78 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
Fostering a
Good Life
Small businesses may not
get that ‘Too Big to Fail’
treatment, but they can
have a profound impact
on people’s lives and
help shape sustainable
futures; GLX supports such
businesses, like the ones
featured here
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 79
GLX, or GoodLife X, is a program offering support
and solutions for innovative sustainable busi-
nesses. GLX aims to help small businesses that
can have a positive impact on wellness and health,
the environment, and foster social and economic
prosperity, to scale their products and services
to reach local and global markets. GLX is set on
a mission to give wings to innovative ethical and
sustainable business ideas that improve people’s
lives. Bridging the gap in such sectors to immerse
through innovative solutions, in order to cater to
the sophisticated needs of international markets
and create economic opportunity in Sri Lanka.
Large opportunities are brought forward by
GLX through its international partner network to
the Sri Lankan economy in food, agri, wellness,
travel and design sectors that are yet to explore
their full potential.
The accelerator programme of GLX entails 12
weeks of intense, rapid, and immersive business
coaching, mentoring, and seed financing. The
following pages will introduce you to ten start-
ups that have completed the GLX accelerator
programme in 2020.
The Accelerator works closely with the
European Business School in Berlin (ESCP) hosting
a pool of international mentors who conduct the
program and coach the founders together with
industry experts. GLX was initiated by GIZ Sri
Lanka on behalf of the German Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ).
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
80 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
Being the fourth largest coconut exporter
in the world, the importance of coconut
in Sri Lanka is immeasurable, especially
its use in the daily cuisine. It is used and
exported predominately in the form of
desiccated coconut, brown fibre, virgin
coconut oil, and coconut water.
However, Shiran Salgado the co-founder
of Sebastco, an engineer by profession
with a passion for sustainable materials
says that coconut-fibre is the best sus-
tainable material out there in terms of its
functionality. As a result, when he and his
friend set out to start a business in 2018,
they ended up using coconut-fibre after
testing out several other materials and
products which even though were branded
as “green and sustainable”, weren’t actu-
ally 100% factual.
His view is that most of the products
sold off as “sustainable” is just green
spleen. “To get out of this sustainability
crisis we do not have to invent new materi-
als, our ancestors invented some fantastic
materials thousands of years ago. So, we
just have to re-use those materials and
bring in to practise their methods to the
modern era.”
Sebastco sandals are 80% natural and
60% sustainable. The difference is, for
a product to be sustainable it must use
organic materials, but the cotton used in the product is not organic plus
a synthetic form is used. Therefore, they are planning on using all natural
and organic components which will make the products 95% natural and
sustainable.
Joining Good Life X (GLX), Salgado says helped him understand other
aspects of the business such as branding and finance. “Even though there
is knowledge on internet, it’s not curated, so joining GLX mentorship
helped me understand the business better and opened doors for me. The
experiences shared by other entrepreneurs on-board was also an eye-
opener. I’m able to forecast and fine-tune my story better now.”
With the experience gained and having faced a bigger challenge such
as COVID-19, Sebastco wants to streamline its production and manufac-
turing stream and make the product 95% to venture into foreign markets.
Making
coconut
great again
Sebastco produces sustainable products,
with a goal of using up to 95% all-natural
materials. Its first product is a sustainable
sandal, in which all raw material is locally
sourced and is 80% natural.
Founder: Shiran Salgado
Company name: Sebastco
Area of Sustainability: Sustainable manufacturing,
eco-friendly consumption with novel coconut-fibre
sandals and home accessories
Sebastco produces
sustainable prod-
ucts, with a goal
of using up to 95%
all-natural materials.
Its first product is a
sustainable sandal,
in which all raw
material is locally
sourced and is 80%
natural.
W ebsit e: sebastco.com
F acebook: sebastco.bornnotmade
I ns t agr am: sebastco_bornnotmade
A ddr e s s: 31A, Amarasekera Mawatha, Colombo 5
E mail: info@sebastco.com
Phone: +94 773 102 243
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 81
mally trained in business,” explains Sion. “And I’ve been working on
Moonshadow for five years by just feeling my way through it. GLX has
given me so many tools and perspectives that I wouldn’t have otherwise
considered. It has helped me be more organised and connected to the
core of the business again.”
Sion’s advice for entrepreneurs hoping to build a start-up is to go for
it. “I believe in slow and steady growth. We have never gone into debt,
so I’ve been able to stay true to the vision. If you’re not financially abun-
dant, you’re probably abundant in another area, and it’s worth investing
that capital into your business before you get caught up in the burden
of investment. Invest time, energy, effort, motivation, creativity and
whatever else you can leverage, but do it in a way that is right for you.”
