By Yakuta Dawood  Even though Sri Lanka isn’t distinguished as a key “technology service provider” in the global arena, the country has come a long way in terms of bridging the gap between banks and in the digitisation of internal processes and customer offerings through rapidly evolving financial technology (fintech) services.  This week, Develop It Yourself (DIY) spoke to Paymedia – one of the very first local start-ups to be established in 2014 with an aim of enhancing the traditional banking procedure – Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kanishka Weeramunda.  Paymedia’s importance is that their digital “disruptive” innovation has unleashed the potential to make the Sri Lankan market diversified, competitive, efficient, and inclusive, whilst also enhancing concentration.  So, how did Weeramunda come up with this fintech approach? Reminiscing on the past, Weeramunda stated that after completing his Advanced Levels (A/Ls), he was inspired to start up his own company from the entrepreneurial skills he possessed after volunteering at a local library during his school days. His first venture, a computer assembling company, was established in 1999, and that, along with three other ventures that followed after it, failed.  Explaining, Weeramunda further said that after failing four ventures, he had commenced work at a private company, where he was able to gain exposure and learn the skills that comprise the insurance domain; retail, supply chain management, manufacturing, etc.  As a long-time entrepreneur in Sri Lanka, we inquired whether a country like ours benefitted or was negatively impacted by the establishment of a new idea. Responding, Weeramunda stated that the entrepreneurial journey was indeed a “rollercoaster ride” as it had both good and tough times.  Elaborating with regards to this, he highlighted that the tough challenges were to do with Sri Lanka itself, as it is a very difficult environment for any startups to expand their operations. This is because it is mainly dominated by big international players who, at certain times, try to shut down or poach employees from new startups. “How big corporations look at startups is very pathetic. At the beginning of the 2014 financial year, there were big players but we were quite alone as there was not much competition. But today, a lot of people are trying to copy and duplicate it as it is successful. However, every project kept us going and gave us enough challenges to product innovation to the market,” he added.  So, what’s intriguing about Paymedia?  Bootstrapping all the way, the company today is a software solution for banks, financial institutes and the Government in terms of processing their payment. To be more concise, it provides digital payment facilitation between the customers and the retailer or the manufacturer.  “Our products are currently simplifying the user experience of millions around the country and enables the clients to gain a competitive edge by enhancing digital services based on process automation and real-time payments. The company also specialises in desktop, web, mobile and KIOSK applications, including feasibility studies conducted for independent system audits to ensure higher rates of return on investment (ROI),” the company profile mentioned.  Throughout the years of fintech evaluation, Paymedia provided several high-end innovative solutions. They are cash deposit solutions, cash deposit safe, smart banking solutions, agent banking, smart POS, EFT-POS, self order machine, remittance system, one bank, directpay, and finally, park&pay.  Commenting with regards to this, Weeramunda said that Paymedia was the first company in Sri Lanka to establish a cash deposit solution with services such as cash deposit/fast cash deposit, cheque deposit, bill settlement, and credit card payments. According to him, it was first introduced by Sampath Bank. “In cash machine deposits we have collected about 117 billion per annum. That's a significant number. We are pretty proud about it as we could collect that much cash,” he disclosed.  Giving more details into the company operations, Weeramunda stated that Paymedia is digital enablement of service on payments that run the front end where consumers could initiate a payment through cash and the entire value chain is distributed digitally. Adding more, he told us that the uniqueness of Paymedia that stands out from its existing competitors is solely brought out by the “innovation” it provides to the market. Elaborating, he said: What we provide is disruptive innovation and we create a market and when we do this, a lot of service providers get more business so that puts us into a position. We have sold the benchmark for other industries in terms of digital payment.  As of today, Paymedia caters its services to 18 institutions. To name a few, they are Sampath Bank, National Savings Bank, People's Bank, Central Finance Company, LOLC Finance, Amãna Bank, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sri Lanka Telecom, Daraz, Ceylinco Insurance Plc, Cargills Bank, etc.  What more should you know about Paymedia? The Covid-19 pandemic has fortunately resulted in the company growing more than it was used to be before. Statistically speaking, Paymedia achieved a growth of 20% in the midst of the pandemic, whereas, the subsidiary company DirectPay grew by about 40%.  Commenting with regards to this, Weeramunda stated that this growth was possible as the pandemic (lockdown especially) had resulted in people continuing the payment processes digitally than the traditional mode of payment.  However, when inquired if the regulations imposed by the Government and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) had an adverse impact on conducting the operation, as usual, he responded by stating that the import control had an impact to some extent but the main problem occurred is to do with the foreign exchange issue pertaining to the present currency crisis.  “As an economy, there are quite a lot of challenges around us but it's normal for everybody. So as a start-up we have grown up as a scale-up, the biggest challenge is that large corporations try to grab the market share of the startups and scale-ups,” Weeramunda emphasised.  Switching the topic focus to exporting its product, Paymedia, as of today, has successfully expanded its services to international countries like Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium.  Speaking to us about it, Weeramunda stated that the clients had initially found them and then later expanded into the country, which removes the barrier to entry into another country and finding the right client.  Nevertheless, he mentioned one of the key challenges in terms of expanding the global footprint was when marketing Sri Lanka as a technology destination country. “We have a little bit of a challenge because Sri Lanka has not been labelled as a technology service provider destination. The reason for that is that we don't have any big uniforms that have gone out of this county. But with new initiatives by the Government, this is becoming positive,” he noted.  Additionally, Weeramunda mentioned that Paymedia is currently focusing on increasing the digital footprint in other international countries whilst also exploring ideas to set up a new company overseas, for which the company is on the lookout for potential investors who would be capable and interested in investing to expand the operations.  When inquired where Paymedia will be in the next five years, he affirmed that they would support most of the organisations to digitally transform themselves in terms of receiving payments and payment settlement processes.  Meanwhile, giving the concluding remark, Weeramunda gave an open invitation to all aspiring entrepreneurs who have a passion and burning desire to succeed in their business, as Paymedia will open doors for investment and guidance at all times.  “If you have an idea of a start-up, don't keep it to yourself, put it out, and if someone is willing to copy and implement then it's not a strong idea. But if nobody understands it and you still see a value then go for it. Because that's how we did. When we first told banks and financial institutes, they were laughing at us, but today they came after us. So, you need to work hard, believe in yourself and need to have the passion and the burning desire to deliver things,” he concluded.