Last chance to enter 7th Venture Engine entrepreneurship program

With the 10 December submission deadline for the latest edition of Venture Engine fast approaching, the life changing opportunity to sign up and be transformed by this innovative, intensive six-week entrepreneurship program will soon end.   

As of now, a significant number of submissions, representing areas as diverse as FinTech, Agriculture, Education, Logistics and Tourism, have been enrolled in the latest edition of Venture Engine. So don’t delay, enter today, as this is the last chance to submit your business plan for 7th Venture Engine.

“Investors are keen to work with overachieving and agile entrepreneurs who show the requisite, exemplary leadership and self-motivation skills. They must also be coachable, and willing to do what it takes to get ahead, helped along by the correct guidance. There is no better place to find more capable people than Venture Engine, where participants are well prepared for ground realities as well as future success, including access to the right mentors and important local and global networks,” commented Mano Sekaram, Chairman of the Lankan Angel Network, the main organiser of Venture Engine. 

The Lankan Angel Network is Sri Lanka’s pioneering Business Angel Network. It has collectively invested over Rs. 2.2 billion in 30+ startups. Venture Engine was also co-founded by BOV Capital and the Indian Angel Network.   

To be held between January and mid-February 2019, the seventh consecutive Venture Engine has been looking to attract new business ideas (very early stages), as well as Seed and Growth stage startups, with an interest in fast-tracking expansion. Visit www.ventureengine.lk or call 0777039889 to learn more about the application criteria and process for this year’s program.

For its 2018/2019 cycle, Venture Engine has particularly focused on scalable, innovative ventures aiming to solve burning issues in frontier markets, including Sri Lanka, with the potential to expand regionally or internationally. Participants of Venture Engine will go through several rounds of filtering where they will pitch their business plans to a panel of experienced investors and industry specialists including members of the Lankan Angel Network and invitees from the wider startup ecosystem. 

At the same time, participants benefit from a series of intense workshop sessions in key areas, from preparing an investor friendly business plan and valuations, to product-market fit, financial and legal planning and even analysis of case studies. Those reaching the final stage of this program also receive the coveted opportunity to be mentored by top international investors such as Rajan Anandan, Google’s Vice President for India & SEA.      

It is further noteworthy that the Venture Engine program will, for the third consecutive year, feature a very special category highlighting for-profit Social Enterprises, which is once again awarded by Indian Venture Capital firm Aavishkaar, the title sponsor for the 7th Venture Engine.

“We are pleased to be a sponsor for Venture Engine, the marquee startup competition for Sri Lankan entrepreneurs, for the third consecutive year, and happy to see the Impact Award spreading awareness of for-profit businesses which can scale social development. The startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka is thriving, and we are excited to deepen our engagement with the entrepreneur community, beyond our existing portfolio companies in the country,” said Sanchayan Chakraborty, Partner at Aavishkaar Frontier Fund. 

“A 2014 honoree at the Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards (AREA) in Macau, Venture Engine is already well known in Sri Lanka and abroad for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Our partnership with social impact investor Aavishkaar, and particularly the introduction of Aavishkaar’s Impact Award, has greatly helped highlight high-potential, for-profit ventures in Sri Lanka that have embraced social innovation as a key part of their business model,” noted Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, a Founder of Venture Engine and the Lankan Angel Network, and General Partner at BOV Capital.

Local startup incubation and acceleration platform HATCH and Sri Lanka’s largest telecommunications services provider Dialog Axiata PLC are also sponsors. 

The top three winners, along with the winner of the latest edition’s Impact Award, will also receive attractive cash prizes as well as direct access to raise investment via the Lankan Angel Network, as well as its regional and international counterparts like the Indian Angel Network, and even through funds such as Aavishkaar and BOV Capital. 

Last year, the program saw Roar Media (2017’s winner), Insureme.lk, Igniter Space and India’s Pregbuddy go on to secure funding and support helped along by the participation of an impressive portfolio of high profile attendees. These included representatives from Sequoia Capital, Gulf Islamic Investments, Khazana India, Uber, TVS Capital Funds, Avendus Capital, Crescent Enterprises, WaterBridge Ventures, Mindtree, Proparco France, Unicorn India Ventures, Citigroup, Jungle Ventures (Singapore), Wadi Accelerator (New York) and Artegnan Tech.

Since its beginnings in 2012, Venture Engine has been Sri Lanka’s most successful platform for accelerating and expanding the country’s most promising entrepreneurial ideas. 2017’s Venture Engine was held in conjunction with the Asian Business Angel Forum (ABAF), Asia’s largest annual Angel investor gathering. Through this collaboration, it also acted as an unprecedented conduit for Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to gain access to a broader network of investors, expertise and mentors from some of the Asia’s most prominent investors via the ABAF platform.       

To date, the Venture Engine program has showcased some of Sri Lanka’s top fundable startups including Simplex Delivery, Takas.lk, ZigZag.lk Direct2Door, Plushbox, Quebee Den, OMAK Technologies, Saraii Village, Extrogene, House of Lonali, Glitteray, IntelloCut and 24-7 Techies. So far, hundreds of Sri Lankan startups have utilized the Venture Engine platform to fine-tune and accelerate their entrepreneurial efforts, as well as to help secure financial support via prominent local and international investors.