Indigenous
organic
personal
care goes
mainstream
Moonshadow Naturals is on a mission to
help people take care of themselves, and the
environment
Founder: Sion Zivetz
Company name: Moonshadow Naturals
Partners: Although Sion started the company on his
own, product development is done hand-in-hand with
Megamali, the heart and soul of their operations.
Area of Sustainability: Healthy living, environmental
sustainability.
W ebsit e: moonshadownaturals.com
F acebook: moonshadownaturals
I ns t agr am: moonshadownaturals
A ddr e s s: Ruwanpaya, Belipola, Mirahawatta, Welimada
E mail: hello@moonshadownaturals.com
Phone: +94 777 568 609
Moonshadow Natu-
rals is a sustainable
and environmentally
friendly body care
producer, that
empowers women
to make independ-
ent income from
the comfort of their
homes.
Moonshadow Naturals came into being
when founder, Sion Zivetz, observed that
people’s personal care routines were doing
a lot of harm to the environment, this
includes soaps and detergents. All their
products are natural, biodegradable, safe
for skin with packaging that is composta-
ble, reusable, or recyclable.
The company also supports women in
rural Sri Lanka that didn’t have the option
to work and care for their families in an
accessible way. With working-from-home,
flexible work schedules, as much time off
as needed, honest pay, skills training and
more, Moonshadow Naturals offers them
an opportunity to participate in a space
they normally would not have access to.
They formulate the products through
a long process of research, testing, and
exploration of ingredients. Their focus is
on using ingredients that are readily avail-
able and easy to source in Sri Lanka. The
products are shelf-stable and require no
chemical preservatives — every product
is pure, botanical, and fresh. Further, they
don’t use synthetic colours, detergents,
fragrances or fillers. The brand is working
on certifications so they can enter new
markets and reach a wider consumer base.
Moonshadow Naturals’ experience
with GLX was incredible. “I’m not for-
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82 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
The idea for RAW came to Ronali while at
church one day at the start of 2016 when
she was looking for her purpose in life. After
months of research into juices, she stumbled
upon research on Gerson therapy, where a doc-
tor discovered that giving people high doses of
organic juices helped cure non-communicable
diseases. These include cardiovascular disease,
chronic respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes,
and liver and kidney disease, mainly because
of bad lifestyle choices, poor eating habits,
and insufficient exercise. Her work with the
Ministry of Health helped her understand that
you should have 400 grams of organic fruits,
vegetables and leafy greens a day in your diet.
Today, together with input from Ayurvedic
doctors, RAW uses Sri Lankan, indigenous
fruits, vegetables, and Ayurvedic greens to give
people their daily intake of fruits, vegetables
and greens in individual drinks and through
cleanses. To increase gender participation, the
brand only employs women, many of whom
are the primary breadwinners in their families.
RAW’s future is looking bright with a plan to be
available islandwide and ready to export by the
first quarter of 2021. Utilising new technology,
her juices will have the shelf life she needs
without added chemicals and additives while
keeping the nutrition intact.
Ronali found the GLX program phenomenal,
receiving appropriate advice from mentors in
the areas she needed help and support with
the most. It helped her clear her mind in terms
of where the brand was heading.
She shares a wholesome bit of advice for
entrepreneurs hoping to build their startup:
“The businesses that truly succeed are the ones
that solve a problem. So think, ‘how is my busi-
ness solving a problem people have in their daily
life?’ Thereafter, maintaining and sustaining
your business is the hardest thing. If you want
to be an entrepreneur, have resilience, a thick
skin, and get ready to make sacrifices. Never
give up and just keep going.”
Wholesome
goodness
RAW is taking fresh organic juices to a
whole new level
Founder: Ronali Perera
Company name: Refreshing Ayurvedic Wellness (RAW)
Area of Sustainability: Responsible consumption and
production and gender equality
RAW is an all-women
run business that
produces cold-
pressed fresh juices.
All the products are
organic and pro-
duced via renewable
solar energy and
with sustainable
packaging.
