Brandix, SLASSCOM, MIT host MIT Global Start-up Labs – Sri Lanka Challenge 2014

Thursday, 11 September 2014 01:54 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

To promote tech-entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Global Start-up Labs (MIT GSL) promotes entrepreneurship by nurturing young technology entrepreneurs in emerging nations, to innovate in the area of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

MIT GSL has operated 43 programs in multiple sites in 15 countries and 150 MIT Global Start-up Labs instructors have mentored over 2,000 participants internationally. An average of 83% of MIT GSL participant-graduates have either registered their own start-up or plan to in the near future. The collaboration between Brandix, the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) and the MIT GSL – Sri Lanka Challenge 2014 program called ‘The Demo Day’ was successfully held on Wednesday, 30 July at Hilton Residence Colombo, with the seven finalist start-ups including Dolawa, Eagle Eye, Organic Hug, Softbeetles, D-care, Topnotch and ShopIn.

The finalists are provided with a SLASSCOM membership fee waiver for the first year to help them with their start-up businesses. The four MIT instructors tasked with guiding the seven start-ups through their development to prototype level in time for the Demo Day are DarshiniThiagarajan (Entrepreneurship Lead), Champika Fer-nando (Technical Lead), Tiffany Yeh (Entre-preneurship Assistant) and Sarah Edris (Technical Assistant). The Brandix Group has pledged to fund the MIT-GSL Sri Lanka program for five years in collaboration with SLASSCOM and MIT. The Global Start-up program will be conducted twice a year to current undergraduates and recent graduates of Sri Lankan universities. On Friday 29 August at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, a celebratory lunch was hosted by SLASSCOM for the winners, including Dolawa, Organic Hug and Eagle Eye of the MIT GSL – Sri Lanka. SLASSCOM had invited Board representatives as special guests; including Jayantha De Silva – Chairman (Managing Director of IFS R&D Ltd.); Madu Ratnayake – Chairman Emeritus (Senior VP and General Manager of Virtusa); and Ruwindhu Peiris – Director (Managing Director of Stax Research Inc). This was a networking opportunity provided for the Entrepreneurs of MIT Global Start-up – Sri Lanka. SLASSCOM feels very optimistic about the ability to embark on a challenging journey towards helping 1,000 start-ups under the Vision 2022 to support and empower tech-entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.