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Europe’s leading start-up event organised by PwC and SLASSCOM in Helsinki, Finland
NicNac, which offers a unique delivery service to Sri Lankans, was adjudged the country’s best impact oriented startup at the SLUSH Global impact accelerator 2016 Sri Lankan competition held recently.
The competition, organised by PwC Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), was a unique opportunity to help empower the country’s startups, and also give such startups the rare opportunity to take part in the internationally-renowned SLUSH Global Impact Accelerator 2016 event in Europe, which brings together the brains behind likeminded startups which aim to help solve the pressing challenges the world is facing. Officer NicNac Chief Executive Sachira Fernando is representing his company and Sri Lanka at the international leg of the SLUSH event happening from 22 November-2 December in Helsinki, Finland. Fernando, successfully beat 14 other startups to become the winner of the Sri Lankan competition, which was held for the first time in the country’s history.
SLUSH Global Impact Accelerator is a program created in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and multiple global partners including the World Bank. Its purpose is to create a leading global accelerator to support startups that are looking to solve some of the most pressing global challenges and contribute to the discussion on impact investing. PwC Sri Lanka was appointed the exclusive hub manager for the SLUSH Sri Lanka event by SLUSH Global.
The organisers received a total of 22 applications for the competition, from which a panel of judges chose 15 of the best startup, based on their individual and unique business concepts with the main criteria being that the startup had a measurable positive impact on people, society or the planet. The 15 competitors were also selected based on their potential to scale, drive to succeed and for being a startup from a social entrepreneurship field.
Subsequently, from the 15 startups, the panel of judges shortlisted three of the best teams, and the final selection committee based in Helsinki selected Fernando’s NicNac delivery service as the best impact oriented startup in Sri Lanka, following interviews with the final three teams.
NicNac is a unique delivery service which provides doorstep delivery of any item a customer requires. The service is available for iOS users and delivery is offered across Colombo until 1.00 a.m.
PwC Sri Lanka CEO Sujeewa Mudalige said that unique startups have the ability to shape the future of a country and its economy.
“Today, we are witnessing how startups are becoming a force to be reckoned with. They are breaking barriers due to their unique concepts and equally unique vision, and are successfully spearheading change across every sector,” he said.
Mudalige added that PwC Sri Lanka had always understood that startups have the ability to reshape economies and hence it has worked consistently to empower local startups.