W ebsit e: rawsrilanka.com
F acebook: https://www.facebook.com/
refreshingayurvedicwellness/
I ns t agr am: rawsrilanka
A ddr e s s: 382/9 NAS Silva Mawatha, Pepiliyana
E mail: drinkraworganicjuice@gmail.com
Phone: +94 777 710 229
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 83
Twenty-one year-old, Yathusha Kulenthiran,
from Kilinochchi, a town in Northern Sri Lanka,
started Olai as part of her final project for Uki
Coding School hosted by Yarl IT Hub. She says
when she set out to come up with a start-up
idea for her project, all she could think of were
the Palmyra trees. “Our life revolved around
the Palmyra tree and most of the time it was
our only source of livelihood.”
Palmyra by-products can be used as an
alternative for a range of daily-use items includ-
ing food. Often these products are made and
produced by women in the north as part of
their daily routine.
However, these artistic creations have been
centred-in and are mostly used only in the
North. They have not been marketed or com-
mercialized elsewhere in the country, therefore,
it has remained a souvenir.
Kulenthiran decided to explore further and
globalize these unheralded products, and thus,
she founded Olai, an innovative online plat-
form selling artisan Palmyra based products
world-wide.
Launching in 2019, Kulenthiran works with
a handful of Palmyra artisans, who are mainly
women from Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Vavuniya,
Mullaitheevu, and Mannar.
“Through Olai, I want to connect these pro-
ducers with potential customers both locally
and internationally.” Customers can buy and
order customized products via Olai’s Instagram
handle.
The biggest challenge Kulenthiran faced at
the initial stages is to finalize the manufactur-
ers and to bring their products to acceptable
standard. The second major issue she had was
to find the right customer base and to convince
them to buy the products.
Having learned about GLX through her
A journey of
possibilities
Olai is taking humble Palmyra-based foods
and crafts global
Founder: Yathusha Kulenthiran
Company name: Olai Shop Pvt Ltd
Area of Sustainability: Eco-friendly Palmyra-based products
W ebsit e: olai.shop
F acebook: olaishop
I ns t agr am: olai_shop
A ddr e s s: 755/2, Hudson Road, Vaddakachchi, Kilinochchi
E mail: hello@olai.shop
Phone: +94 763 167 846
peers, she joined the GLX program intending to learn business and mar-
keting strategies to enhance her knowledge and scale her business.
“During the program, I learned a lot about the areas in business mar-
keting and was able to expand my network with other participants. This
program is a good opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to accelerate
their growth.”
With a clear picture of her market segment, Kulenthiran wants to
cater to the diaspora scattered across the world. She has already found
customers in the UK, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada.
Olai is now able to make enough profits to cover the costs and expand.
“Just try to achieve your goals with passion. Have a clear idea of your
product/start-up. Look for opportunities plus find a mentor to advise,
motivate, and inspire your success story.”
Olai is a business for
Palmyra products.
The startup designs
and produces alter-
natives to replace
daily use plastics
and other house-
hold items with
palmyra products.
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
84 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
On the road to
efficiency
BusSeat.lk is making Sri Lanka’s fragmented
intercity travel more efficient
Founder: Prasanth Subendran
Company name: BusSeat.lk (TechKitez Pvt Ltd)
Area of Sustainability: Reducing emissions and
providing low-carbon solutions.
The idea for BusSeat.lk came about when
Prasanth realized that it was difficult book-
ing a seat when he travelled to and from
Jaffna, his hometown. At the time you
could only make a booking through an
agent or bus operator, and even then, you
risked double booking or your reservation
not getting recorded properly. You’d only
find out when you arrived at the station
to depart.
BusSeat.lk was born out of this neces-
sity through a competition by the Yarl
IT Hub, where they won Rs.1 million in
seed funding. Their website allows pas-
sengers to search and book a bus ride for
long trips. The bus operators also have
an app that helps them view and man-
age direct bookings should they
receive it. The passenger
will receive an SMS or
email confirming or
cancelling their seat.
To grow their inventory,
BusSeat.lk shares it with the agents too.
The focus is to build a platform to onboard
all bus operators and create a sharable
digital inventory of seats. The company is
also keen to work with the government
on the e-governance program to offer
solutions. With Prasanth’s venture, he
is encouraging customers to use public
transport over their personal vehicles for
long-haul trips, thus effectively reducing
the carbon footprint.
The GLX program helped Prasanth to
speed up his product. “We had to put
down what our plans are for the next
few months that helped identify what
the business’ next steps can be. I also met with other startup founders
outside of my network, which was great,” he says.
Prasanth encourages other hopeful young entrepreneurs to just do it
if they have an idea for a product: “If your product solves a problem, go
for it. With BusSeat.lk, it resolves an issue Sri Lankan people have, so it
made sense to do it.”
