August 7 Demo Day for MIT GSL's fifth year in Sri Lanka

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Global Startup Lab (GSL) programme formally ends its fifth year in Sri Lanka with a presentation of business plans by finalists on August 7 at a Demo Day at TRACE IT City, with the ultimate goal being to secure funding. The MIT GSL programme is also held in South Africa, Mexico and Malaysia.

According to a recent announcement by Joseph Yang, GSL Country Manager, Sri Lanka, the "7-week programme will wrap up with the Demo Day event to pitch the polished business plan to guests and investors on August 7… The GSL alumni of entrepreneurs include 4 Axis Solutions, a top mobile app company with millions of users worldwide, Enhanzer, providing business solutions to clients such as Unilever and Hidaramani Group, as well as a number of others in the software and technology areas".

Further, it also emerged that the finalists’ pool for the programme's Demo Day would number 25, whittled down from an initial group of 100 candidates who submitted their ideas following the programme's June 22 kick-off. It was indicated that 2015's programme was opened up to working professionals, which significantly elevated the scope of domain knowledge and experience among the start- up ventures. This, in turn, also raised the intensity of the programme, compared to previous programmes that were only limited to undergraduates and recent university graduates. Additionally, it was also noted that last year's programme culminated in eight finalist start-ups, with four having found funds for their proposals.

Mr. Yang also commented that the "MIT instructors bring diverse experience ranging from infrastructure network development, NGO operations to human space flight, bringing in expertise from system design, computer science, as well as operations and management.

With a focus on commercialisation of ideas, the programme that started in 2011 with only university students now includes professionals and teams with existing start-up businesses looking to scale up. The instructor teams are also joined by lecturers from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) and the University of Moratuwa to learn from MIT’s unique start-up ecosystem and its continued success of transforming technology to successful businesses".

(JH)