By  SDASIA  

News  of  Bangladeshi  Entrepreneur  

Six Bangladeshi Entrepreneurs Get Funding by Shuvo on July 12, 2015

Yesterday in Dhaka, at the 92nd Social Business Design Lab, six new

local businesses won approval from Yunus Center for investment.

Nobel prize winner Prof Dr. Muhammad Yunus presided over the

presentation ceremony. Initially–there were 150 participants, who

were observed by national and international organization. The young

entrepreneurs presented their business plans, which included:

marketing and sustainability plans. All six businesses were approved for funding from various social business funds.

Since its inception in January 2013, Social Business Design Lab have

approved 1,235 projects. Most of these approved businesses were already in operation.

“It is exciting that so many ideas are now a reality and impressive that entrepreneurs coming from remote

areas are now presenting their business plans and defending them in front of distinguished international audience,” said Dr. Yunus.

This year, the Social Business Design Lab has approved these

projects: Borsha Handicraft, run by Bithi Begum, which makes

women’s clothes and decoration products. Bibiyana Beauty Parlour,

run by Sharifa Khatum, which provides skincare services. Sohani

Fashion Tailors, run by Sohani Akter Jhumur; which produces ladies

clothing. Rojoni Gondha Layer Farm, run by Riazul Islam, which

produces meat and dairy products. Mahim enterprise, run by Md.

Kamruzzaman, which sells grocery items. Rajib Bansh House also

got approved and it’s run by Rajib Bansh.

Professor Yunus also invited the winners to join the Social Busing

Lab, which will be held on 29th August 2015. Dr. Yunus believes that

Bangladesh is a great platform for entrepreneurs, and wants to encourage them.

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Low Cost Loans For Bangladeshi Startups by Shuvo on July 25, 2015 Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services

(BASIS) and IDLC Finance Limited signed a mutual agreement on

Thursday to sanction low-cost loans for software, BPO, and e-

commerce startups. This new agreement also includes low-cost loan

opportunities for SMEs and women entrepreneurs. IDLC also wants

to expand the Bangladeshi information and technology sector through

raising funds via global promotions.

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This Guy Quit His Job To Start A

Bangladeshi Startup by SD Asia Desk on July 9, 2015

After working for about ten years in the telco industry, Nazmul Sheik,

co-founder of Shajgoj, was eager for a fresh challenge. At the time he

was stationed in Nigeria as a consultant with MTN, Africa’s largest

telecommunications provider, and earned a decent salary. Despite a

fairly luxurious lifestyle and strong career growth prospects, Sheik felt

his job was boring and mundane. His home country of Bangladesh

was experiencing a spurt of economic growth and Sheik was

convinced there were opportunities waiting for him. He soon quit his job to move back home.

The first hurdle Sheik encountered was the resistance of his parents.

They were convinced he had made an ill-advised decision to resign

from a lucrative job and start his own venture. Undeterred by their

pleas to reconsider, Sheik quickly started to identify opportunities in Bangladesh’s growing tech startup ecosystem.

Finding free space

Despite his relatively early entry, Sheik noticed there was existing

competition and barriers to entry in almost every tech sector he

examined in Bangladesh. This was a surprise. Part of his decision to

move back was to enter a market, which no other entrepreneur had

looked at seriously. It was at this point he “stumbled” across the

beauty and lifestyle space and foresaw considerable potential in the

area. In May 2013, Sheik launched Shajgoj, with the promise to cater

to growing demand for beauty tips and advice, with the vision of

evolving it into an ecommerce store for all Bengali-speaking women

across the world. “Nothing had been done previously in this sector

and I wanted an early start,” Sheik tells Tech in Asia.

Shajgoj started gaining traction almost immediately after launch,

validating Sheik’s concept. To keep his audience engaged, Sheik

employed a number of freelance content writers who constantly

updated the site with make-up, skincare, and beauty tips. He was

also able to convince his friend, Milky Mahmud, to quit his job at Ericsson and come on board as a technical co-founder.

Today the portal boasts 2.5 million monthly page views with about

50,000 daily unique visitors. Sheik proudly claims his Face book page

has over 650,000 organic followers and his community is one of the

most active and engaged ones in the country. Visitors to the portal

are not just from Bangladesh, but also from the US, India, the UK,

and other Western countries. Sheik believes there is room for even

further growth, citing the fact that there are 250 million Bengali speakers worldwide.

Online retail leap

While Shajgoj is only able to monetize through advertisements and

sponsored content right now, Sheik has ambitious plans for the future

of his venture. He is in the final stages of opening an affiliated

ecommerce store and believes the new endeavor will be

tremendously successful due to the trust that Shajgoj has inculcated

in their community. “Millions of people rely on us for beauty tips and advice, and they will prefer to buy from us as well,” says Sheik.

Currently, most imported beauty products in the Bangladeshi market

are dodgy replicas of popular international brands, reveals Sheik.

