Sri Lankan tech startup iLoan was fortunate to make it to the finals of Seedstars; a global platform for startups to pitch and showcase their innovations. Seedstars is a Swiss-based, global organization with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. To that end, the Seedstars team conducts several initiatives to support startups in such markets across the world with its most famous event being the Seedstars World Competition, which has come to be known as the world’s largest startup competition in emerging markets.
Speaking on Seedstars and the global platform they’ve built to support startups, Mangala Karunaratne, Founder & CEO of Calcey and investor said “One of the main issues facing some of our startups aspiring to go global is the network. Seedstars provide just that – it’s a global community network where startups get exposed to investors, mentors and potential clients and partners. So helping one of our startups to shine there, is helping the entire ecosystem.”
iLoan is a Sri Lankan service provider looking at offering credit to assist small retailers grow their businesses. The company utilizes blockchain and other technologies to offer measurable metrics to banks and other financial institutions. Armed with these metrics, these institutions can better asses the risks and credit worthiness of small and medium-sized retailers. Generally, these businesses have poor access to finance. Through innovation, iLoan believes this can change to bring about economic growth that benefits everyone.
Lakshan De Silva, Co-founder and CEO of iLoan went on to say “We at iLoan consider it a great privilege to represent Sri Lanka at the Seedstars World Summit. The support we have received from the Sri Lankan startup and tech community has been unprecedented, and we are grateful for all the support we have received thus far in order to compete at a global stage. This resonates well with our country’s resilience and solidarity.” when we asked him what he felt about making it this far on Seedstars.
A few months back, Seedstars had their Asian semifinals take place in Cambodia, with the finals scheduled to take place in Switzerland. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Seedstars has decided to host the Seedstars Summit 2020 online, cancelling their plans to host a public event taking everyone’s safety into consideration. The online event is scheduled to take place on the original dates set aside for the summit. It’ll be kicking off on the 30th of March with a series of private online sessions offering insights to help startups grow and connect them with investors. Finally, on the 3rd of April, the Seedstars Summit 2020 will be held online and open to everyone.
Taking it online doesn’t change much for eager spectators, this also gives an opportunity for a greater audience to cheer on iLoan as the online event will be completely free and open to everyone! And with that being said, we invite all our readers from Sri Lanka and across the world to go cast your vote for iLoan by clicking here and make them the first Sri Lankan startup to have won an international pitching event!