W ebsit e: busseat.lk
F acebook: BusSeat.lk
T wit t er : BusSeat_lk
A ddr e s s: 479, 1/2, Galle Road, Colombo 6
E mail: info@busseat.lk
Phone: +94 766 764 848
BusSeat.lk is an
online platform
that connects
passengers with
bus operators that
creates an effective
scheduling mecha-
nism, in the absence
of one. Their goal is
to reduce emissions
by enabling more
people to use public
transport
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 85
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
Grow your
own food
Wawamu is promoting urban farming and takes
care of plants for busy people with IOT tech
Founder: Sheshan Gamage
Company name: Wawamu
Partners: W. N. R. P. Pasindu
Area of Sustainability: AgriTech,
sustainable agriculture
devices and sensors which monitor plants so people can get on with their
busy schedules. The company also provides sensors for soil moisture, pH value
and humidity to large-scale farms, monitoring conditions for specific crops.
Sheshan learned many things about running a startup thanks to the GLX
program. “You can ask questions and learn from the mentors. You also learn
about how some products offer more pain than gain. And, you walk away with
a clear idea of your business model and how you need to operate it,” he says.
“Find out what is a pain point for people,” he advises aspiring entrepreneurs.
“When you do, try out the product and observe how it goes. Then, fine-tune
the product or prototype and fix on a working model that solves all the pain
points you identified.”
W ebsit e: wawamu.com
F acebook: Wawamu-107848333906066
A ddr e s s: 65/12, Kalalgoda Road, Pannipitiya
E mail: seshangmagae@gmail.com
Phone: +94 771 518 969
Wawamu has tech-
nology that enables
people to grow their
own chemical-free
produce in their
own homes. It has a
tower system which
allows consumers to
grow up to 12 vege-
tables in one square
foot of space.
Sheshan came up with the idea for
Wawamu when he realized that most
farmers have harmful practices when
growing produce. He strongly advocates
for making the effort to grow your own
crops at home. With the growing pan-
demic, now is as good a time as any to
start the process. With hydroponic tech-
nology (‘hydro’ means aqua and ‘ponic’
means tech), Wawamu offers a solution for
all Sri Lankans to grow their own crops.
This technology allows you to water your
crops regularly while recycling the water
used. You only have to change out the
water every three weeks. If you’re growing
lettuce, you’ll have a full head in 40 days,
bell peppers in 61 days, and tomatoes in
70 days.
Coming up with a balance during the
watering cycle, taking into consideration
Sri Lankan temperatures and humidity
levels, was initially tricky. But after two
months of research and development, they
figured it out. The goal is to offer people
the option to grow their own produce at
home without the harmful pesticides. You
get to watch something you put effort into
to grow, and then reap the benefits. The
score of happiness plus nutritious food are
what makes this product unique.
Wawamu provides IOT powered
86 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
Mindful
experiences
Mindful Travels is a community platform for
discerning, likeminded travellers
Founder: Amar Riyaz
Company name: Mindful Pvt. Ltd.
Area of Sustainability: Sustainable travel
W ebsit e: mindfultravels.net
F acebook: mindfultravellers
I ns t agr am: mindful.travels
A ddr e s s: 16 Fifth Lane, Col 3 | 14 De Kretser Place, Col 4
E mail: amar@mindfultravels.net
Phone: +94 770 273 891
Mindful Travels
is a curated mar-
ketplace for sus-
tainable-minded
travellers. The
business concept is
to identify unique
experiences that are
also sustainable and
have them all availa-
ble in one space
Working four jobs at the time, Amar saved
enough money to afford himself a trip
to Thailand for personal growth during
his gap year. A particular boat safari on
the Phi Phi island was out of his budget
and despite asking fellow travellers in his
hostel, not one was willing to join him so
that the cost could be pooled. This got him
thinking; out of the thousands of people
on the island, there must be a few who
would have said yes, and it would have
been a chance to meet like-minded people.
Mindful Travels curates hosts who offer
an experience that would allow users to
enjoy experiences with mindfulness at
heart. Users can create events around
these experiences which will notify oth-
ers within the community. This allows
them to join the event and take part in
these experiences together. Events can
be either private, public, or subscrip-
tion-based groups. One such example is
a paid group for sustainable personal care
products which will get the subscriber a
care package every month and be able
to communicate within the group with
other subscribers and content put out by
the host.
