Earlier this year, Hatch launched Startup Nation with a clear goal: identify, support, and fund early-stage ventures across Sri Lanka. Backed by First Capital, the programme took the shape of a national startup competition, drawing over a thousand applications for the opportunity to receive $100,000 in funding. From that pool, a hundred MVP-stage startups were shortlisted. A handful advanced to the final stage, following months of mentoring, validation, and investor sessions.
“Startup Nation was built to close the gaps in funding and market access,” says Jeevan Gnanam, Co-Founder of Hatch.
The structure brought regional investors into the pipeline while helping founders validate locally and scale globally. The broader goal, he explains, is to create a startup eco system that enables deal flow, attracts risk capital, and connects Sri Lankan founders to international markets. Now, with the competition concluded, a number of startups have emerged as standouts. This story profiles a handful of these ventures that rose to the top.
Torch Labs
Building the infrastructure for the next generation of data-driven businesses
Dhevin De Silva, Founder and CEO at Torch Labs
When Dhevin moved to the United States for college and started reselling sneakers, he wasn’t chasing a startup idea. But with heavy tuition costs, instead of part-time jobs, he began chasing limited-edition shoes. At the time, the sneaker resale boom was at its peak, and platforms like StockX had turned footwear into a tradable asset class. “It was like a stock market,” he recalls. “I was buying and selling pairs that went from $200 to $2,000.” Within a year, he was making $100,000 from reselling alone.
To buy shoes at scale, resellers like Dhevin relied on proxies and automated bots that could outpace millions of buyers online. “I realised the people making real money weren’t the ones buying sneakers,” Dhevin says. “They were the ones building the tools and selling the proxies everyone depended on.” That observation became the foundation for Torch Labs, a company building reliable proxy infrastructure for businesses that depend on fast, consistent access to data.
Today, businesses of every size depend on data to make decisions, train AI models, or track prices across markets. “But access to it isn’t equal,” Dhevin says. “If you’re a mid-tier company or a developer trying to scale, you either pay enterprise-level rates or take your chances with unreliable providers.” That gap between affordability and reliability became the starting point for Torch Labs, which serves smaller and mid-tier businesses ranging from AI developers to ecommerce analytics providers.
Its platform provides three types of proxies—residential, ISP, and hybrid—each designed for different needs. Residential proxies use real household IPs and are billed by data usage, while ISP proxies are issued by internet providers but hosted in data centres, offering higher stability and unlimited bandwidth. What makes Torch Labs different is its hybrid switching system. The technology automatically shifts between residential and ISP proxies to balance speed, reliability, and coverage. It also allows the company to build specialised proxy pools, tailored for specific markets and use cases. “We don’t give a one-size-fits-all product,” Dhevin says. “Our pools are optimised for each website or task, which gives our users one of the highest success rates in the industry at around 99.7%.”
Torch Labs has built steady traction since launch. The company generated $578,000 in revenue between 2024 and 2025, with $168,000 in annual recurring revenue and a 56% gross margin. Its network now supports over 80,000 users, including 10,000 direct customers, and operates with an 18-member team. Looking ahead, Torch Labs plans to expand into new markets across Europe and East Asia, including Hong Kong, where AI and automation companies are emerging rapidly.
Seashore Garden
Building the infrastructure for the next generation of data-driven businesses
Shawn Senarath, Co-Founder and Chief Executive at Seashore Garden
Entrepreneurship often begins with bouncing back from failure. For Shawn, it started on the northern coast, where his first seaweed farm failed completely. The location assigned by the authorities was unsuitable. “They put me in an area where seaweed doesn’t really grow,” he recalls. “So, the entire farm died.” Instead of giving up, he decided to learn everything he could about what went wrong.
Shawn travelled to Indonesia, one of the world’s leading markets in seaweed farming, to study the process firsthand. He spent months visiting farms, learning “everything I could, from how to select sites to how to manage drying and processing.” When he returned home, he applied what he had learned: setting up new farms, experimenting, and refining each step until the results finally worked.
