Welcome to 2018. It’s a new day, and a new year. Well, technically it’s the end of January, but we are gearing up for what we hope will be an exciting year for startups in Sri Lanka after a rather promising 2017.
It’s still early days, but this month we take a look at a startup in the EdTech space, an analytics platform, and a one stop HR solution.
Third Space Global
Third Space Global uses e-learning to teach math to students in the UK
We saw a few startups emerge in the EdTech space last year, and Third Space Global isn’t quite a newbie to the ecosystem, but they’re definitely a promising player when it comes to EdTech in Sri Lanka.
They are an e-learning platform that’s looking to expand its tutor base and focus on online math and pupil development. From what we gather, they train Sri Lankans to teach students in the UK, which is quite an interesting concept, and definitely shows that if we have tutors capable of teaching student overseas, then there is so much we can do with our own education system.
EdTech is gaining traction globally, but how private enterprises merge or deal with government backed schools is likely to be where the major hurdles form when it comes to actually revolutionising how we educate the future generation.
Zepto.io
Zepto is a platform that provides a low-cost analytics solution
Zepto is an online analytics platform for businesses that are interested in finding ways to make sense of all that data they store. There are plenty of platforms that exist that do this, but some are ridiculously expensive (we’re talking thousands of dollars), and would not be feasible for most SMEs, let alone startups.
With reasonable pricing, Zepto.io is built for users looking for a technical solution, with custom SQL queries available too, but isn’t totally reliant on scripting, therefore, offering even someone who may not be a data scientist or hail from a tech background the ability to analyse the data they need.
Startups like this can be hit or miss, depending on how good the product is and if it gets international reach. The scope in Sri Lanka for data analytics is still quite small, and larger conglomerates would always pick more established options, which means Zepto will need to find its niche rather than trying to compete with other major data analytic platforms from the get go.
MintHRM
MintHRM is an all-in-one solution for human resources
Human resources can be complex and difficult to handle if you don’t have a proper solution in place. From startups to SMEs, and even large companies with 400+ employees, keeping track of everything going on with your present and prospective employees is vital in ensuring that a company functions smoothly.
HR solutions like MintHRM aim to ease the burden of manual systems and spreadsheets, and are a one stop solution for a company’s HR needs. From managing resources, to being able to analyse areas such as payroll, leave management, and recruitment, it can definitely ease the stress that those that work in HR tend to face handling disjointed processes and multiple systems.
We couldn’t find a pricing system so it’s likely this product is more for enterprise level clients. It would be ideal if solutions like this do offer lite versions for startups and SMEs, as often HR can be an area that is seriously neglected area.
In Conclusion
It’s a slow start to the year, but it is just January after all, and we imagine there are plenty of startups at the storming and forming stages. The event season hasn’t quite kicked off when it comes to incubator and investor programmes, but we’re hoping for more activity as we progress through the year.
Cover-image: lynda.com