Being surrounded by people and men-
tors with a similar mindset of sustainabil-
ity was the driving force behind joining the
GLX accelerator. GLX honed their focus,
away from the multiple services that were
initially planned, towards what worked
and how to improve upon it. They also
helped understand their value proposition
more and how they could strengthen it.
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 87
Local Forecast was cofounded by Alifiya
Mutaher and her business partner,
Buddhima Kurukulasuriya, who is based
in the United States. In these creative
spaces, there is a lot of local talent who
do thoughtful and meaningful work living
independently of their product. Through
Colombo Design Market, they curate and
feature brands that are pushing the bound-
aries and are setting the benchmark for
creative identities coming out of Sri Lanka.
There is a multitude of other subcultures
that aren’t as prominent that are given a
platform for people to access.
Colombo Design Market has been active
for six years and until now was solely a
community-based event platform bringing
together local art, design, and creative ven-
tures where a lot of work happens in these
spaces, but work that happened in silence.
The need for an online platform arose
which would remedy this and be able to
grow the community beyond Colombo,
giving access around the island, as well as
outside of it, where there is a large interest
in the work that local creatives are doing.
This gave birth to Local Forecast.
Local Forecast took part in the GLX
programme at a time when they were
W ebsit e: localforecast.lk
F acebook: Local Forecast
I ns t agr am: @localforecast.sl
E mail: hello@localforecast.lk
Phone: +94 779 425 570
Fostering
a creative
culture
Local Forecast built by the Colombo Design
Market team to give creativity a voice
Co-Founder: Alifiya Mutaher
Company name: Local Forecast
Partners: Buddhima Kurukulasuriya, Co-Founder
Area of Sustainability: Creative culture, community
making decisions like setting up the business, back-end management, the
legal aspects etc. The programme helped narrow down and focus on OKRs
(Objective and Key Results). The communication between the other startups
in the cohort helped shed some light on other key areas of the business they
needed to look at.
Currently, Local Forecast is set up for local delivery with worldwide ship-
ping to be something to see to in the future. Another thing they are looking
at is to make the business more of a cooperative where the vendors who are
on the platform have stakes and can make decisions in the company to grow
quickly as a collective.
Local Forecast is
an online store
and storytelling
platform, for
artists, artisans
and designers
in Sri Lanka.
Their goal is to
nurture creative
culture through
collaboration
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
88 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
A startup that
helps small
businesses
reach buyers
Goodfolks elevates products and ideas of micro,
small and medium businesses to global standards
Founder: Dinesh Perera & Anne Perera
Company name: Goodfolks Private Limited
Area of Sustainability: Responsible consumption
that they aspire to. Goodfolks was born
as a way of identifying these products and
ideas and transforming them through a
process of value addition. They are then
placed on a platform targeted towards the
discerning consumers.
MSMEs have an issue when it comes
to identifying and reaching markets that
are willing to pay the right price for their
products. These businesses fail to trans-
form their products with more finesse and
in their branding message. A lot of red
tape and bureaucracy stands in the way
of these businesses as well which adds
another restriction to get certifications.
Goodfolks helps these MSMEs with
logistics, getting the certifications required
and identifying the issues that are unique
to these businesses. It especially targets
eco-friendly businesses with indigenous
or organic products. They are also looking
at creating a resource board in all three
languages which will provide this informa-
tion for other MSMEs who are looking to
go through similar certification processes
like those required for healthcare goods.
Initially, Goodfolks was looking to
target a majority of exported goods but
COVID put a stop to that, that, and the
lack of contacts proved a big challenge.
Currently, Goodfolks gets the majority of
their revenue from the local market to
the point where they are overwhelmed
with orders.
GLX helped tackle this complex busi-
ness model by helping Goodfolks make
sense of all the moving parts and provide
a direction to move forward. Through the
mentoring sessions, areas of business that
were previously unknown were covered
well, and helped the company gain clarity
on what it is they were looking to offer.
GLX brought in mentors who offered a
good mix of both foreign and the right kind
of local expertise which proved invaluable.
W ebsit e: goodfolks.shop
F acebook: goodfolks.shop
I ns t agr am: goodfolks.shop
A ddr e s s: 15 A Mahasen Mawatha, Colombo 5
E mail: connect@goodfolks.shop
Phone: +94 776 808 444 (Hotline) |
+94 740 008 248 (Dinesh-Direct)
Goodfolks operate
an e-commerce plat-
form, that sources
unique products
produced by indi-
viduals and MSME’s
across Sri Lanka
under one brand
name. The goal is to
support ethical, sus-
tainable and organic
producers.
