Venture Engine finalists coached through workshop rounds

Pioneering entrepreneurship programme Venture Engine is within sight of its finale, scheduled to take place on February 21 at Hatch – Sri Lanka’s largest co-working space in Colombo.

Following three intensive rounds of filtering, 18 start-ups have now been shortlisted to battle for their final place at the February 21 finale where they will pitch to an international panel of investors in selecting the top fundable start-ups for this year.

Alongside the filtering sessions, participants were required to take part in a series of workshops conducted by experienced professionals from diverse fields. Venture Engine workshops are especially designed to coach budding entreprenuers to set up and scale their ventures and build robust value propositions enabling them to become ‘ready for investment’, the organisers said in a media release.

According to Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, Founder of Venture Engine, the Lankan Angel Network, and General Partner at BOV Capital, "The ultimate purpose behind the programme is to ensure that applicants benefit through feedback, expertise and overall experience gained throughout the programme regardless of funding. For this year's workshop sessions, we put a lot of thought into areas that entrepreneurs really struggle with, such as developing a go-to-market strategy and communicating their business plan in a tough two- to six-minute pitch. We strongly believe start-ups coming out of this year's programme will have a competitive edge over others given the versatile knowledge they have gained through these comprehensive workshops.” Venture Engine was co-founded by BOV Capital and the Indian Angel Network.

Kicking off on November 1, 2018, with entries closing on December 10, the 7th Venture Engine entrepreneurial programme witnessed a whittling down of entries to the 45 most promising submissions, selected based on the strength of their business plans. Participants were then required to take part in a preliminary, two-minute elevator pitch to a panel comprising notable angel investors from the Lankan Angel Network and industry specialists.

A key aspect during the programme's initial filtering was to engage and evaluate the team behind each start-up, which has traditionally influenced investors on the decision to invest. “Eventually what creates value for us as investors is how well the team can execute,” revealed Mano Sekaram, Chairman of the Lankan Angel Network.

The Lankan Angel Network, Sri Lanka’s pioneering Business Angel Network, which has collectively invested over Rs. 2.2 billion in 30+ start-ups is the main organiser of Venture Engine.