‘Launch to Germany’ virtual soft-landing program for Sri Lanka startups

‘Launch to Germany,’ a virtual soft-landing competition to facilitate the entry of Sri Lankan Start-ups to Germany, was held during the AsiaBerlin Summit 2021 in Berlin, providing the ideal pitch bed with the focus of finding, recognising and connecting the future-shapers of the digital age among Sri Lankan tech startups. 

The Embassy Day of AsiaBerlin Summit 2021, themed 'Towards a Start-up Friendly Nation,’ was organised by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Germany, together with partners ENPACT of Berlin, the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and Hatch.

The event, which was held in a hybrid format, commenced with the welcome notes being delivered by Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Germany Manori Unambuwe and ENPACT Managing Director Jan Lanchenmayer, whilst ICTA Chairman Oshada Senanayake addressed the gathering. 

This soft-landing initiative is a launchpad for ambitious startups to showcase their products and solutions and elevate their profile in diverse markets across Europe. The selected participants will get the opportunity to test the strength and viability of international startup ecosystem partnerships and gain access to industry, investor and market linkages, along with mentorship from sector experts and scale up operations to reach an international market. 

Ambassador Unambuwe, commenting on the programme, stated: “It was heartening to receive an overwhelming response of 34 applications for this landmark opportunity and will contribute to the overall goal of $ 3 b export revenue from the technology sector of Sri Lanka.”

During the Embassy Day event, seven finalists, SenzAgro, Alavi.ai, MagicBit, Niftron, Universer, Blue Lotus 360, and ShoutOUT, pitched their solutions to a panel of industry experts from Germany and Sri Lanka comprising Sachindra Samararatne (ICTA), Siddharth Bhasin (ENPACT), Randhula De Silva (Good Life X) and, Mike Richardson, (AsiaBerlin). 

The winners of the ‘Launch to Germany’ who presented unique innovations Alavi.ai, MagicBit and SenzAgro will be receiving a fully sponsored eight-week Virtual Soft Landing (GIPS) Program sponsored by ENPACT and AsiaBerlin to explore European markets from Berlin, the startup hub of Europe. 

Alavi.ai is a B2B SaaS application that helps digital marketers of small and medium sized retail brands to succeed using data science and automation, to find high intent audiences, whilst Magicbit provides ed-tech tools to promote innovation with technology, for students across the world on an integrated platform of hardware, software, mobile apps, content, and training programmes.  

SenzAgro’s digital agriculture ecosystem is designed for smallholder farmer, on an intuitive, intelligent, self-evolving system that delivers future-ready farming solutions to the entire agricultural sector.    

The Embassy Day of the AsiaBerlin Summit also included the Digital Nomad Ambassador Program (NOMAD4LK) and the Social Entrepreneurship Conclave, in promoting Sri Lanka’s vision of strengthening the startup ecosystem.