Some founders build companies. Others build the foundation for an industry that does not yet exist. 

For Dulhara Ranatunga, Founder and CEO of Rofi.lk, the ambition was never simply to create another car rental company. His vision was to build Sri Lanka’s first peer-to-peer car rental platform — a technology-enabled marketplace that modernises the traditional rental car industry while giving everyday vehicle owners the opportunity to earn from cars that would otherwise sit idle. 

At its core, Rofi is built on a simple belief: ownership should create opportunity. 

Unlike ride-hailing platforms where individuals must trade their time to earn, Rofi enables vehicle owners to generate income without personally driving passengers or sacrificing evenings, weekends, and family time. The platform connects renters with vehicle owners while handling visibility, customer acquisition, trust, insurance support, and operational coordination. 

“I wanted to build something that allowed people to earn without sacrificing the most valuable thing they have — their time,” says Dulhara. 

That belief has shaped Rofi’s identity from the beginning. The company is not positioned merely as a booking platform, but as part of a broader shift in how Sri Lanka thinks about mobility, vehicle ownership, and income generation. 

The Spark 

Dulhara’s fascination with vehicles began long before Rofi. From childhood, he was drawn to cars, transport, and the systems that moved people from one place to another. But the idea for Rofi began taking shape while he was studying a summer course at Cornell University in the United States. 

There, he observed the rise of peer-to-peer rental marketplaces and saw how technology could unlock underused assets. When he looked back at Sri Lanka, the opportunity seemed obvious.

Around 2017 and 2018, much of the local rental car industry was still operating through phone calls, email inquiries, Facebook posts, and Google Maps listings. Online booking systems were limited. Fleet information was often unclear. Trust was inconsistent. For customers, the process could be uncertain. For smaller operators and private vehicle owners, visibility was difficult to achieve. 

To Dulhara, this was not simply a market gap. It was a timing gap. 

Sri Lanka had the vehicles. It had the tourism demand. It had people willing to earn from underused assets. What it lacked was a trusted digital layer to connect all sides fairly. 

The defining moment came after he returned to Sri Lanka. One evening, seated across the dinner table, his father asked him what he wanted to do next. Dulhara explained the peer-to-peer car rental concept he had seen gaining traction overseas and why he believed it could work in Sri Lanka. 

Soon after, his father called him to the office. Dulhara went straight there after school, anticipation building. There, he was introduced to two genius techies who would eventually become his co-founders. 

That was the beginning of Rofi. 

A Platform Built on Two Sides of Pain 

Rofi operates in one of the most difficult types of businesses to build: a two-sided marketplace. That means two customer groups, two sets of expectations, and two categories of problems to solve. 

On one side are renters — many of them tourists, expatriates, and Sri Lankans visiting from overseas — who want a reliable way to rent a vehicle in Sri Lanka. For years, the industry has carried trust-related challenges. Customers often face unclear pricing, limited vehicle information, deposit concerns, long-running damage disputes, and uncertainty around insurance coverage. 

In many cases, a bad rental experience is not caused by the vehicle itself, but by the absence of transparent systems. When proper insurance, documentation, deposit handling, and dispute processes are weak, customers are left exposed. 

Rofi was created to reduce that uncertainty. 

As an intermediary, the platform helps safeguard deposits instead of handing them directly to vehicle owners. It also supports both parties when issues arise, helping to de-escalate disputes and create fairer outcomes. This matters in an industry where trust can be the difference between a smooth holiday and a lasting negative experience. 

“Rofi is committed to fairness above all,” Dulhara says.

On the other side of the marketplace are vehicle owners and small fleet operators. Many have suitable cars but lack the marketing power, technology, or search visibility to compete with established rental brands. Some depend on Facebook ads, word of mouth, or expensive Google advertising to be seen. For smaller operators, competing for first-page visibility can require budgets running into hundreds of thousands of rupees. 

Rofi gives these owners and operators a platform. 

By centralising discovery, booking, support, and credibility, Rofi helps smaller players access demand they may not have been able to reach alone. For private owners, it creates the possibility of turning an idle vehicle into an income-generating asset. For small fleet managers, it offers a pathway to compete in a more structured, digital environment. 

In that sense, Rofi is not only solving a rental problem. It is solving a fairness problem. 

The Hard Years 

The early days of Rofi were far from polished. 

