Bridging the trade financing gap for Sri Lankan small businesses, with Lakshan De Silva (iLoan)

<p>Recycling is a good thing, right? Well, in that case, let me recycle this from yesterday’s show notes. Most consumers borrow to manage expenses. It’s different for SMEs, though, who often borrow to drive income. As such, being denied credit is not just about having their lifestyle curtailed, it’s about having the business growth, and sometimes even their business survival, put at risk.</p><br><p><br></p><p>“When iloan launched back in 2018, the lending market in Sri Lanka was $5 billion, almost 40% was which was raised from loan sharks and individuals who have very dubious practices of charging excessive interest rates, as well as very unpleasant collection methods”. Lakshan da Silva is a Sri Lankan serial entrepreneur whose goal is to fix this for mom and pop stores around the island. </p><br><p><br></p><p>Lakshan is very approachable on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakshan-de-silva-a9b11328/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakshan-de-silva-a9b11328/</a> </p><br><p><br></p><p>Or you can look into his many ventures: </p><p>iLoan is at <a href="https://www.iloan.lk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.iloan.lk/</a> </p><p>HyperGlase is at <a href="https://hyperglade.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://hyperglade.com/</a> </p><p>Spectrify is at <a href="http://www.spectrifyai.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.spectrifyai.com/</a> </p><br><p><br></p><p>Also, and I really hate to link this, but if you’re interested in the terrible cricket game in question, you can see the drama here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeOX9AAJXg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeOX9AAJXg</a> (I hate-watched it, and was just reminded that poor old Lance Klusener was involved again, that guy deserved better)</p><br><p><br></p><p>You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlegrange/" rel="noopener noreferrer" targ