The winners of Venture Engine 2019

What initially kicked off in 2012 has since gone on to become one of the most successful entrepreneurship programmes for Sri Lanka. Founded by BOV Capital and the Indian Angel Network, Venture Engine is organized by the Lankan Angel Network.

Held for the 7^th consecutive year, Venture Engine was carried out at Hatch. After going through multiple rounds of pitching to investors, the finale of the competition saw 11 startups. These startups were TravelSpends, Kimbula Kithul, Porukki, Loop Learning, Project 360, Niwadu Deals, LiveRoom, Real Pixels (Avina), Tripmo, Strive.lk and SparkGrid.

The winners of Venture Engine 2018/2019

The winner of Venture Engine 2018/2019 was TravelSpends. This is are a travel technology and real-time transaction analytics company based in India. Their goal is to support large-scale enterprise businesses reduce travel costs and optimize business trips. Furthermore, they also have a presence in Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Emerging as runners up of this years competition was Porukki. This is a startup we’ve seen regularly at startup competitions in recent times. Porukki’s goal is to tackle pollution in rivers, lakes, and other water sources. To do so they’ve built a remote-controlled robot that resembles a submarine, which can clean these water sources.

And coming in as the second runner up was Liveroom. Another startup, which we’ve seen many times over the years. Liveroom is an AR platform geared towards eCommerce. Using their technology, eCommerce stores can allow you to view how a product such as a chair may look like in your house using augmented reality.

Another startup that was recognized at the competition was Kimbula Kithul. This is a startup that aims to support rural economies. To do so, it aims to support kithul treacle producers from Matara. Kimbula Kithul was awarded the Venture Engine Impact Entrepreneurship Award for 2018/2019. This award is an initiative by the Indian Venture Capital firm Aavishkaar.

But the finale wasn’t only about pitches.

Alongside the competition, the finale also saw a number of in-depth discussions. These topics revolved around topics such as SAAS products, deep tech startups in Sri Lanka, and a workshop on AI conducted by Microsoft. Additionally, there were also panel discussions with experienced leaders in the industry sharing their thoughts.

The finale also featured a startup corner. Here you’d have found stalls by companies displaying their products. This year’s attendees featured companies such Alavi.ai, avantrio, Takas TES, Coffer, Insureme.lk, Helios P2P and Linear Squared. In addition, SenzAgro, Clarity Travel Solutions, Breadfast.lk, Myrooms Online, TravelSpends, Plushbox, Vulcan D, Real Pixels (Avina), Mosurance, Eco 360 and LiveRoom also had stalls for displaying their products.

And so the latest edition of Venture Engine has concluded. However, the Lankan Angel Network has stated that it will still be looking at investing in new ideas. Kishan Nadarajah also echoed these sentiments at the January meetup of Spike where he shared that they’re exploring the idea of hosting more events where more startups can pitch to investors.

But at the moment, if you’re a startup looking at getting funded through LAN,  click here for more details.