initial use case.
Kelasha has also guided Sellora's work with technology and industry partners across connected devices, transportation, manufacturing and healthcare, including relationships with Teltonika Telematics, Base Fabrications and Softlogic. These partnerships extend Sellora's capabilities while allowing the company to enter specialised industries with strong domain knowledge.
Building trust for enterprise adoption
Kelasha has treated governance, security and operational discipline as essential parts of building an enterprise technology company. Sellora's compliance program includes ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO/IEC 27001 for information security management and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety.
The company has been built through a cross-border structure combining Australian commercial leadership with a multidisciplinary research and engineering team in Sri Lanka. Kelasha has also attracted investors, directors and advisors with experience across banking, cybersecurity, financial governance, sustainability, industrial technology and international enterprise operations.
Sellora's technical advisory strength includes Dr. Yasantha Rajakarunanayake, an early investor and Senior Technical Advisor with decades of Silicon Valley experience, more than 130 granted and pending patents, and senior technology experience spanning Broadcom, MediaTek and advanced AI computing.
In 2025, Kelasha's work was recognised when he was selected as a finalist for AI Leader of the Year in the SME category at the Australian AI Awards. The recognition placed him among Australian leaders applying artificial intelligence to meaningful commercial and operational problems.
Leadership beyond technology
Kelasha's leadership combines technical depth with an ability to build relationships, communicate an ambitious vision and organise people around delivery. His experience spans product design, engineering architecture, customer acquisition, finance, partnership development, fundraising, recruitment, governance and international business development.
He also represented the University of Moratuwa in basketball, competed in university tournaments in Sri Lanka and India, and received university colours twice. These experiences reinforced the discipline, resilience and team-first mentality visible throughout his engineering and entrepreneurial journey.
Kelasha continues to lead Sellora's technology vision, platform strategy, enterprise partnerships and international expansion while remaining closely involved in how the company's products solve practical customer problems.
Building what did not yet exist
From the D-MORA P1 at Silverstone to intelligent digital colleagues working across farms, fleets, hospitals and industrial operations, Kelasha's career has followed one consistent principle: technology creates its greatest value when it moves beyond presentations and becomes part of how people and organisations work.
Team SHARK demonstrated that Kelasha could create a national engineering first. Ingenii demonstrated that he could develop and commercialise connected technology across multiple industries. Sellora brings those experiences together into his most ambitious undertaking: building an Australian enterprise AI company designed for the complexity of the real world.