Sri Lanka, Aug. 1 -- In a major milestone for Sri Lanka's startup ecosystem, nVentures has emerged as the country's first foreign venture capital firm to be licensed by Singapore's Monetary Authority (MAS) and actively invest in local startups. In just three years, the firm has backed six Sri Lankan ventures, delivered a portfolio exit and together with its regional investor community, channelled over USD 1.5 million into Sri Lankan startups through capital and commercial partnerships.

This includes investments in MintPay, Nanosoft, SimpleBooks, Shopbook, Dossiers, Kaiju Labs and WealthOS, a UK fintech with its entire engineering team based in Sri Lanka.

"There's no shortage of events, demo days and pitch competitions, but founders need...