5 things you didn’t know about Sri Lanka’s startup scene

Photo credit: Felix van de Gein

“Address?”

The tuk-tuk driver stared at us blankly.

“Trace Expert City. It’s a tech innovation complex somewhere in the center?”

When the response was just another blank expression, my colleague Nick and I gave up, pulled out Google Maps and navigated the driver through the Colombo traffic, looking for the startup tech hub of Sri Lanka.

As soon as we arrived, it became clear why the driver never heard of it. Sunk one level below the road and hiding behind a red brick wall, a thick line of trees was hiding three railway warehouses.

“The government gave us the permission to use this land and develop the first technology park in Sri Lanka. The aim is to create an ecosystem that supports science, technology and innovation, a place that is conducive to creative thinking and encourages collaboration,” explains Mangala Karunaratne, the co-founder of Calcey Technologies, one of the local software development houses that reside within Trace.

Stepping into Calcey offices, it seems that the vision of the government worked out perfectly. With a climbing wall on your left, pool table on your right, and spiral staircase leading up to a mezzanine floor filled with colourful couches, you might as well have been in Jakarta, Singapore or any other established startup ecosystem.

And if you ventured to a garage just a few meters down the road, you would have seen Sri Lanka’s first super electric car, designed to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, leveraging nano-technology to reduce its weight.

It all seemed to be there – the vibe, the ideas, the excited programmers typing away on their keyboards. So what is actually happening in the Sri Lankan startup scene?

After spending almost three weeks working with the Lankan entrepreneurs through our Seedstars World programme, this is what we learned:

1. Geopolitics can play to your advantage

With all the startup glory and spotlight directed at India, Sri Lanka has somehow escaped the world’s attention. And no wonder.

Being an island nation with a population of just above 20 million, previously suffering from civil war and natural disasters, it is natural that the local ecosystem has been left to its own devices, unobserved and unintruded by international players or investors.

Nevertheless, the situation is far from dire. The Sri Lankan civil war ended over 6 years ago, and since then the country’s geopolitical outlook is much more positive.

2. The talent pool is on the rise

3. It is the right time for acceleration programmes

4. The future looks bright for co-working

5. Developing right investment environment

Where does this leave us?