Sri Lanka’s startup sparkle: The pearl’s glow returns

A country’s startup ecosystem indicates its desire for innovation, economic growth, and employment generation. And despite its size—comprising only 65,600 sq kms, 1/50th the size of India—Sri Lanka is buzzing with opportunities. 

Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic culture, favourable geographical position, and neutral political mindset make the country a favourable land for startup innovations. Owing to its international shipping routes, starting up in Sri Lanka allows entrepreneurs to not only serve in the Pearl of the Orient but to the rest of South Asia. 

“We had very few homegrown tech startups before 2010. Universities lacked the entrepreneurship culture, and those who came out of degree programmes, wanted to be employed. Gradually, from 2010 to 2015-16, our startup culture changed,” says Sachindra Samararatne, Associate Chief Digital Economy Officer, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, during a conversation with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory Media.

With a population of just 2.2 crore, India’s neighbouring island country has already registered 900 startups, claims Samararatne. He further added that startups and incubators emerging from across provinces indicate an inclusive growth. According to sources, the Sri Lankan startup ecosystem generated 10,000 employment opportunities, as of 2024. 

“We are working on bringing all of this together… We had a slow turn between 2016 and now, but now the foundation is being laid through digital public infrastructure. Just like India, we foresee the startup ecosystem (in Sri Lanka) will bloom because of that… Problems need to be solved, and the data required to solve those problems is also available,” Samararatne adds. 

According to Eranga Weeraratne, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, the island country is set to grow to a $5 billion digital industry and $15 billion digital financial economy by 2030. The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka foresees growth across govtech, fintech, healthtech, biotech, and deep tech sectors.  

Earlier this month, Startup Mahakumbh, one of India's biggest startup events held in New Delhi, dedicated an entire pavillion showcasing 10 inspiring Sri Lankan startups. The startups showcased innovation, technology, and disruption in their respective fields.

"We have been inspired with this engagement in India. We have seen where we can partner. And I am pretty confident that this journey that we started by being part of Startup Mahakumbh is a journey that will help both our countries become leaders of South India," says Samararatne.

In a conversation with Shradha Sharma during Startup Mahakumbh, seven such Sri Lankan startups spoke about their products and services, and expressed their interest in engaging with the Indian ecosystem for further growth and disruption.

Jendo Innovations 

Founded by Keerthi Kodithiwakku, Heminda Jayaweera and Vinod Samarawikrama, healthtech startup Jendo Innovations has developed an AI-based vascular health assessment device. 

Using the non-invasive technique of Photoplethysmography (PPG) and Digital Thermal Monitoring (DTM), the device, which can be used by any doctor or healthcare professional, helps in the early diagnosis of vascular diseases within five minutes. 

“Eight years ago, we realised that 25% of all global deaths were caused by cardiovascular diseases. Even during the 2020 global pandemic, heart disease was the number one killer… We realised that in India and Sri Lanka, Ayurvedic doctors touch your wrist and identify diseases in the body. So, we tried analysing the science behind it,” says Jayaweera. 

The team at Jendo Innovations, comprising cardiologists and engineers, studied the endothelium—the single-layer lining of cells covering the inner surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels—that connects and ensures blood flow across the body. “If anything’s wrong with the cardiovascular system, the first organ to get affected is the endothelium. Thus, if we can monitor the endothelial health, we can automatically predict the cardiovascular health,” Jayaweera explains. 

Jendo Innovations has developed an electronic device with signal processing, and its AI algorithm has been patented in the US and Japanese markets. Presently, the startup is in the process of receiving FDA approval—”80% of it is done, and we are the first-ever Sri Lankan-invented biomedical device that went through the approval process.”

In fact, Jayaweera adds that including Jendo, only four companies globally have been able to develop the technology—one each in Russia, the US, and Israel. 

"India being the closest and most powerful country in South Asia, we look at it as a partner to take our ideas to the world through India," Jayaweera tells Shradha Sharma.

Once the FDA approvals get through, the startup will first launch its products in the Indian market, followed by other countries. Jendo Innovations has received strategic investments from Sri Lankan investment firm Lanka Ventures PLC. 

