Top Sri Lankan startups invited to Reach Global

Tuesday, 16 October 2018 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

 

Venture Frontier Lanka has launched the applications for the National Startup Challenge, a new initiative dedicated to top Sri Lankan tech startups. This is a two-day event that will take place at Dialog Axiata Auditorium on 10 and 11 November.

The National Startup Challenge will involve workshops delivered by international and Sri Lankan speakers on how to grow and scale a business globally, as well as PitchDay, which is a public event. 

The PitchDay event consists of a competition where six of the most compelling entrepreneurial teams will get the chance to pitch their startups in front of tech entrepreneurs, angel investors as well as people interested in entrepreneurship. Winners nominated by the panel of judges will receive six-month mentorship focused on exponential growth and on how to scale their business, as well as qualify automatically for the Venture Frontier Lanka National Accelerator. Judges look for the potential to scale internationally, commercial potential, team characteristics and the dimension of impact. Industries of interest for this edition are agriculture, healthcare, education, tourism, logistics, ICT.

“Sri Lanka is a country that is trapped in the developing country status for many decades. The best way to move out of this and take Sri Lanka forward is innovative start-ups looking at global markets. This is a golden opportunity for such startup cofounders who can change Sri Lanka in next decade,” said Venture Frontier Lanka Co-founder Heminda Jayaweera.

The entrepreneurs interested in applying for this event are invited to fill out the online form. The selection of the participating startups will be based on the application information submitted via this form and fitting the eligibility criteria below:

  • Geography focused: Founded by at least one citizen or resident of Sri Lanka, or by at least one Sri Lankan citizen residing abroad.
  • Type of ventures: For profit ventures only; socially motivated for-profit ventures are also invited to apply
  • Stage of ventures: Early stage (idea/business plan), prototype, beta stage or post-revenue
  • Sri Lankan founders own 51%+
  • Age of ventures: Not older than three years.

Applications will be open between 1-31 October.

“Through Venture Frontier, Sri Lanka will unleash, launch and propel the country’s most promising seed and early stage ventures with the clear goal to build several globally recognised companies and brands. We live by our motto: Build Local, Reach Global,” said Ovidiu Bujorean, Co-founder Venture Frontier Lanka, CEO OviBees Ventures.

Main Partners: Sri Lanka Export Development Board, LOLC, and Daily FT. Technology Partner: Dialog Ideamart. Outreach Partners: ReadMe, Trace Expert City, Hackathons.lk, Yarl IT Hub, Event Horizon, Jump.lk, Sustainable Education Foundation – SEF, iStartup, Advisor.lk, AIESEC

For further information follow the initiative on social channels or reach out to the team at [email protected].

  • Facebook: Venture Frontier Lanka
  • Instagram: venturefrontierlanka
  • LinkedIn: OviBees Ventures

Venture Frontier Lanka is Sri Lanka’s first entrepreneurship platform focused on the development of the complete startup lifecycle. Venture Frontier Lanka identifies the next generation of technology entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and supports them through entrepreneurship capacity building activities that provide: Skills development; networking; and international exposure and seed funding.

OviBees Ventures is a forward-looking team, and venture accelerator specialised in globalising the most promising early-stage tech startups and in designing and implementing integrated entrepreneurship platforms. OviBees Ventures envisions a more prosperous world through leapfrogging entrepreneurship, meaningful partnerships and inspiring stories of impact.

Venture Frontier Lanka is a program of OviBees Ventures launched in Sri Lanka in March,2018 and founded by both Ovidiu Bujorean and Heminda Jayaweera. Venture Frontier

Lanka organised already a series of entrepreneurial events since March, such as 2 StartupBoot Camps in Colombo and Jaffna, a National Ideation Broadcast, a bi-weekly WebinarSeries and an Entrepreneurship Caravan at the University of Ruhuna.

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