Dulhara spent much of the company’s earliest phase cold-calling small rental car companies that had little more than a Facebook ad or a Google Maps listing. Many had no reviews, no detailed fleet information, and no structured online presence. Every call was uncertain. Every meeting had to be earned. 

He pleaded with operators to give him time. When they agreed, it was often at the last minute. He would rush across Colombo in tuk-tuks and cabs, laptop in hand, ready to pitch Rofi from a slide deck in cramped office rooms to people who were not always interested in listening. 

But persistence began to compound. 

Through months of fieldwork, rejection, and urgency, Rofi secured more than 30 vehicles in just three months. The foundation was forming. The platform seemed ready. 

Then, in April 2019, Sri Lanka was shaken by the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. 

Tourism slowed sharply. Confidence disappeared. For a business built around mobility and travel, the timing could not have been worse. Vehicle owners who had been promised more visibility and bookings were now facing a frozen market. The opportunity Rofi had worked so hard to build around suddenly became uncertain. 

The company had to be placed on hold. 

Then came COVID-19, extending the disruption and delaying any meaningful relaunch. The tourism industry remained under pressure, and Rofi’s momentum was paused for years.

When the market finally began to recover, Dulhara was studying Marketing and Management at the University of Melbourne. At that point, he faced a difficult personal decision: continue prioritising the conventional academic path, or give Rofi the commitment it needed to survive and grow. 

He chose Rofi. 

That decision came with consequences. He failed units. He graduated later than expected. He shifted to part-time study. But to him, the trade-off was clear. 

A degree could be completed later. A market opportunity could disappear. 

Proof of a Market 

Today, Rofi has moved beyond early validation and into a stronger commercial growth phase. 

The platform has completed 320+ bookings, listed 300 vehicles, and built a registered user base of 4,000 users. It holds a 4.9-star Google rating from more than 180 reviews, with approximately 80% of renters being tourists. 

Those numbers matter because they show that the model is no longer theoretical. Rofi is operating in the real world, with real renters, real owners, and real operational complexity. 

For Dulhara, traction is not just measured by bookings. It is measured by whether the platform creates value on both sides. 

For renters, the value is confidence: access to a broader range of vehicles, better support, and a more transparent process. 

For owners, the value is opportunity: income from underused vehicles, access to demand, and the ability to participate in a more modern rental economy. 

For Sri Lanka, the value is infrastructure: a marketplace that can support tourism, digitise fragmented supply, and raise expectations in an industry that is overdue for transformation. 

The Founder Behind the Platform 

Rofi is also shaped by Dulhara’s personal understanding of entrepreneurship. 

He was deeply influenced by his father, who built his own company against the odds and grew it into one of Sri Lanka’s leading software development agencies. Watching that journey gave Dulhara a close view of what building a business truly requires: resilience,

conviction, patience, and the willingness to take responsibility when conditions are far from ideal. 

But he also understood that ambition alone was not enough. 

“Most founders fail because they solve a problem only for themselves, not for others,” he says. 

That belief has become central to how he thinks about Rofi. The company is not designed only around the founder’s fascination with cars or technology. It is built around problems faced by real customers: renters who want trust, owners who want income, small operators who want visibility, and a tourism market that needs better mobility solutions. 

This is where Dulhara’s role becomes more than that of a startup founder. He is part technologist, part operator, and part industry reformer — attempting to bring structure, accountability, and digital trust into a traditional sector. 

The Road Ahead 

Dulhara’s long-term vision is clear: to build Rofi into Sri Lanka’s largest AI-enabled car rental marketplace. 

The next stage is not only about adding more vehicles or completing more bookings. It is about creating a smarter mobility platform — one where technology improves discovery, matching, pricing, support, owner tools, and the overall rental experience. 

As tourism continues to evolve and travellers expect faster, clearer, and more reliable digital services, Rofi aims to become part of Sri Lanka’s mobility infrastructure. 

The company’s future lies in combining local market understanding with platform technology. That means serving tourists better, helping vehicle owners earn more efficiently, supporting smaller operators, and using AI to make the rental process more intelligent, responsive, and scalable. 

For Dulhara, the mission remains rooted in the same belief that started the company. 

Cars should not sit idle when they can create value. 

Owners should not be invisible when they have assets to offer. 

Renters should not have to gamble on trust. 

And Sri Lanka should not be left behind as mobility becomes increasingly platform-led. 

Rofi began as an idea across a dinner table. Today, it is becoming a new way to think about car rental, ownership, and opportunity. 

Not merely a rental company. 

A new economy on wheels.