Bluechip Technologies

Founded by Uditha Bandara, Colombo-based Bluechip Technologies uses the power of AI to solve complex problems, streamline operations, and enhance human experiences across sectors.  

The startup offers AI strategy and consulting services to empower businesses by identifying high-impact AI use cases and developing proof-of-concepts. 

Bhandara earlier worked in Singapore in the gaming industry. Inspired to work in the AI sector, he moved back to Sri Lanka and took the entrepreneurial route. “By starting in Sri Lanka, I am providing employment opportunities to university students and the workforce in my own country. Our base is Sri Lanka, and we have data scientists and a team of AI experts here, but we are serving Singapore and other countries in the world,” he says. 

PayMedia 

Colombo-based fintech startup PayMedia provides software solutions to banks and other financial institutions to simplify the banking experience. Founded by Kanishka Weeramunda in 2014, PayMedia provides smart banking services for digital onboarding and eKYC, online wallets, remittance systems, and electronic funds transfer, among others. 

“We were the first ones to introduce cash deposit software to Sri Lanka… We are almost serving all banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies in Sri Lanka,” claims Maduranga Ginigaddara, Chief Finance Officer at PayMedia. 

The startup also has operations in the Maldives and Nigeria and is presently exploring opportunities to expand services to India. 

Speaking about the overall fintech space in Sri Lanka, Ginigaddara says that fintechs need to be more innovative to capture internal markets. “The market size in Sri Lanka is very small when compared to India… We are currently looking for strategic partnerships and investors who can help us get into foreign markets.”

PayMedia was visiting India to explore partnership opportunities and understand the market size better.

CURFOX

Namal Attanayake founded AI-powered ecommerce delivery management startup CURFOX in 2014. According to its official website, the startup has onboarded over 10,000 merchants, delivering over 10 million orders. 

However, what truly sets CURFOX apart is its AI-backed returns predictive model that helps companies reduce return rates with real-time insights. The startup claims that its accuracy rate is 95%. 

“We have more than 50% supply chain market share in Sri Lanka, and we have customers in Nepal and Dubai as well,” says Lanka Herath, Co-founder of CURFOX. 

The startup has received the Gold Award for Supply Chain Logistics in the Industrial Category at the National ICT Awards 2024. 

KReader 

KReader, founded by Heshan J Peiris, offers a subscription-based digital reading framework for local languages in Sri Lanka. The startup provides e-books, audiobooks, AI-based text-to-speech, and text-to-sign language for personalised and inclusive reading experiences.

“We are also working on a tech, where we can digitise any educational material and research papers, so we can make them accessible in real-time… On a larger level, we want knowledge and literature to come online,” says Peiris, adding, “That’s how we can transform the South Asian regions into a knowledge hub that can compete with the global (countries).” 

ShoutOUT Labs

Founded in 2016 as a personalised messaging platform, ShoutOUT has pivoted to provide AI-powered customer experiences in the marketing space. 

“We identified the gap that most D2C retail businesses lack—using first-party data effectively to reach out and serve their customers in a hyper-personalised way… We use AI for customer segmentation and content generation,” says Tharindu Dassanayake, Founder and CEO of ShoutOUT Labs. 

The Colombo-based startup has clients across 10 countries, some of the companies managing data of over a million customers. Some of its notable clients include Peoples Bank, LOLC Cambodia, P&S, Massy Caribbean, Dilmah, and Sri Lanka Cricket, among others.   

Electriquote 

Founded by Mithushan Jalangan and Dilini Ekanayaka, ElectriQuote is a SaaS platform that helps in electrical estimation by generating accurate Bills of Quantities (BOQ) for construction projects. 

The startup requires customers to share a clear picture of the electrical reading, and the pricing list according to one’s preference for electrical equipment, providing an actual estimation of power consumption. 

According to Dilini Ekanayaka, CEO and Co-founder, the startup has over 50 customers. “We have gotten feedback that the product is more than 90% accurate,” she says.

Electriquote was exhibiting their product for the first time at the Startup Mahakumbh. "We are here to explore the Indian market and understand how Indian construction feels like," says Ekanayaka.

(The copy was updated with latest stats)