Goodfolks was started as an idea between Dinesh and his sister who
both have backgrounds in marketing, branding, and communications: it
was apparent that during the lockdown, there were several micro-small
businesses with amazing ideas who were unable to connect to the right
audiences. Despite these businesses having innovative solutions and
access to quality raw materials, the value falls short of the standards
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 89
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
Owita was conceived when Vihagun iden-
tified a large gap in the consumer foods
market: organic foods are not readily avail-
able islandwide, and priced at a premium
where they are found in usually niche
markets. What Owita is looking to solve
is the lack of access to pure, organic foods
for the entire country.
To date, no one has thought about the
processes beyond buying from the few
organic farmers in the country. There
wasn’t a system in place to make the
process efficient to where mass produc-
tion is viable to allow the population of
a country to have access to organic food.
Owita builds decentralised ecosystems
based in cities where they convert existing
farmers to organic produce by provid-
ing them with all the infrastructure and
knowledge required. Owita then assures
these farmers by buying their produce at
a guaranteed price throughout the year if
they cultivate based on the supplied crop
plan. This creates a community within
that city and a delivery network covering
that area, thus completing the ecosystem.
Any city’s requirements for products that
can’t be fulfilled by existing farms within
the area are supplied by buffer farms else-
where.
Owita’s value proposition comes from
the model they built where the supply
Disrupting the
niche organic
food market
Owita is challenging the notion that organic
produce is expensive and niche
Founder: Vihangun Ariyaratne
Company name: Owita Naturals
Partners: Kushan Amarasinghe , Anuradha Ranasinghe ,
Mahesh Wickramasinghe, Samitha Jayaweera
Area of Sustainability: Organic Agriculture, Healthy Food
W ebsit e: owita.lk
F acebook: owita.lk
I ns t agr am: owitaorganics
A ddr e s s: 614, Ketakewatta road, Ragama
E mail: info@owita.lk | vihangun@owita.lk
Phone: +94 112 967 697 | +94 715 956 949
isn’t limited to small quantities and the model is replicable with the same
affordability throughout the country. Delivering the expertise, resources and
knowledge required for farmers to not only make the switch to sustainable
farming but also match/increase their wages.
The GLX Accelerator programmes values of ethical and sustainable living
aligned perfectly with those of Owita. Looking to learn through the programme
and the other startups that joined. Through the various mentoring sessions
that covered all of the fundamentals a business would require, Owita was
emboldened throughout the intense programme.
Out of the 48 major cities in the country, Owita is looking at covering three
in 2021 and within ten years covering 25 cities using their model and having a
large number of countrymen having access to organic food.
Owita Organics is
setting out to enable
Sri Lankans to grow
and eat organic
food. Owita offers a
complete end to end
organic and healthy
food solution with
trade stores, de-
livery services and
mobile stores.
90 ECHELON.LK NOVEMBER 2020
Here are some of the
impactful startups that
have completed the GLX
Accelerator programme
The inspired
GLX Accelerator
alumni
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E
NOVEMBER 2020 ECHELON.LK 91
B ellis sima
Bellissima creates premium chocolate
biscuit puddings in signature glass jars to
minimise the impact on the environment.
The company wants to tap into global
markets with a signature dish by which the
country can be recognised.
H ones t Gr eens
Sri Lanka’s first indoor vertical farm, Honest
Greens’ produce are chemical-free and use
water efficiently. Its goal is to introduce
sustainable farming practices and end over-
farming.
S ozo
Sozo sources ingredients from rural farming
communities for its range of completely
natural drinks like ice teas, juices, and meal
replacement drinks free of preservatives,
artificial additives or colouring.
K imbula K ithul
Kimbula Kithul has a healthy alternative to
sugar and multi-use culinary ingredients
that can be used for toppings, cooking or
crafting cocktails. The company aspires to
de-stigmatize kithul tappers and raise their
living standards.
U s on E ar th
Us on Earth is spreading sustainable
agriculture among rural communities,
purchasing harvests to incentivize farmers
for adopting chemicals and pesticides free
farming practices.
Ananta Sus tainables
Ananta Sustainables has a goal to reduce
plastic by recycling waste to create
something useful and easily accessible to
all, thus spreading awareness at the same
time too. The company also works with
waste management solutions providers
to transition industries and consumers to
sustainable packaging.
S P E C I A L B R A N D E D C O N T E N T F E A T U R E