Venture Engine
Sri Lanka’s Foremost Startup Competition
Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
28th Sep 2021 | 8th Venture Engine Launch | Hatch Auditorium |
12th Nov 2021 | Closing of Submissions | |
16th Nov 2021 | 02 Min pitch | Hatch Boardroom |
23rd Nov 2021 | Workshop 1: Business Plan & Branding | Virtual |
26th Nov 2021 | Workshop 2: Due Diligence | Virtual |
1st Dec 2021 | Workshop 3: Finance Planning | Virtual |
6th Dec 2021 | Round 1 Presentations | Hatch Boardroom |
10th Dec 2021 | Workshop 4: Start-up Funding Cycle & Valuations | Virtual |
14th Dec 2021 | Workshop 5: Go to Market & Value Proposition | Virtual |
7th Jan 2022 | Workshop 6: Shareholder Agreement & Good Governance | |
26th Jan 2022 | Round 2 :Presentations | Hatch Boardroom |
23rd Feb 2022 | Venture Engine Finale Presentations | Hatch Auditorium |
Venture Engine Awards & Cocktails |
Founder – Dilendra Wimalasekera
Company Bio
24/7 Techies delivers computer and mobile device support to consumers and SMEs remotely. The Sri Lanka based company has supported 40,000 consumers and 3,000 SMEs in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. 24/7 Techies has a Trustpilot rating of Excellent and an A+ Better Business Bureau (USA) rating.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
We had the chance to meet several angel investors in one location during demo day, some of whom invested and also introduced us to other investors. Through this network, we ended up being introduced to 500 Startups, a venture fund and accelerator based out of San Francisco, and raising funding from them.
Learn more: www.247techies.tech
Founder – Nilusha De Silva
Company Bio
Established in 2011, Skrumptious specializes in gourmet brownies. Skrumptious flagship store is located in Colombo 05 and the newly opened branch is located in Colombo 03. Skumptious brownies are made to a secret recipe which has remained unchanged since the inception of the company.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
My dream to make skrumptious a global enterprise one day was much-admired by some of the most significant business owners/professionals in the country during the VE competition. Many investors recognized skrumptious as a company which had a lot of potential and believed in my business strategy to enter into the global market. Their recognition gave me a lot of courage and motivation to move forward without getting distracted from achieving my ultimate goal.
Learn more: www.skrumptious.lk
Co Founders – Gayantha De Zoysa & Keiffer James
Company Bio
Strive offers holistic wellness programs that help corporate employers and employees to stay healthy, motivated & engaged using a formula of fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness. Strive is a one-stop Corporate Wellness Solutions to create a healthier, happier, and productive workforce.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
When Strive participated in Venture Engine program in 2018, we were the first marketplace for fitness services in Sri Lanka. However, Strive was struggling to monetise the B2C segment. Through our participation in Venture Engine, and work with the program’s hands-on mentors, Strive changed its model to become the 1st holistic wellness service provider in Sri Lanka by 2019. We were able to monetize B2B customers and build a sustainable and growing business.
Learn more: www.doyoustrive.com
Founder – Charitha Abeyratne
Company Bio
Saraii offers experiential tourism, for responsible travelers. Featuring unique accommodation - Tree Houses and Mud Chalets; Saraii’s USP is a host of community immersion experiences. Feted with Trip-Advisor’s “Top 10 Most Extraordinary Treetop Hotels in the World” in 2014 and 2015, and “World Luxury Treetop Lodge - 2016” reflect the Saraii journey.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
When participating for VE, Saraii was simply an idea; a pilot model set up as an MBA project using limited funding! The infusion of funding through VE gave it the much needed boost to ensure that it propelled to the next stage. The confidence and business success enabled a successful second round of funding fueling rapid expansion of the business to a full fledged differentiated experiential travel product, that established a unique tourism offering in the country and a strong brand.
Today Saraii has evolved to become a company that has a proper governance structure, financial transparency and accountability!
Learn more: www.saraiivillage.com
Co Founders – Ehantha Sirisena & Chrishan Perera
Company Bio
OMAK is the leading SaaS based Cloud Restaurant POS in Sri Lanka with the largest market share. We are the first POS in Sri Lanka to fully integrate with leading delivery companies such as UberEats and PickMe Food and also partner with YUM Global and Pizza Hut Development Ventures.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Participating in Venture Engine helped showcase our company to some of the leading investors in Sri Lanka and South Asia. As such, we received our initial funding through the Lankan Angel Network and follow on funding from BOV Capital LTD as the lead investor. These investments opened up multiple doors locally and globally, resulting in our company being able to expand our business operations and in multiple areas. The assistance that we received was not only financial, but guidance and mentorship from leading personalities such as Rajan Anandan, who has consistently championed us throughout our journey.
