SL fintech start-ups win gold and merit awards at APICTA
View(s):The 18th Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) awards 2018, which was held in Guangzhou, China from the 10th to 14th October, picked Sri Lanka’s DirectPay as the overall winner in the Consumer – Wealth and Retail Category and Park and Pay with a Merit Award in the Start Up of the Year – Business and Community Category.
From left - Anagi Perera – CEO and Co-founder, Park and Pay; Dinesh Karunathillaka – Co-founder, DirectPay and Park and Pay; Kanishka Weeramunda – Founder, PayMedia and Co-founder, DirectPay and Park and Pay; and Mariya Kaed – Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager, DirectPay and Park and Pay
The APICTA Awards is the largest IT competition in the Asia Pacific Region organised in order to bring awareness on ICT amongst the community and assist in bridging the digital divide. The award brings recognition to innovative products and solutions from ICT talents originating from the Asia Pacific region, according to a media release from PayMedia (Pvt) Ltd.
DirectPay and Park and Pay represented Sri Lanka in a head to head battle with 14 other countries in the categories and rose to the top with highest honours at the spectacular event. The selection process of the nominees was based on their uniqueness, market potential, features, quality, and application. Each nominee had to pitch and was rigorously assessed by a judging panel of the highest calibre, making it a difficult selection process.
The Gold award winning product, DirectPay, is an electronic payment option providing a viable alternative to cash and POS systems. It provides an entire infrastructure to facilitate payment requirements with its modular based and service-oriented software architecture. Directpay enables this while supporting the existing structures, allowing the merchants to offer products and services across all possible channels, the release said.
Park and Pay was awarded with a Merit for its app-based innovative solution for motorists to find vacant parking spaces anywhere in Colombo, allowing seamless booking and payment within the app in only 3 clicks.
DirectPay and Park and Pay is a spinoff of PayMedia (Pvt) Ltd that has been actively serving in the Fin-Tech industry by disrupting the conventional banking system in Sri Lanka. With the introduction of the DirectPay solution, PayMedia has entered the digital era by changing conventional methods of daily transactions in the payment system.