That learning became the foundation for Seashore Garden. The company now works with 50+ coastal communities across 8 acres of farmland to cultivate and export seaweed. Alongside its farming and export operations, the company also has an R&D arm developing sea moss–based food and wellness products.
The problem Shawn saw was larger than one failed farm. In the Northern Province, most families relied on informal work, and opportunities for women were even more limited. “In many of these areas, women are not allowed to do certain kinds of jobs,” he says. “But seaweed farming is safe, it’s shallow-water work, and it can be done close to home.” At the same time, Sri Lanka was missing out on an export opportunity. Globally, seaweed has become a fast-growing aquaculture sector due to growing demand for use in food, cosmetics,
and bio-products.
To solve these issues, Seashore Garden introduced a community farming model that gives coastal families the training and resources to cultivate seaweed, with the company guaranteeing fair buybacks for their harvests. Building on this foundation, Seashore Garden developed its own range of sea moss–based products.
The strong traction of their beverages among tourists in the Southern Province drew interest from brands that wanted similar products. Shawn recalls, “We were asked, ‘Can you do this?’ And I didn’t want to say no to an opportunity.” Using that same expertise, Seashore Garden’s R&D arm now creates healthy, sea moss based products for other brands.
Today, Seashore Garden is one of Sri Lanka’s largest exporters of raw seaweed material, recording $57,000 in revenue in 2025. The company has secured $130,000 in funding and is seeking additional funding to expand the farming operations, scale production of its products, and strengthen its R&D and export capabilities. Looking ahead, the vision is to create a global private-label plat form for seaweed and wellness products, paving the way for expansion into bioplastics and functional foods.
Scouts
AI-enabled drones that deliver safety within 90 seconds
Hafsa Jamel, Chief Strategy Officer at Scouts; Kalana Muthumuni, Chief Executive at Scouts; Imadu Edirisooriya, Chief Growth Officer at Scouts
When a friend broke his leg playing rugby at Thurstan Grounds in Colombo, help took 40 minutes to arrive. As he lay in pain, his teammates waited helplessly, unsure whether to move him or if the ambulance was even on its way. “They didn’t know what to do,” recalls Kalana. “In a situation like that, every minute feels like forever.” That moment captured a broader issue: even in city centres, response systems remain slow and uncertain, leaving people vulnerable in emergencies. Scouts was founded to change that. The company is building a connected safety network that uses AI-powered drones, trained responders, and a mobile app to deliver help within 90 seconds when emergencies occur.
What happened that day isn’t rare. Across cities, people face the same uncertainty: calling for help, waiting, and wondering if it will come in time. In an emergency, every second matters. Yet most safety responses still rely on reactive systems that take minutes to arrive. Those delays can escalate risk, especially when people have no visibility into what’s happening or whether help is coming. The challenge extends beyond emergencies, too. Security firms struggle with high staff turnover and gaps in coverage, while large areas such as industrial parks, plantations, and tourist zones depend on costly, inconsistent surveillance.
Scouts was designed to fill that gap: turning slow, reactive systems into an automated safety network. In public areas, when an SOS is triggered through the app, two drones equipped with 4K and infrared cameras, speakers, and floodlights are dispatched to record events, deter attackers, and communicate with victims. The drones are supported by a 24/7 virtual responder team that verifies alerts and coordinates follow-up actions.
For private security, the same system integrates with existing CCTV and motion detection networks. Drones can be triggered automatically when a threat is detected, enabling remote patrols and reducing dependence on large ground teams. The system also provides early warnings for hazards such as fires or wildlife movement, improving safety and lowering operational costs for properties such as plantations, industrial sites, and resorts.
Having validated its concept, Scouts has already secured customer agreements worth $18 million and raised $120,000 in angel funding. The team has built a working prototype and partnered with three pilot clients, including Sitrek and the Centre for Conservation, where drones are being tested to mitigate human-elephant conflicts. The company projects $110,000 in revenue in its first year and $2.6 million by its second. It is now preparing for a pre-seed round to scale operations, manufacturing, and regulatory compliance ahead of wider commercial rollout.