Software & Mobile App Development Company in Sri Lanka
Trilingual app, web and AI development for Sri Lankan businesses, with LankaQR and wallet payments, PDPA-ready data design and an identical time zone.
- NDA & full IP ownership
- Senior engineers
- Working hours that overlap with Sri Lanka
For companies in Colombo, Kandy and Galle, digital projects often have to serve three audiences at once: Sinhala-speaking customers, Tamil-speaking customers and international visitors or buyers who use English. Getting that right takes more than a translation file. Sigmato is a software development company Sri Lanka businesses can partner with for trilingual apps, web platforms and AI tools. Our engineering centre in Bengaluru runs on exactly the same clock as Sri Lanka, which makes day-to-day collaboration unusually simple.
Zero Time Difference, Shared Working Culture
Sri Lanka and India both use UTC+5:30, so our working day is your working day. Stand-ups at 9:30, a design review after lunch and a hotfix before 5pm all happen in real time, without anyone joining calls late at night. We plan releases around Sri Lankan public holidays, including the monthly Poya days and the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, so launches do not land when your staff are away.
In practice, a project starts with a free discovery call under NDA, followed by a written scope, a milestone plan and a quote in USD with Sri Lankan rupee equivalents if you need them for approvals. Design comes next, with clickable prototypes in all three languages, then two-week development sprints that end in a live demo. Because there is no time gap, your product owner can test a build in the morning and see fixes the same afternoon, which shortens feedback loops noticeably compared with working across continents.
Sectors Where We Help Sri Lankan Businesses
- Tourism and hospitality: direct booking engines, guest apps, tour marketplaces and channel-manager integrations for hotels, villas and operators from Galle to the hill country. Our hospitality software guide covers the essentials.
- Apparel and export manufacturing: production planning, buyer-facing portals, sustainability and traceability reporting for global brands.
- Tea, spices and agriculture: auction and buyer portals, smallholder collection apps and e-commerce for direct-to-consumer exports.
- Banking, insurance and leasing: customer apps, digital onboarding and agent tools that need strong security and regulator-ready logging.
- Logistics and shipping: tracking and documentation platforms tied to Colombo’s role as a regional transhipment hub.
- Education and healthcare: tuition platforms, hospital channelling and pharmacy apps used across the island.
For these, we deliver cross-platform mobile apps, web applications and cloud backends, and we can also supply dedicated developers to extend your own team.
Payments in Sri Lanka: LankaQR, Cards and Wallets
Sri Lankan checkouts work best when they combine cards with the national QR standard and popular wallets. Payment systems are regulated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and the common building blocks are:
- LankaQR, the interoperable QR code that lets customers pay from many banking and wallet apps.
- LankaPay rails for account-to-account transfers and bill payments.
- Telco wallets such as Dialog’s eZ Cash and Genie, and mCash.
- Local payment gateways (PayHere is a common choice) that bundle Visa, Mastercard, Amex and wallets for online stores.
- Multi-currency pricing for tourism, where foreign guests often expect to see and pay rates in US dollars or euros, while locals pay in rupees.
Preparing for the Personal Data Protection Act
Sri Lanka’s Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022, is the country’s first comprehensive privacy law, and it is being brought into operation in stages under a dedicated Data Protection Authority. Its principles will feel familiar to anyone who knows GDPR: lawful processing, purpose limitation, data subject rights, security safeguards and controls on cross-border transfers. We prepare clients now by building:
- A data map showing what personal data each feature collects and why.
- Consent and privacy notices in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
- Self-service tools for access, correction and deletion requests.
- Encryption, role-based access and audit logs tested against the OWASP Mobile Top 10.
- Hosting and processor agreements that make cross-border data flows easy to document.
Online platforms should also be aware of the Online Safety Act of 2024, which introduced obligations around harmful content. Hotels and tour operators serving European guests may additionally fall under GDPR for those customers. We implement the controls; your legal adviser confirms the obligations.
Sinhala and Tamil Interfaces That Read Naturally
Sinhala and Tamil scripts both need careful font selection and testing, because complex ligatures and vowel signs break easily on older Android devices. We size layouts for longer strings, let users switch language at any point without losing data, and support search across scripts. The national digital programme led by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka has pushed more government services online, so citizens increasingly expect private apps to be equally accessible in their own language. Android is the dominant mobile platform, so we optimise for mid-range Android devices first while keeping iOS fully supported.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the PDPA already enforceable?
Parts of the Act have been brought into force in phases, with the timetable adjusted by amendments. Because dates can change, we recommend building to its requirements now and confirming the current position with a Sri Lankan lawyer.
Can you build a hotel booking engine that accepts foreign cards and LankaQR?
Yes. We integrate a gateway that supports international cards for overseas guests and local methods for domestic travellers, with rates shown in the guest’s preferred currency.
What does a trilingual mobile app cost?
Indicatively, a focused trilingual MVP is usually between US$12,000 and US$40,000. Adding payment integrations, admin dashboards or AI features increases that, and the final quote depends on scope. Our app maintenance cost guide helps you plan the budget after launch as well.
Can you work with our existing developers in Colombo?
Certainly. Because we share a time zone, our engineers can join your daily stand-ups, code reviews and releases as if they were in the same office.
Plan Your Sri Lankan Project with Us
Share your goals, audience and timeline. We will come back with a practical plan and an estimate you can take to your board.