SLASSCOM Women Technopreneurs Forum to support, promote and grow technology-led start-up businesses

The SLASSCOM Women Technopreneurs Forum was launched on 22 September at the Shangri La Colombo amidst a gathering of male and female business leaders and entrepreneurs. 

‘Women Technopreneurs’ are the creative, innovative and dynamic new-age female entrepreneurs who use technology to foam disruptive business solutions by the way of start-ups to serve the local and global markets. 

The representation of females amongst the island’s tech-based entrepreneurs has the potential for exponential growth of the industry, remarked Chairman Channa Manoharan who stated that this is “an initiative that will create a profound impact in the lives of women and transform the IT and knowledge services industry and Sri Lanka’s economy.” 

Vice Chair for SLASSCOM Sandra De Zoysa said “Whilst our aspirations are to establish 1,000 start-ups and transform the currently estimated $ 1.5 billion local IT industry to a $ 5 billion industry by 2025; our focus is on largely developing export-centric growth. At present majority of IT centric start-ups & businesses are predominantly led by men. 

“Whereas the demand that we can cater to, through an inclusive environment in this industry is much greater with a significant representation of women. Through Women Technopreneurs Forum we seek to create an opportunity for Sri Lankan women to step up and contribute to the growth of our industry. SLASSCOM believes in the power of women helping women succeed. Our goal is to ensure that out of the 1,000 start-ups we hope to promote, a fair proportion will be female-owned or female-led and will result in additional revenue to Sri Lanka.” De Zoyza continued. 

Endorsing these comments, SLASSCOM Director/ Board Lead Women Technopreneurs Forum Shehani Seneviratne explained that the forum will be driven by the objective of increasing women-run tech businesses and elevating women technopreneurs to venture into export-oriented businesses. 

Seneviratne said “Our focus will be based on three key pillars to achieve these business objectives - funding & sponsorship, skills development and mentorship & networking. Key strategies will include collaboration with the rest of forums, CoE’s of SLASSCOM and industry chambers that support entrepreneurship and female leadership. 

De Zoyza further noted, “From handling the pandemic at country-level to pursuing higher education, women have proven to be capable and creative multi-taskers; therefore, women must make the best use of all the opportunities available today, especially with the country’s President declaring the next ten years as a ‘skills decade’ and being eager to build the IT industry to be a foreign-income puller.  

“COVID-19 kick-started the digitization of several industries, highlighting a multitude of opportunities in the digital domain. Now is a good time as any for any woman to start a business, to take the risk and make the leap. SLASSCOM is ready to lend a helping hand to this cause and the Women’s Technopreneur forum is the first step towards establishing the way forward in harnessing and nurturing inspirational women technopreneurs that will help shape the business landscape in Sri Lanka in the future.” De Zoyza stated.