Lankan Angels back Aniwa.lk, a startup platform reaching Sinhala audiences
View(s):Since launching in January 2016, Aniwa.lk has made an indelible mark in Sri Lanka’s online space, the company claims.
“Aniwa.lk differentiates itself by steering away from the all too common Sinhala gossip website brimming with celebrity news and political scandal, and publishes wholly-original light and useful articles on topics including lifestyle, fashion, arts and culture, health, travel, food, and trending social issues. Conceived, researched and voiced by a team of 10 content creators, Aniwa.lk is now the most visited site for original Sinhala lifestyle content,” the media release of the company said.
“Given Aniwa.lk’s expanding impact on the Sinhala language web and its enthusiastic reception by marketers, it was an easy decision for the Lankan Angel Network (LAN) to invest in the promising start-up. LAN’s goal of scaling the Sri Lankan startup economy drives them to seek out and invest in startups that show significant growth and profitability potential, and Aniwa.lk fits the bill,” it said.
“Just 10 months after our launch, we are already ranked 85th for Sri Lanka overall on Alexa.com – a website ranking service – as well as being among the top 30 locally operated content sites,” said Aniwa.lk co-founder Anisha Yasaratne. Aniwa.lk currently publishes 140 articles and videos a month on their website and on their Facebook page, racking up over 8,000,000 page views since launch with more than 625,000 unique users per month – a number that still continues to grow every month.
Launched by Anisha Yasaratne, Nanda Abeysekera and Gehan Dias, Aniwa.lk has benefited greatly in terms of advice and contacts following the investment by LAN. LAN comprises of well-respected individuals in the local start-up eco-system who have a passion for promoting entrepreneurship, comprising individual investors, venture capitalists, and angel investors. A Sri Lankan-first, LAN was launched with the purpose of bringing together the local investor and mentor community and to scale up the start-up ecosystem.