Our story
We know where we come from.
VER Partners was not created because we wanted to start another outsourcing company. It began with a belief: people should not have to leave their communities to find meaningful opportunity.
Our story begins in Mullaitivu, Northern Sri Lanka, a place that carries the memories and scars of a three-decade civil war.
We grew up experiencing that reality ourselves. We know the uncertainty. We know the loss. We know what it means for an entire generation to grow up with limited opportunities and difficult choices.
But we also know something else. We know the strength of the people who remained.
The young people we met were ambitious. Curious. Capable. They had dreams of building careers, starting businesses and creating better lives.
The missing link
What they lacked was access.
- Access to skills
- Access to professional networks
- Access to internships
- Access to employers
- Access to the wider world
It started with iGrow Academy
In 2020, our founder Aninilavan Puvanesan started iGrow Academy with a simple purpose: to help young people in Mullaitivu develop the skills they needed to build their own future.
We focused on practical skills that could open doors: English, leadership, entrepreneurship, and digital skills. But the purpose was always bigger than training.
We wanted young people to be able to show the world what they were capable of. To build confidence and believe that their future did not have to be determined by where they came from.
Then we found the next gap
Over time, we saw a pattern. Young people were learning and becoming confident, but many still struggled to make the transition from learning to working.
There were limited internships and limited exposure to professional environments. We realised that if we wanted to create lasting impact, we couldn't stop at the classroom.
We needed to create the bridge to the workplace.
That realisation became the foundation for VER Partners.
The journey
From classroom to careers.
2020
iGrow Academy
Founded in Mullaitivu to teach English, leadership, entrepreneurship and digital skills.
Then
The next gap
Graduates were confident and capable, but had few routes from learning into professional work.
Today
VER Partners
A business that connects that talent with real work for companies around the world.
The next step
The birth of VER.
Aninilavan and his brother Nilavalakan came together to build VER Partners with a clear purpose: connect capable people with meaningful work, and connect businesses with capable people.
What started through iGrow Academy as a mission to develop talent evolved into a business built to create real employment pathways.
“VER was never intended to create a dependent community. We wanted to create an independent, capable and economically empowered community.”
A community where
- People can earn.
- People can develop careers.
- People can support their families.
- Young professionals can gain international experience without having to abandon their roots.
- Businesses around the world can discover talent they may otherwise never have found.
வேர்
Why “VER”?
VER comes from the Tamil word for “roots.” Roots are not limitations. Roots are foundations. They give us identity. They give us strength. They allow us to grow.
From roots to opportunity
Our founders have personally experienced the realities that shaped the communities where VER began. The ambition was never simply to build a successful company and leave.
It was to prove that meaningful businesses can be built from communities that have historically been overlooked. That global-quality work can come from the North of Sri Lanka.
Decent work can change much more than a person's income. It can change confidence, a family's future, and over time, an entire community.
Why the diaspora matters
Millions of Sri Lankans have built their lives around the world, gaining knowledge, networks, and experience. We believe that connection to home can become more than nostalgia. It can become opportunity.
A business owner abroad can create meaningful work at home. A company looking for reliable talent can build a team in Sri Lanka.
Technology has made distance smaller. VER exists to make that connection stronger.
Talent is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.
Today, those roots reach further. From Mullaitivu to Colombo. From Sri Lanka to the diaspora. From local talent to global businesses. We know where our roots are. Now we are building where they can take us.
Rooted in people. Built for partnership.