Spiralation fosters tech start-ups to improve national economy

Spiralation, a tech-startup supportive programme organised by the Information and Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), has facilitated 16 tech start- ups through seed funding, comprehensive training, workshops and guidance.

Twelve selected start- ups were funded Rs.1.5 million each along with comprehensive training, endorsement by the government and opportunities to develop locally and internationally and the other four start- ups were provided with all-inclusive training and guidance. Spiralation has up to now supported a total of 70 start-ups from various fields backing up with necessary guidance and utilities to help them develop into giant companies, according to an ICTA media release.

Spiralation has primarily focused on uplifting the national economy and raising the living standards of people through empowerment of tech start-ups which influence society and are capable of addressing social issues. In doing so, the programme also expects to meet up the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs), also known as global goals adopted by United Nations Member States, a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and dawn peace and prosperity to the planet by 2030.

The tech start- ups which were facilitated by the recently held programme are Frammix, Thingerbits, Tracified, RN Innovations, Ideal Six, BookClub.lk, SchoolX, Univiser, Smartstudy, Real Pixels, Kayal Technologies, Cookoo eats, Iron blood games, Lanka Travel Mart, Direct Pay and FieldR. Some of these tech start-ups are already up and running, providing versatile solutions to customers enabling a sustainable future in addition to achieving company goals and developing to be giants in the industry.

Education

Thingerbits is an edutechbased start-up which inculcates DIY culture among people enabling them to develop creativity and new ideas. Thingerbits is instrumental in creating a quality education across the country. The SchoolX is an Internetdriven learning platform which promotes self-learning through digital content and allows students to be more creative and not be solely dependent on teachers. Bookclub.lk is a digital publishing and technology company which is on a mission to digitise Sri Lankan books, giving Sri Lankan readers an easy access to the books that they love and increase readership through a built-in e-reading app.

Univiser is an e- mentoring platform, a customisable peerto- peer solution that connects prospects, current students and alumni of an education institute. SmartStudy is an innovation web application to improve the MCQ ( Multiple Choice Question) scoring ability of schooling students and jobseekers. These start- ups help navigate the quality of education and provide apt solutions for the betterment of education.

Frammix is a Virtual Reality (VR) platform which creates VR tours, mainly targeting the ancient sites. Through this initiative, Frammix expects to develop tourism, create awareness of and add value to the heritage sites in the country. Real Pixels is an award- winning creative company which creates pioneering holographic displays. The company has developed AVINA, a hologram device which can be utilised for advertising purposes. RN Innovations is another tech start- up which develops Intruder Detection Systems providing total security solutions, especially to banks. RN Innovations introduced a highly developed preventive mechanism related to identifying intrusion threats. This intrusion detection system is a comprehensive solution which is deployed by banks and off-site ATMs.

Kayal Technologies is an early stage start-up working on computer vision and robotics. Kayal is currently working on building an electric trash-skimming device for waterway cleaning which utilises a novel conveyor manipulation system. This system is expected to save upto 70 per cent of the current cost of waterway maintenance.

Waste management

Idealsix is an innovative solution provider for local councils which focuses mainly on waste management. This start-up has recently built a mobile app called UCEMB which is already b e i n g u t i l i s e d by the Embilipitiya Municipal Council in deploying waste management. The app enables the people to identify and trace the garbage collectors and handover the garbage. Idealsix has worked towards developing infrastructure by introducing waste management techniques and continues to find solutions for waste management.

Tracified is an innovative supply chain traceability platform that allows premium product sellers to communicate their product value via retail and ecommerce channels. The platform enables suppliers of premium food products and online retail shops to trace the quality of products, mainly in the supply of organic food. Tracified is a fully cloud-based solution which can be integrated with any IoT device and blockchain technology, enabling to verify authenticity throughout the business value chain. This initiative ensures that the food supply is not tampered with thereby leading to wellbeing of the users, as the customers and even sellers are informed of the quality and state of foods. Cookoo Eats is an on-demand food delivery application that helps bring food to the consumers in a convenient and reliable manner. Cookoo Eats app acts as a platform to connect a broad range of food vendors such as restaurants and home-made food suppliers to the consumers, so one can order from the full menus of one’s local favourites whenever wanted.

Viable solutions

The release said that the Spiralation programme has enabled tech start-ups reach the ranks and generate viable solutions and attain long-term goals for the sustainable development of the country. Many tech startups that were provided with guidance through Spiralation are already influencing the society in fields like quality education, waste management, health and wellbeing, sanitation, industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Spiralation was funded by the Ministry of Industrial Exports and Investment Promotions which was formerly known as the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade (MODSIT). The ministry has identified ICTA as a leading stakeholder to implement IT- BPM initiatives, hence partnered with ICTA to further strengthen the IT- BPM sector and to streamline the Sri Lanka National Exports Strategy (NES).