Raw talent, unique ideas and new business concepts at Venture Engine Finale 2016
Hire 1 winner with officials
It was an evening of unbelievable business models showcased by local startups in Sri Lanka at the 16th edition of the Venture Engine Finale on Wednesday at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo. Unique ideas and business models were presented by up and coming young Sri Lankans looking for capital to start a business. A mother who couldn’t find something healthy enough to feed her baby decided to do her own research and came up with a variety of baby products. Rohanthi Wijewickrama founder of Quebee Den (Pvt) Ltd who became the 1st runner up at the Venture Engine Finale, told the Business Times on the sidelines of the event,
“I always wanted to become an entrepreneur and start my own business in Sri Lanka. I did a lot of research to produce these baby products which finally today becomes a reality through Venture Engine. I’ve been doing this business for one and a half years now.” Similarly Hire1, a mobile app that helps customers with delivering goods from one place to another as well as booking taxis and many other online mobile services became the winner of Venture Engine Finale 2016, also winning the Impact Entrepreneurship Award. Direct2Door, another startup company that delivers fresh vegetables and any household items to the door step by just choosing the products online, became the 2nd runner up at the finale. There were so many other startups that have various unique business models.
When the Business Times spoke to Rajan Anandan, Co-Founder of Blue Ocean Ventures and Google Vice President and Managing Director for South East Asia and India on the sidelines of the event, he said, “Without a doubt I would say that in 10 years-time from now, Sri Lanka will have more than 10,000 technology companies. There is strong computer science talent among the young minds. Reasonably it’s an easy environment to do business while Sri Lanka is in the epicenter of four billion people living around its shores. Many startups have built their products here locally are now going abroad to do business.” There is a lot of potential for export driven product and technology companies and there will be more and more interesting companies coming into the market in the future, he added.
He also mentioned that Sri Lanka has a massive gap of funding. The Indian Angel Network has helped investments for 10 Sri Lankan startups. Today there are investments from the US, Singapore and Hong Kong which sums up to US$ 1 billion in Sri Lanka. Capital is not a problem for investors in Sri Lanka, but one has to build great companies, he noted. Venture Engine 2016 saw over 200 entries encompassing a wide range of industries including ICT, tourism, e-commerce, food and beverages, logistics, retail and education. ”The next Asian Business Angel Forum will be held in Sri Lanka in 2017, during which Sri Lanka will welcome a large delegation of potential angel investors, many of whom will be visiting the country for the first time,” said Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, Co-Founder of Blue Ocean Ventures at the event.