National Startup Challenge – in pursuit of the first Sri Lankan unicorn

Ananke

Everyone.

Spark Grid

In Sri Lanka, only about 2.8% of the population are business owners (as compared with 10-20% in comparable countries around the world, according to a September Daily FT article). There is a growing need for not just an increase in the percentage of business owners nationally, but also for the creation of startup companies that can provide a significant addition to wealth creation and jobs, through innovation and technology. 

Development of internationally competitive entrepreneurship is vital to a modern economy, with impact for communities all across, for government, local universities, and private individuals. Vibrant entrepreneurial communities produce more capable entrepreneurs, who in turn create wider economic opportunities. Eric Paulsen, executive director of BizStarts Milwaukee, explains in a Forbes article: “So many people are focused on redistributing wealth, but not creating more. Entrepreneurs create companies, new revenue – they create new wealth. Wealth combats poverty.” 

In order to encourage and develop this key development trend, Venture Frontier Lanka was created as Sri Lanka’s first entrepreneurship platform focused on the development of the complete startup lifecycle. Venture Frontier Lanka identifies the next generation of technology entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and supports them through mentorship programs, workshops on knowledge sharing as well as seed funding. 

A Sri Lankan focus with a global reach

National Startup Challenge is Venture Frontier Lanka’s latest initiative in entrepreneurship, which took place over the last weekend. It took startup development training in Sri Lanka to the next level, by bringing together speakers and mentors from around the world to share their experience in international expansion, scaling up, exponential growth, pitching to investors, how and where to get funding. 

Venture Frontier Lanka and OviBees Ventures, the program initiator, are reaching out to bring know-how from around the world to Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and, in doing so, are looking to get international experts from every continent. At their previous initiative, the Startup Boot Camps, they had speakers from South Africa, the United States, South Korea, and Germany. 

The National Startup Challenge initiative saw influential speakers from Israel and the United State: Avishag Bohbot, private investor and Jim Bagnola, President of The Leadership Group. They shared their experiences with the 30 startups present at the event. The local perspective on entrepreneurship and scaling was represented by Mano Sekaram (CEO and Co-Founder of 99X Technology, Founder of Startup X Foundry and Chairman of Lanka Angel Network), Harinda Fonseka (Founder of gudppl.com), Rohan Jayaweera (Palo Alto Networks), Bhanuka Harischandra (Surge Global) and Tilak Dissanayake (Antz Global).

The need for mentorship and international connections is real

Moving past the sharing of knowledge, Venture Frontier Lanka works to fill the mentorship gap by enabling valuable connections between entrepreneurs and local or overseas allies. Venture Frontier Lanka’s network, of over 200 mentors from around the globe, as well as 60 local mentors, who are happy to share their expertise and work closely with the young entrepreneurs provides the potential to support startup development across international borders. Entrepreneurship, after all, is about people; and people work best in communities, where they can help each other. 

The winners of the National Startup Challenge will benefit from a mentorship program provided by Sri Lankan and international mentors, through Venture Frontier Lanka’s guidance. The first 4 startups of the competition, chosen after they pitched in front of a panel of high-level judges, are:

Ananke: anankeiot.com

!dea Factory: ideafactory.lk

Million Spaces & SparkGrid (tie): millionspaces.com & sparkgrid.lk 

Join in future Venture Frontier Lanka initiatives

Venture Frontier Lanka is a program of OviBees Ventures, launched in Sri Lanka in March 2018 and founded by both Ovidiu Bujorean and Heminda Jayaweera. Among Venture Frontier Lanka’s past activities and entrepreneurial events:

2 Startup Boot Camps, in Colombo and Jaffna;

a National Ideation Broadcast;

5 episodes of a Webinar Series;

2 Entrepreneurship Caravans, in Galle and Kandy;

Women in Entrepreneurship event.

Get involved with Venture Frontier Lanka. They are seeking entrepreneurs who want to start or improve their ventures, experienced business owners who want to advise participating startup founders, and corporations and organisations to partner to grow the entrepreneurial culture in Sri Lanka. Contact them at [email protected] or on their Facebook page.