BOV Capital to launch Rs. 2b fund

Blue Ocean Venture Capital (BOV Capital) based in Sri Lanka and Singapore, will launch a Rs 2 billion fund to help Sri Lankan start-ups capture regional and global opportunities.

This will be one of the first venture capital funds focused on early stage start-ups in the country. BOV Capital is a partnership comprising Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, Eric Wickramanayake and Rajan Anandan.

BOV Capital's target ticket size will be in the range of Rs 100-200 million. The fund will focus on investing and working closely with Sri Lankan technology start-ups that can build large regional and global businesses.

The Rs. 2 billion fund is from high net-worth limited partners in India and Singapore, in addition to the funding partners.

Prajeeth Balasubramaniam said, "Over the past five years we have seen the emergence of a start-up ecosystem in Sri Lanka. The country's strong education system has led to Sri Lanka producing world-class engineers. These skills in computer science and engineering, combined with the global exposure that many of our entrepreneurs have, is leading to the creation of interesting software product companies and internet companies that have tremendous regional and global potential. BOV Capital hopes to invest in the highest potential technology start-ups from Sri Lanka and help them expand rapidly."

The fund will invest in start-ups that have strong teams, proven product market fit, ability to compete globally with unique technology and consumer value propositions. BOV Capital is supported by Ambit Finvest, one of the leading investment banks in India.

"BOV Capital is addressing a large, unmet need in Sri Lanka. The country is now at a point with many technology start-ups but severely lacks venture capital. The founding team has extensive experience in investing and developing start-ups which is critical to investing in high growth technology companies," Balasubramanium said.

"BOV Capital has received huge interest from investors in India and Singapore who are excited about investing in innovative 'new economy' companies from Sri Lanka," he said.

Over the past five years, Sri Lanka has seen the rapid emergence of a start-up ecosystem and the launch of BOV Capital signals a new era for the country's entrepreneurs.

Eric Wickramanayake said, "The time is right to invest in some of the technology companies as tech entrepreneurs are savvy and we intend helping them. There are still no drivers of the economy and a vibrant tech industry will enable rapid development in the country."

-SJ