From supportive kitchen staff to the rag trade to bank analyst Co-Founder and Managing Director of Kasper Global (Pvt) Ltd, Anuk Weerasinghe, has had quite an interesting professional pathway and is an inspiring success story.
The forty-two-year-old, captivating Anuk, showed great enterprise from a young age and even while he was an undergraduate at the Florida Institute of Technology worked part time as a dishwasher. He mentions that it was a real learning curve for him as a fresher to observe and understand discipline, punctuality and to be trained and guided by well-experienced craftsmen was a great gateway into the real world for him.
As soon as he completed his degree, he moved to New York and got into the clothing industry. But one thing he realized from an early age was his interest in furthering his studies. He moved to Sydney and while he was completing his second masters degree, started working for a brand called R.M. Williams which was a high end boot manufacturer and this gave him incredible opportunities to bump shoulders with A list celebrities amongst other interesting clientele.
His family always had roots in the textile industry and it was almost expected at times for him to take over the family business but it never held much interest to him. After attaining his degree, he committed himself to step into the banking sector and started work at The Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Afterwards he became one of the partners of a boutique Investment Bank along with some of his acquaintances and even though he admits that he did not like his foray into that industry too much, he is extremely grateful for the opportunity as it gave him the launchpad to invest in the William Angliss brand through a joint venture and open the pathway for him to bring it to Sri Lanka. The university has grown exponentially since its inception and has gone from 14 pupils to over 1,000 current students and is celebrating their 10th year of operations.
Anuk considers himself an optimistic person and his honesty was remarkable when asked about why he chose to get into the home automation industry and the potential he saw in its future. He says how he was approached by a brilliant team of Lankan developers and credits everything to them and assures that he only facilitates and funds them. Although it takes a lot more to keep an organization through the initial stages, specially in the tech industry where the first stages are all about developing the product. Anuk did a wonderful job in motivating his team and making sure the path forward was always illuminated. He did not consider technology a passion, and even admits if he was to only go with passion he would probably have ended up a music producer or DJ, but he talks about how much this industry has captivated him ever since he stepped into it and how technology has become his world.
Kasper was established in 2015 by a group of like-minded friends after identifying a significant gap for the need of seamless smart living in the market and the home automation industry. Today, with the ever-growing reliance on artificial intelligence and technology on a global scale and becoming more integrated on a macro level across multiple operations and industries, it was evident that achieving connectivity with minimum latency across the entirety of the system within four walls of a home, would be the first step of breaking into the world of smart home automation and the internet of things.
Designing and building a unique, consistent system from the ground-up, equipped with technology to remotely control an entire home and its internal smart systems and devices such as lighting, ventilation (fans/air-conditioning), entertainment, doors and security systems is what led Kasper to approach an impending saturated market from this new standpoint.
With this persisting ideology in mind throughout, Kasper decided to venture further into designing, prototyping and producing hardware products, vital for the setup and functionality of a smart home beyond the conventional practices and methods followed concurrently. With the expanding range of Kasper hardware products, the intended experience of smart living can truly be attained.
Furthermore, the interoperation between Kasper and other third-party consumer electronics appliances is a critical component in smart home integration, where the discerning user is granted complete autonomy of the smart products and brands preferred in their own home.
Kasper aims to reach new heights universally through smart automation across the real estate and hospitality industries, spanning across hotels, villas, apartment complexes and corporate establishments, in an effort to let people explore endless possibilities in comfort and seamless integration of everyday living.
This is a growing industry and Kasper are by no means the first to dip their toes into the field but Anuk says that their product is of such excellence that they only compare themselves with the world’s top – tier brands but also considers their product superior to these competitors because of the artificial intelligence engine that makes them unique and sets them further apart from the competition.
But in keeping in accordance with his humility, he credits his brilliant team of eighteen engineers for the immense success of the organization. The team has been with him since day one with a moderate package compared to other tech startups in the mechanism of developing the business. Not just funding, but navigating, persuading, motivating and being broad-minded with indulgence towards his team and the entire organization are Anuk’s major roles as the captain of the ship.
When asked about the challenges faced by the industry Anuk talks about how most of the investors and traders trust brands from other countries even if those were substandard, and there is a huge underestimation of the capability of a Sri Lankan tech brand. The condition has become even worse after the Easter attack and the following economic crisis. However, what he has learned from coming out of the gloomy situation is that the people who know the business would do the right business with the right people. Another challenge about innovating something new from Sri Lanka is convincing the investors, because they would most likely go for cheaper products.
“The complication nowadays is that youngsters want to taste success double quick, whichever field they are in. In tech, it would take at least five years to form a meaningful product. When you are young, you have so much time to try out new things, to build your personality, character, and other essential elements in life. You should enjoy the process of building yourself as well as your career”
One of Kasper’s latest innovations is a non-contact wireless charger for laptops and smartphones, which learns your routine and charges the batteries according to how much time the system knows you spend at home or wherever you might be charging your devices. This smart product knows if you have less time to spend at home and will charge your device at a faster pace when it realizes this.
Looking to the future, Anuk is highly optimistic about the global expansion of the organization. Kasper has signed a global contract with Majid Al Futtaim Group – one of the largest property developers in Dubai, and COODO, a massive high-tech firm in Germany, and expects solid results and expansion in the near future. He is also quite positive about the growth of the tech industry in Sri Lanka and mentions that Sri Lanka has always been known for producing innovative individuals that can rise to the top, on a global scale, regardless of the industry they are in. He sees these individuals as the future of the country and places his trust in them while urging them not to give up on their dreams no matter how adverse the journey may seem in the beginning.
To sum it up Anuk leaves us with a small message of encouragement specially for young entrepreneurs aspiring to get into the tech industry – “Being in the tech startup world is no easy task. Doing the unthinkable will always be judged, criticized and you will be underestimated. This is not for everyone.. And I was Everyone! I’m not special.. I’m the furthest thing from being special. I got into this without knowing the enormity of the task that lay ahead of me. But I had a handful of people that believed in me and my team. That’s all you need! Your cheering squad (who is essential) to keep you going from falling into the debts of hopelessness. I always had my father and a handful (and I do mean a handful) of folks that risked it all to back me and my team. What I’m trying to say is that I’m “everyone “ and I was thrown in the deep end and I was forced to learn not just to swim but to hold the boat up and drag it to shore! I’m not the same person I was from the day I first stepped into this game. Kasper turned me into a weapon.. a weapon that will never give up and relentless in my pursuit. I will quote my cricket coach.. “stay at the wicket.. and the runs will come!” Anyone can do what I do and do it even better! I have made so many mistakes along the way and I’m better for it. All you need is a handful of cheerleaders and a team that has been handed to you from a magician in the sky! I’m blessed! Remember to be kind, have empathy towards all people, be the reason to make someone smile every single day and be a humble helping and to whoever that reaches out! Stay the course and it will all work out!”