Submissions for 7th Venture Engine until Dec. 10

Sri Lanka’s pioneering entrepreneurship programme Venture Engine has to-date, assisted hundreds of Sri Lankan startups in fine-tuning and accelerating their entrepreneurial efforts.

Submissions for the seventh consecutive Venture Engine are currently being accepted via www. ventureengine.lk until December 10.

Recently, one of these startups, Igniterspace, a top fundable company at Venture Engine 2017, and that year’s Impact Award winner, leveraged its success within this programme into a movement that promotes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education across Sri Lanka.

The Impact Award recognizes early-stage for-profit ventures that foster positive social or environmental change, either directly or indirectly as part of its business operations. The first Impact Award winner was Venture Engine 2016’s top-ranked Hire 1.

According to Igniterspace’s Co-founder and CEO Jehan Wijesinghe, “Venture Engine’s Impact Award opened many doors for us. Before the programme, we were a startup executing outside the limelight. And although we were highly successful in the growth of the number of customers served, we did not have the attention of the Startup community including fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, etc.

Throughout the workshops and other events conducted, we were able to network with many parties who have ever since brought many benefits to our growth as a startup. Further, all the mentoring sessions were very beneficial in shaping our company as a whole. Many mentors that we had in the program are still involved in our startup journey today in some ways.”

Additionally, the winners and runners-up of Venture Engine 2017, comprising Roar, Igniterspace and Pregbuddy, also benefited immensely from a sponsored excursion to the Sankalp Forum, Asia’s leading platform for impact investing and entrepreneurship, which allowed many opportunities to interact with global stakeholders in this space.

Being awarded once again at the 2018-2019 cycle of Venture Engine, the Impact Award is presented by Indian Venture Capital firm Aavishkaar, which is also the title sponsor for the seventh edition of Venture Engine.

The latest edition of Venture Engine is Aavishkaar’s third consecutive association with the programme. Further, Aavishkaar has also invested in the local market by providing funding for Sri Lankan companies like Dulith Herath’s Grasshopper and popular spice brand MA’S.

Aavishkaar is joined by local startup incubation and acceleration platform HATCH and Sri Lanka’s largest telecommunications services provider Dialog Axiata PLC as sponsors for the Venture Engine program’s newest edition.

Since its beginnings in 2012, Venture Engine has been Sri Lanka’s most successful platform for accelerating and expanding the country’s most promising entrepreneurial ideas. The main organizer of Venture Engine, the Lankan Angel Network is Sri Lanka’s pioneering Business Angel Network. It has collectively invested over Rs. 2.2 billion in 30 plus startups. Venture Engine was founded by BOV Capital and the Indian Angel Network.