Learn more: www.omak.co
Co Founders – Dinindu Nawarathne & Chamindri Liyanagama
Company Bio
Zigzag is the Sri Lanka’s largest online led women’s fast fashion brand. The company designs, manufactures, markets, and sells its own private label “Zigzag” through the www.zigzag.lk website and also through the flagship store located in Charles Drive, Colombo 03. Zigzag has grown rapidly since being founded by Dinindu Nawarathna (Founder/ CEO) in 2014 and the brand is wildly popular with gen Y (Millennials) & gen Z. Almost every Sri Lankan youth will own a Zigzag Piece at some point in time within the next 10 years. Why? Because rarely do you get clothes that are vibrant, cool and affordable without compromising on the quality and exclusivity. Zigzag has over 100,000+ active customers
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Raised Angel Funding to Accelerate E-commerce growth.
Learn more: www.zigzag.lk
Founder – Nithya Lamahewa
Company Bio
“Nithya” is a designer brand that aims to reinvent and re-launch Sri Lanka’s ancient craft of handloom and bringing to new markets and higher levels than it has ever been before. Launched by Nithya Lamahewa in 2012, “Nithya” uses the skill of a generations-old handloom community.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Through Venture Engine, I got great support to create my brand, and they assist me with the business in the early stage. And mentored me to be where I am today. Forever grateful for all the investors and mentors I met through Venture Engine.
Learn more: www.nithya.store
Founder – Chanchala Gunawardana
Company Bio
Kimbula Kithul was founded with the vision to create a global, premium opportunity for the wrongfully long-undervalued uniquely Lankan product of pure kithul syrup.
Pure kithul is low-GI, smoky-sweet and vegan, lending itself to diverse culinary and drink possibilities and is well-aligned with future forward food concerns of health and sustainability.
Today, Kimbula is also looking beyond kithul - building a Kimbula Kitchen of products united by their distinctly Lankan flavours, sustainably harvested, all while keeping farmer visibility, dignity and fair trade at the center.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Right before I applied to VE, I was struggling to bridge the gap between my vision and my reality - I felt stuck making small gains in the local space. I was looking for help to build a framework to make things really work. When I was told that VE wasn’t just for tech, I decided why not. Those pitching rounds were the first time I articulated my vision, and got the tools to frame and assess my business critically. The speaker sessions were the first time I got to see the language and scope with which a room full of primarily tech concepts got to hear. It was much more ambitious than the language I heard in social entrepreneurship and it gave my ambition confidence to show. I think more than anything VE validated my dream and gave me fuel. The journey after that has taken longer than perhaps if I was tech, but that foundation was essential to keeping me driven, and pushing me to pursue all the opportunities that followed.
Learn more: www.kimbulakithul.com
Founder – Naafiah Saleem
Company Bio
Plushbox is a Sri Lanka's pioneering gift curation service that specializes in creating aesthetic gifts for all of life’s occasions. We specialize in occasion gifting such as birthday gifts and anniversary gifts, as well as media kits, campaign concept gifts, influencers gifts and all sorts of corporate gifting requirements. Our boxes are curated with meticulous care and attention to detail, using products that are elevated, indulgent and emotional resonant.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
VE was instrumental in getting us to look at the bigger picture. The interest in our product from the VE mentors and investors accelerated the timeline of taking PlushBox from just a part time idea to a fully fledged scalable business. The business skills training provided by VE assisted us in jumpstarting a number of processes that may have otherwise taken a lot more time. Further, having the exposure that ABAF brought with it, helped us in introducing our product to a significantly larger audience, gathering invaluable feedback that aided us in further fine tuning our product.
Learn more: PlushBox
Co Founders – Gajan Vinothan, Udara Rathnayake, Kalana Jayasuriya
Company Bio
Stripes & Checks Inc is an Omni-channel Direct-to-Consumer Retailer of Mens' Clothing. Established in 2014, Stripes & Checks started out making custom tailored shirts for men addressing the fit, style and quality issues found in off the shelf shirts in the domestic market. Whilst this remains are USP today, we have expanded our product portfolio to include shirts, polos, chinos and shorts and hope to expand on this with time. Our products are sold online and across five of our brick and mortar stores across the island.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
We benefited by observing other participants’ presentations and ideas and used some of those principles in our own business operations. We were truly inspired by other participants and we continuously learnt different ways of solving problems and doing business. We were also thankful to the exposure our brand got and speaking to prospective investors gave us a lot of insight towards shaping our path thus far.
Learn more: www.stripesandchecksinc.com
Co Founders – Mustafa Kassim & Abdurrahman Haroon
Company Bio
Roar Global is a media network founded in Sri Lanka.
The company builds, operates and invests in distinct media brands that produce ground-breaking content and media solutions for a South Asian audience. At present, Roar Global consists of 3 distinct business units - Roar Media, Roar Studios and Roar Digital.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Participating in VE expanded our horizons as a young business at the time. The insights and guidance received by a host of international investors helped us look to the global stage for expansion and business development, in addition to helping attract new investors and subsequent funding. Being selected as the winner in 2017 also provided us with significant media coverage that helped increase brand awareness and attract new audiences to our multilingual media platforms.
VE also helped us build and expand upon a strong network of like-minded founders, investors and peers.
