Young masterminds behind financial mentoring platform
Meet the two 20-year-olds Kavindu Herath and Rahul Gunasekera whose startup is all about educating people on the world of capital markets
It is very rare to begin a startup without ever having met your partner in person but that is exactly what Kavindu Herath and Rahul Gunasekera did when they launched Ceylon Exchange Mentoring (CEM) in November 2019. A startup that operates in the field of capital markets and Education Technology (EdTech), the CEM business model revolves around educating its students primarily within the boundaries of investment and personal finance.
“Our focus was to do courses related to the capital markets scheme in Sri Lanka. Over the last year, we have been able to cater to about 1500 students with our classes available in English, Sinhala and Tamil. We conduct over 30 courses led by industry experts. The courses focus on stock market investing, real estate investing, fixed income securities that include treasury bills, bonds, repurchase papers, commercial papers and crypto,” Rahul says adding that they also have high
profile foreign lecturers conducting these courses.
These two masterminds behind CEM say what drove them was their desire to change the perception of financial literacy being a topic that isn’t discussed enough in communities and families. Seeing an opportunity where they could educate not just the youth but other age groups, of which 30-40 year olds make up a majority of CEM’s students, Rahul
and Kavindu realised they should put their knowledge and experience to good use.
Interestingly Rahul and Kavindu had formed an alliance virtually through social media and did not meet due to the pandemic. It was only after CEM had been up and running for about six months that they met in person. Both these 20-year-olds with similar interests in financial subjects and trading saw the gap in the market and decided to embark on the CEM journey.
Rahul is a product of D. S. Senanayake College and Kavindu is from St. Peter's College and the duo counts over three years of experience in trading. Currently Rahul is following CISM while Kavindu is doing CIMA exams. Their team of two has expanded to around 15 to 20 members.
“Our latest venture includes the expansion of our news platform to keep our audience informed of all events relating to capital markets, both locally and internationally, which has a following of over 30,000 across all social media.” They have also worked with brands such as Arpico Ataraxia, First Capital Holdings PLC, Sanasa Development Bank PLC for various partnerships and collaborations.
They urge anyone who is willing and keen to learn about the subjects they focus on to check them out because they break it down to the basics. To find out more about CEM, visit their website https://www.cem. lk/, email them at info@cem.lk or call them on 070 196 3307/0117 117 503.