People are duped into buying counterfeit lipsticks and mascaras,

which could prove to be dangerous items – and the fakes hurt those

who try to run legitimate businesses. That’s why the content Shajgoj

is creating is focused on educating Bangladeshi women about

popular and trending international products. Now these items are in high demand, a need that Shajgoj wants to cater to.

While the startup remains bootstrapped, Sheik says he is in

advanced negotiations with investors to finance the next stage of

growth. The entrepreneur also has regional ambitions and wants to

expand the focus of his portal to markets in India, Sri Lanka, and other countries with a large Bangladeshi Diaspora.

------------------------------------ 2 Bangladeshi Startups Bag $15K Investment From Fenox by Aumia Haq on June 14, 2015 Silicon Valley based venture capitalist firm, Fenox has made an

investment of $15000 each to two Bangladeshi startups –

SmartKompare and HandyMama.co – at the event ‘Pitch Night’ held

for the startup graduates of Founder Institute. 5 graduates

of Founder Institute pitched their ideas to investors at the event.

SmartKompare SmartKompare helps you to find your best financial product from sea

of options. It compares loans from different banks and financial

institutions and helps users make a good decision. Currently, this

service is analyzes personal loans, but soon this will also be available

for all types of loans.

HandyMama.co This startup provides users with a variety of services – house and

toilet cleaning, laundry, dish washing, electrical work, repairs and so

on. All you have to do is give them a call or send a request through

their website and your house will be spotless and sparkling! Currently

they are providing this service in Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi

area in Dhaka.

The remaining three startups that participated at Pitch Night were

AKM Masuduzzam’s TapStar Interactive, Abu Sayeed’s Tutor 71 and

Khobaib Chowdhury’s StyLine.

The chief guest in the award giving ceremony was Shameem Ahsan,

President of BASIS, Director of FBCCI and general partner Fenox

Venture Capital. Also present were Kyle Kling, Vice President Fenox

Development Department, Sajid Rahman , Director of Founder

Institute Dhaka Chapter and Co-Director Minhaz Anwar who is also a

mentor, judge and investor.

“It is a great day for our startup eco system. We are

taking companies from idea stage to launch to getting

traction and even getting their first outside

funding” Sajid Rahman , Director of Founder Institute

Dhaka Chapter. “A virtuous cycle has been

established”.

Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and

startup launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe

build enduring technology companies. It will have its next batch starting in October and enrollment will start from this month.

Bangladeshi Startup SureCash gets US

7Million Funding by Mustafizur Rahman Khan on April 21, 2015 Dhaka, Bangladesh – The Osiris Group, an Asian frontier market

investment firm, made a USD 7 million Series B fintech investment in

SureCash Pte Ltd, a mobile banking and payment operator in

Bangladesh. Earlier, SureCash received Series A investment from a

group of Japanese investors specializing in the e-commerce industry.

Founded in 2010 by Dr. Shahadat Khan, SureCash operates the most

advanced mobile banking and payment platform in the industry, and

allows anyone with a mobile phone to deposit cash, send money,

make purchases, and pay bills. While most mobile financial service

(MFS) deployments globally are single -bank models with limited

scalability, SureCash’s cutting-edge technology and superior

architecture allows it to integrate multiple banks into its platform,

enabling the consumer a rich and flexible experience for all payment

categories including retail payments, utility bills, school tuitions, salary

disbursements, and many more.

Jason Bajaj, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Osiris Group,

said, “ Simply put, SureCash is a game changer. Led by a highly

technical CEO and seasoned management team, the company has

created a mobile banking and payment platform unlike anything else

today. We have thoroughly researched Bangladesh MFS market and

are convinced that its size supports 2-3 dominant players. We are

further convinced that with its engineering excellence, innovation

capabilities, and ability to deploy custom services, SureCash will truly

transform lives and rapidly ascend to a dominant market position.”

Dr. Shahadat Khan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of

SureCash commented, “SureCash is a growing network operating

with 30,000 retail agents in partnership with 5 scheduled banks and

more than 50 payment affiliates including public utilities,

municipalities, merchants and education institutions in Bangladesh.

We are pleased to have Osiris as one of our partners. They not only

bring capital but also deep experience in the emerging payment

space. Together, we are building a payment business model to serve

the people of this nation, and are eager to work closely with all

stakeholders, including the telcos, financial institutions, regulators,

central bank and our customers.”

On the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI), Bajaj added,

“Over the past five years, the Government of Bangladesh has

achieved wonderful milestones around social progress and security

stability. Solid fiscal and monetary policy, strengthening foreign

reserves and other macro tailwinds allow stronger conviction

allocating risk capital to transparent private sector entrepreneurs.

Bangladesh Bank Governor, Dr. Atiur Rahman, has boldly engineered

an inclusive MFS ecosystem, which has become the benchmark for

financial inclusion for many emerging countries today. We are

thankful to the Government of Bangladesh and look forward to

investing in additional opportunities for improving governance, skill-

set transfer, and job creation for her 160 million resilient citizens.”