Learn more: www.roar.global
Founder – Prasanth Subendran
Company Bio
Techkitez (Pvt) Ltd developed “BusSeat.lk” - an innovative digital bus transport management system, envisioning a hassle-free and enhanced public transportation system in Sri Lanka. The company was founded in 2015 by Prasanth Subendran.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Venture Engine has given exposure of new networks to our business, thus we were able to achieve partnership with telco and fintech companies easily in a short period of time. Also the participation in the competition increased our brand value and that opened us to reach out new partnerships in the long run as well as bring in new investment opportunities.
Learn more: www.busseat.lk
Co Founders – Ruwan Dissanayaka, Thushara Rankothge
Company Bio
Extrogene Software Pvt Ltd is a tech company founded in Sri Lanka and funded by Lankan Angels Network. Extrogene build it’s own products as well as provide software services for it’s awesome clients. Extrogene is in web and mobile app development space. Extrogene’s product portfolio includes OfferHut, Coffer, Vibaga and EVA.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Venture Engine helped us to maintain good governance while developing the business according to the rules and regulations of the country.
Continues support from the appointed directors from the investors side to develop strategies and plans and also to network with other parties in relation to business.
Feedback and comments from investors on new ideas, plans and new business opportunities when necessary. Venture Engine helped Extrogene’s recognition in the startup ecosystem.
Learn more: www.extrogene.com
Co Founders – Vipula Dharmapala, Niranjan Manikam, Anjana Somathilake, Indika Prematunga
Company Bio
InsureMe is an InsureTech platform providing services to both B2C and B2B clients. The Company was founded in 2016 by a team of professionals who have diverse experiences in the insurance and technology with the intention of introducing technology to revolutionize the insurance space.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Apart from funding, we value the experience gained through the entire Venture Engine program. In addition, I consider the network and partnerships opportunities we got later are also a considerable value addition to our journey so far.
Learn more: www.insureme.lk
Co Founders – Lahiru Pathmalal, Murtaza Moosajee and Kalinga Athulathmudali
Company Bio
Takas.lk was founded in 2012, with the sole purpose of introducing e-commerce to Sri Lankans. Prior to Takas.lk there was no ecommerce company in SL that sold products directly to Sri Lankan consumers. The only two players either sold products to SL diaspora or sold coupons online. Takas.lk post being co-founded added a new chapter into the Sri Lankan retail market in the island.Takas.lk introduced a number of firsts to the Sri Lankan consumer such as Cash on Delivery, online easy payment schemes and tokenization of credit cards. Takas was also the only true pure play ecommerce website at the period which helped Sri Lankans learn how to shop online.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Takas.lk was an idea and a powerpoint presentation before VE. The seed funding which was raised helped get it from an idea to a product. Without the exposure and the seed funding that was received from VE Takas would not have been possible. Also the relationships built through VE last to this day on a personal basis.
Learn more: www.takas.lk
Co Founders – Jehan Wijesinghe & Hasith Yaggahavita
Company Bio
IgniterSpace was started because the founders saw a large gap in the space of tech education for kids in Sri-Lanka. IgniterSpace was initially launched as a MakerSpace for young kids to innovate. At Igniter Space kids get to solve problems and create technological creations.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Venture Engine was particularly helpful for Jehan Wijesinghe to build a strong network of mentors, promoters and partners that helped Igniter Space expand its business operations. As the CEO, I was able to use the network build using VE to grow the business significantly over the initial years. As VE 2017 was linked with ABAF as well, I was able to meet promoters from multiple countries. VE also provided me with a platform to develop our business model through the multiple camps and trainings I was able to attend.
Learn more: www.igniterspace.com
Co Founders – Manasij Ganguli, Mausmi Ambastha, Abhishek Srivastava, Bratish Goswami
Company Bio
It was an AI driven B2b SaaS startup in apparel tech domain. At time time of acquisition, threadsol solutions were planning 1% of total world's apparel manufacturing and saving them 2-5% of their material costs.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
VE was an important door opener for threadsol in SL's large apparel manufacturing base.
Learn more: www.intellocut.com
Co Founders – Sameera Nilupul & Chameera Wijebandara
Company Bio
LiveRoom is a company specialising in emerging immersive technologies. Within 5 years we have been able to grow our company and our brand recognized as one of the best AR\VR and Computer Graphics solutions providers in Asia.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Since we are a bootstrapped company from the beginning, we learned what are the benefits of having right investors and what are are impacts of getting funding from wrong investors.
Learn more: www.liveroom.xyz
Founder – Lonali Rodrigo
Company Bio
We believe that consumption should be approached thoughtfully. House of Lonali is the antidote to the rise of fast fashion, providing you with uncompromising style that doesn’t cost earth. House of Lonali upcycles unwanted textiles from large manufacturers, waste that would otherwise end up as landfill, and transforms them into original clothes and lifestyle products. We also work closely with the cottage industries in Sri Lanka to hand-make our pieces, providing income in fair conditions for local artisans.
How did participating in Venture Engine help accelerate your business?
Venture Engine supported our foundation. A strong and credible foundation that a brand, especially a design-led brand needed. Raising funds to kick start, building the right financial governance to create a legislated business was a small yet very important part to our beginning.
Learn more: www.lonali.com