Seen here from left are Indi Samarajiv- Director of YAMU, Lahiru Pathmalal -CEO of Takas.lk, Chandika Jayasundara- CEO of Cinergix,Charita Abeyratne Hettiarachchi -CEO of Saraii Village and Mangala Karunaratne -CEO of Calcey

With the aim of uplifting the startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka and to grow the startup community, Startup Sri Lanka, represented by the entrepreneurship forum which is an initiative by SLASSCOM, hosted and concluded another successful boot-camp.

Held on the 7th of April at Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, the boot-camp started off by having each entrepreneur giving out snippets of their story. Mangala Karunaratne, CEO of Calcey and Indi Samarajiva, founder of Yamu.lk talked about how they started bootstrapping their startup and the effect it has on the business today. 

Lahiru Pathmalal founder of Takas.lk and Charita Abeyratne Hettiarachchi, founder of Saraii Village provided insights as to how funding helped them kick-start their startup idea and what it is today, followed by a highly interactive panel discussion session moderated by Cinergix CEO Chandika Jayasundara. The discussion highlighted as to whether startups need to be bootstrapped and grown organically or to pitch it to potential investors for funding and have it grown faster, in comparison to bootstrap.

A part of the audience at the Disrupt 2.0 Bootstrapped vs funded

The diversified audience consisted of prominent founders of startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, tech enthusiast and investors and venture capitalists.  Sri Lanka is experiencing a favorable environment for startups with access to various skills, resources and support. The country is also ambitious in increasing employment levels and investment opportunities from both local and global prospects, and is gearing up for inclusive growth throughout the island in various sectors. 

In conclusion these bootcamps will be an ongoing monthly event from SLASSCOM’s entrepreneurship forum where the aim is to mentor, create awareness of local startups and educate the community at large as well as promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

SLASSCOM is the national chamber for the IT/BPM industry in Sri Lanka and acts as the catalyst of growth for the Sri Lankan IT and BPM industry by facilitating trade and business, propagation of education and employment, encouragement of research and innovation, and by supporting the creation of a progressive national policy framework. It has an ambitious 2022 Vision to become a $5 billion industry, creating 200,000 direct jobs and launching 1,000 start-ups.

For further media inquiries, contact:
Anas Akram, Project Executive- SLASSCOM on 0114-062224 or [email protected]