Four social entrepreneurs receive grants

Four social entrepreneurs from MTI's 'idea2fund' platform were selected and awarded a start-up grant from Ricky Mendis to launch their ventures. The entrepreneurs; Anoma de Alwis, Chathurika Kahavita, Bhagya Galawatta and Shalini Wickramasuriya presented their ventures and were awarded the seed funding by Mendis.

MTI's idea2fund is a venture challenge platform for prospective Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to present their venture ideas, be challenged and receive constructive feedback, get linked with investors/funders and receive start-up consulting advisory on go-to-market strategy and execution from MTI. "Social entrepreneurship is needed to resolve the greater issues that society faces and the challenge lies in developing social ventures that are 'sustainable' over time. To that effect, 'idea2fund' has identified these four ventures and it's my pleasure to support them at their nascent stage to become truly impactful in the future," said Mendis.

idea2fund second round

The second round of MTI's idea2fund was launched last week, with the expectation of an even larger number of entries, covering a diverse range of business domains.

Round one kicked off in February this year and ended in May. It received nearly 250 entries. MTI's panel of judges' shortlisted 60 ideas which was further evaluated and selected based on three rounds which included concept presentations, commercial presentations and the final round involved the 16 shortlisted entrepreneurs having one-to-one meetings with the investment pledgers/enablers.

MTI Consulting CEO Hilmy Cader said, "With the access to funding that investors have already pledged and with the strategic advisory and implementation support from MTI, we fill a gap in the start-up environment which we believe will lead to the birth of a new breed of entrepreneurs and bankable ideas."

The deadline for the submission of applications for this venture challenge is November 15.