Hatch discovering bright lights in start-up system
The Hatch X Draper Start-up House Co-living space in Orion City Colombo, the first such space on the island, was opened recently during Silicon Valley billionaire investor Tim Draper’s visit to
Sri Lanka to further support the start-up ecosystem infrastructure Hatch has built through its co-working space and accelerator/incubator programmes.
Apart from this, Hatch has many other exciting new ventures coming soon.
Jeevan Gnanam, Co-founder Hatch told the Business Times in an interview recently that Hatch wants to be in new locations in South Asia. “We are growing in Pakistan with a new space. We want to go to Bangladesh. In Sri Lanka, we are also looking at one or two beachside locations where we can start co-living spaces to attract digital nomads who want to come and work in the country.”
He said that Hatch, along with Draper Start-up House is trying to tap the digital nomads who are different from regular tourists. “They can give back to our economy, either through technology transfer or by working here. This is a new way of looking at tourism.” He added that together the two entities seek to redefine the traditional digital nomad who is only contributing to the local economy by bringing in foreign exchange and spending money like a tourist and instead want digital nomad entrepreneurs who build businesses out of Sri Lanka using local talent and their international contacts for distribution and sales, and to encourage collaboration between digital nomads and local start-ups/entrepreneurs to make their contributions to the local economy more sustainable and impactful.
Mr. Gnanam pointed out that the ability for market access for digital nomads is a must. “This should be enabled them to freely come and go. The process needs to be put in place for a digital nomad visa and we are working with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) to fast track this.”
He also pointed out that Sri Lanka needs to be mindful of countries that have already launched such programmes to attract digital nomads as this sector is highly competitive.
In 2021 Hatch collaborated with the ICTA,
ENPACT e.V. in Berlin, Germany, which represents the Berlin Senate’s start-up initiative “AsiaBerlin” and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Germany to run a NOMAD4LK competition to initiate engagement between digital nomads visiting Sri Lanka with the local start-up ecosystem.
The winner of the competition was Matt de Caussin, an American entrepreneur residing in Germany with over 15 years in the start-up space with leading accelerator programmes in the USA. Mr. de Caussin travelled to Sri Lanka amid challenging economic times including fuel shortages, electricity outages, and uncertain travel schedules. “While the programme expected Matt to leave the country given the circumstances, he chose to stay, sharing that the ecosystem community he was able to gather provided him with the necessary support and direction to manage his travels,” Mr. Gnanam said.
Mr. Gnanam added that this start-up landscape in the country is continuing to improve. “We are seeing a few bright lights and the responsibility of players like Hatch and ICTA is to get around these bright lights and to push them to shine. The more such entrepreneurs we have, the more it will be easier for us to look at it as a way of life.”