CIMA competition offers great opportunities for local start-ups
View(s):CIMA Launch Pad, a competition seen encouraging and pushing Sri Lankan start-ups to be bold, brave and progressive in a global context, will begin receiving registrations for the 2017 competition sometime this month.
The SpecBuddy product, last year's winners
The event has been recognised as a pivotal platform for budding young entrepreneurs. It is a rigorous two-month programme which aims to expedite the stages between ideation and execution of a business start-up. It also provides the opportunity for participants to amass the necessary skills, build confidence, and forge partnerships throughout the journey, according to the CIMA Students’ Society which has been organising the event for many years.
Promising bigger and better opportunities for the start-up community in Sri Lanka, the society says last year’s winners – SpecBuddy (Champions), Next Bus (Runners up), iWrap and MagD have shown a lot of progress since the 2016 event.
SpecBuddy – Champions
This product by Team Wildcards is a wearable device (similar to a pair of glasses) aimed at the visually impaired, that can be used for facial recognition, identifying currency, deciphering words and much more. The device observes its surroundings and outputs its findings through in-built speakers. The price is set at a mere fraction of the exorbitant amounts charged for devices with even fewer features.
At the moment, a prototype of the product has been given for testing and the team is taking in feedback from a select group of people. The plan is to complete the device with the needed spectacles and to source the production of the hardware to a manufacturer in China, the organisers said in a media release.
“Launch Pad 2016 was an event which was very well executed, in terms of organisation as well as the exposure which was given to the participants.
The event gave the participants a whole lot of value; especially the start-up bundle which was given to the winners; it has a huge value in it.
That was realised along the way,” Pavithra, a member from the team, was quoted as saying.
He further added, “The absolute best takeaway was the once-in a lifetime opportunity to go to SLUSH, in Finland. The mentorship programme was stellar too”. Founder and CEO of Calcey Technologies, Mangala Karunaratne was their mentor during the programme.
The start-up bundle package comprised a start-up loan provided by Hatton National Bank (HNB), a marketing and rebranding offer from Response Marketing, a market research done by Nielsen and an offer for a valuations engagement from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) once the product is launched.
NextBus – Runners Up
Team Octave, from the University of Moratuwa, chose to solve a prevailing issue affecting every commuting Sri Lankan; “Will I be able to get a bus on time today?” NextBus is an app that identifies and displays the location of any bus on a particular route along with its estimated time of arrival at your bus stand.
The project, which was in its nascent stages last year, has now been initiated and the team is currently working with the relevant government authorities to get the project on the road.
iWrap – Second Runners Up
iWrap, a creation by SAS Ninja Labs, is a wearable device created to detect a driver’s drowsiness and attempt to wake him up. This innovation is one that could drastically reduce the mounting number of accidents, and even deaths, caused by drowsy driving globally.
The team has continued to work on their product and has said that a number of improvements has been made, including improvements to their method of sourcing power.
According to them, being tech-wizards isn’t quite enough to make it in the start-up world. Skills in marketing, forecasting, planning and strategic decision making are vital and SAS Ninja Labs salutes CIMA Launch Pad for mentoring them on the business management front, the release added.
MagD
This innovative product, introduced by team Novitas from the University of Moratuwa, is a highly water-absorbent fertiliser. With the use of this fertiliser, you only need to water plants once a week, thus reducing water wastage. The team also hinted at the idea of an interior designing app as a value addition to users.
The team hasn’t launched the product as yet, but plans to do so upon graduating, so that they can fully commit themselves to ensuring the product is materialised.
The team stated the feedback from the judges proved to be the best take away from the event, especially from the Director of ADS Sri Lanka which they found to be very insightful. They further stated that the CIMA competition forged the path to a network of potential investors, who were keen to see how the product would be developed, the release said.
More details on the event could be obtained from the society contacts (Aatiqah – 077 770 6300 or Anushka – 077 132 8931)