Dulith Herath
Founder and Chairman of Kapruka.com [Sri Lanka’s Largest E-commerce Organization] Serial Entrepreneur, Eisenhower Fellow
Major Innovations
- Dulith introduced e-commerce to Sri Lanka early in the year 2002 by launching Kapruka.com. Kapruka is today’s Sri Lanka’s market leader in e-commerce with over 70% market share selling 15,000+ products and 300+ different brands. Generating over 1.5 billion LKR annually as of 2017
- Dulith developed island wide delivery service for e-commerce packages
- Dulith innovated the “Global Price Checker” that lets people in developing countries order products via global e-commerce giants such as Amazon, EBay, Alibaba
- Dulith innovated “Grasshopers” – an e-commerce fulfilment service for up-coming e-commerce companies and SMEs that want’s packages delivered island wide or globally
Business Track Record
Kapruka.com which is the main platform for all of Dulith’s innovations is a 100% debt free company which was built from ground up from its very own profits. He has never raised funds or borrowed to grow. It’s a one of a kind e-commerce company which is generating a strong cash flow with 37% average net profit and 52% gross profit. “Kapruka Global Shop” became the 2nd cash largest cash generator with its lean and unique “zero-inventory” business model. Business Excellence(Gold), National Chamber of Exports(Gold), SLIMM Online brand of the year (Gold) and many other national awards were given to Kapruka.com for the excellent financial performance it showcases
Social Contribution
Kapruka is playing a key role in Sri Lanka for creating the “Movement” of e-commerce industry. This industry as a whole helps SMEs and traditional businesses to not be left behind the wave of e-commerce happening globally. E-commerce as a whole is helping to reduce traffic and time people waste visiting shops and malls.
Kapruka’s “grasshoppers” initiative is focused doing “INCLUSIVE E-COMMERCE” for Sri Lanka. It empowers everyone to do e-commerce by giving them the necessary tools such as delivery service, payment platforms to join the wave of e-commerce. In essence it helps grassroots level businesses to do trade online. Grasshoppers innovation was recognized by United Nations as a strong tool for all developing countries and also got the Eisenhower fellowship recognition for Dulith Herath in 2017
Future Vision
Dulith wants to see Sri Lanka as the founding country for “Kapruka Grasshoppers” which is a highly scalable project into all developing countries. When an e-commerce delivery happens in Ethiopia, Dulith wants to see a few cents coming to Sri Lanka as the hosting country of Grasshoppers. Just like when we take an Uber taxi today in Sri Lanka few cents go to USA as it’s hosting country.
Dulith want’s Sri Lanka to be an ‘Inclusive E-commerce’ country where we don’t allow a single giant such as Amazon to rule the entire e-commerce market of the country. When inclusive e-commerce is in place, all small, medium, large retailers will have their very own e-commerce arm which will not allow a monopoly in E-commerce in a country.