• Weerawarana says EQT will bring independent industry board

Sri Lanka’s top generative AI company WSO2 is in the process of defining its 5-year roadmap with EQT, Europe's largest venture capital firm, as the company looks to go public soon, WSO2 Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sanjiva Weerawarana said.

Speaking to CNBC International, he said that the company is in the process of defining its next 5-year road map along with EQT, after acquiring WSO2 for $ 600 million earlier this month.

“EQT brings a very structured way to create value for the company and the exit in a finite period of time,” he said.

He added that the EQT will bring in an independent industry board that will help the company go after the markets, help drive the market positioning and cover the funding aspects.

“But overall accountability and management architecture, which is very much empowering everybody to operate and at the same time holding everybody accountable to deliver value,” Weerawarana said. 

Moreover, he said that becoming an IPO-independent company, which has a long-term footprint and is not meant to go away at some point, is the next step on the WSO2 journey.

He hopes that WSO2 going public and becoming the first tech company in Sri Lanka to be listed will trigger many other companies in Sri Lanka to build around and be inspired.

Further, on government support to startups in Sri Lanka, Weerawarana said that although government support is useful and important, the companies need to come up with an idea and pitch it to “potential investors to get them to put their money where their mouth is”.

“I am not a big fan of the government being responsible for creating much in terms of support because really the companies have to do it,” he added.