Dulith Herath is a Sri Lankan entrepreneur; the Founder and Chairman of Sri Lanka’s largest e-commerce organization, Kapruka.com. He also co-founded Grasshoppers (Private) Limited, which provides the required logistical services for small enterprises in Sri Lanka. He was recently recognized by the President Eisenhower Fellowships in USA for the efforts to support budding e-commerce ventures in developing nations.

From a young age Dulith had displayed an unwavering interest to invent and an insatiable curiosity to learn about machines and technology. As a child and a teenager, he is known to have spent many hours understanding how computer components work and building robots with whatever circuits and apparatuses he could find. The practical knowledge that he amassed over the years saw him become the 4th in the island in the Physical Science stream at the G. C. E. Advanced Level Examination, in spite of probably spending less time with his books than his contemporaries. He obtained his primary and secondary education at Royal College, Colombo.

Dulith gained entrance to the University of Kentucky in USA and graduated in Computer Science. His remarkable capabilities were recognized by Microsoft, where he served for 3 years while experimenting with various types of code on his own. His passion towards programming languages saw him develop many tiny programs and interfaces during his free time. However, by the year 2002 he had a more ground-breaking idea which was about to revolutionize the e-commerce landscape of Sri Lanka.

At that time, even Dulith did not envisage the potential of the notions and concepts that were swimming in his mind. Having been brought up in Sri Lanka, he dearly missed his motherland while he was away, he knew that there were many others in USA and other parts of the world who had the same problem. He first created a platform with Sri Lankan music CDs and books which could be ordered by people in the USA. For a while there was a lull, but in early February 2003, Kapruka received its first order for some music CDs. Dulith was thrilled and he arranged for a friend in Sri Lanka to purchase the items and send them to him in USA. He then repacked them and arranged them to be delivered to the customer in USA and the story of thousands of chapters began.

While these types of orders continue to flow even to date, Dulith realized that there was a larger demand for gifts to be sent to friends and family that lived in Sri Lanka. He had a vision to pioneer and develop the Sri Lankan e-commerce industry, yet, he knew that the local market was not ready to embrace e-commerce in its full form. Hence, he built a model where Sri Lankans and even others residing abroad, who were more tech – savvy and had greater purchasing power, were given an opportunity to select gift items to be delivered to their near and dear in Sri Lanka. This unique business model soon started winning admiration and awards. The name of Kapruka started to resound in the ears of everyone in all parts of Sri Lanka. The unending love for coding of one man, soon saw dozens of men and women gaining employment as a new era had dawned in our paradise isle.

Kapruka.com has been in operation for over 15 years and now boasts of a group of companies which includes Kapruka Global Shop and Sri Lanka’s favourite coffee shop chain, Java Lounge. In addition, Dulith is also one of the pioneers of Grasshoppers; a company that specializes in handling the fulfillment functions of e-commerce and entrepreneur to customer (E2C) businesses.

While Kapruka and its subsidiaries and sister companies have many success stories, loyal customers and awards to their credit, the brains behind the story continues to win accolades for his accomplishments and contributions. It was in the year 2010 that Dulith was first recognized for his amazing skills, knowledge and entrepreneurial talent, where he won the award for the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year.