For more information about Surecash, visit www.surecash.net

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NRB sees great prospects for Bangladeshi Developers by Mustafizur Rahman Khan

 

In 2030, Bangladesh is projected to have 185 million people inside a

country the size of New York State. The country will be the most

densely populated country on the planet. At the same time, GDP per

capita in Bangladesh is currently less than $1,000 per year, making it

one of the poorest countries in the world. A skilled labor force of full

stack software developers can provide a critical revenue and

investment source to the Bangladeshi government through tax

payments domestically and remittances from abroad.

As a poor, densely populated country, Bangladesh’s future relies on a

government that is making sustained infrastructure, education, and

health investments. Bangladesh currently imports more than it

exports, so the country’s balance of trade is negative. To this end,

the country relies on foreign remittances and foreign direct

investment as two critical elements to balance its current account. As

the country develops, foreign donors (such as USAID, DFID, ADB)

will shift development money to higher priority countries. In the

future, the Bangladeshi government will need to be in a position to

rely on its citizens’ tax payments, greater remittances, and foreign

direct investment that expects market-based returns in the future.

Skilled labour, where the cost of training is repaid quickly, offers a

unique solution for the Bangladeshi government.

According to Evans Data Corp, there are 26.4 million software

programmers worldwide. As of 2013, the US leads the world in

software development with 3.6 million developers, followed by India

with around 2.75 million. However, the landscape of software

development is changing rapidly. By 2018, India will have 5.2 million

developers vs. 4.5 million in the US. Given the realities of poor,

crowded countries, India is a better case study than the US for mid to

long-term policy in Bangladesh.

The software development environment that led to India’s rapid

growth as an outsourcing center in the 1990’s and 2000s changed

dramatically in the last decade. Fifteen years ago, Microsoft

technologies and other IP protected software platforms combined

with high installed server costs and significant required investment in

training labor, to create competitive dynamics that favored the growth

of large BPO companies. Today, most VC backed web companies

prefer open source programming platforms such as Ruby, Python,

Nodejs and so on. High installed server costs have been replaced by

on demand elastic computing, scalable servers such as AWS and

Rackspace. A masters in computer science has been replaced by

dozens of free or cheap (<$2,000) online training programs. All three

trends lead to a lower cost of training and higher return on investment

for a Bangladeshi who takes the time to learn programming. As US

based entrepreneur Martin Smith writes in the Atlantic Magazine:

“The price of content will freefall over the next seven years. We heard

the first rumblings last year when the Supreme Court ruled that U.S.

copyright owners may not stop imports and re-selling of copyrighted

content legally sold abroad, paving the way for a global market for

textbooks.”

Further:

“The supply of learning content will swell. This might sound

counterintuitive, but as we move toward a global market for content,

creators will be price takers, unable to command much negotiating

power given the sheer scale of distribution platforms (think iTunes).

While it may make less sense for a professor in New York City to

write a book, it makes a whole lot of sense for one in Mumbai.”

While Smith is right that the cost of content has come down, good

training programs in relevant programming languages used by high

growth companies still cost money. Let’s assume that through

existing online platforms (MIT Open Courseware, Code Academy,

Coursera, Udemy, Udacity) a dedicated Bangladeshi high school or

college grad could learn enough programming in six months (12 hour

days, 5 days a week) to be marketable to western firms at $12 / hour,

conservatively. Let’s further assume the cost of renting a computer

for six months plus the cost of training is $2,000 total of investment by

either the citizen or the government. Were the Bangladeshi

government to offer a $2,000 stipend on a debit card for approved

courses, the payback period, assuming that the government takes

10% of wages for 2 years following the initial six-month investment,

would be ten months. The return on investment of the initial $2,000

over two years, assuming employment for two years would be greater

than 80%. Beyond the initial return, the government would have a

highly employable citizen, likely to pay taxes, making 20x the current

per capita GDP.

Key elements of such a program to position it for success:

• Only support programming languages known to be used by

high growth start ups (Python, Rails, Angular.JS, Node.JS, iOS,

Android)

• Do not offer cash payments for the investment. Offer debit

cards that work with a set list of providers (Udacity, Udemy, etc)

• Potentially create partnership with these course providers to

monitor performance algorithmically and kick off students that

aren’t working hard enough over six month period

• Bulk purchases of latest hardware to get steep discounts from

Apple and telecom companies, then rent these to students as

part of the program

• Mentorship from existing Bangladeshi programmers around the

world

• Online network for all participating in the program to share

resources and insights.

In conclusion, Bangladesh has a unique opportunity, given its

trapped, hard working labour force to be a back office for the silicon

valleys, alleys, and roundabouts of the world. Proper government

support and investment will ensure that Bangladesh’s future citizenry

are skilled labourers, reaping dividends for the government through

tax payments at home or remittances from abroad.

I am NHM Tanveer Hossain Khan, proud owner of long name and

CTO of Source4Style / Le Souk (http://www.source4style.com) in New

York. We are the marketplace for premium fabrics online with end to

end drop shipment. I take challenging work as “Fun” and love doing it

rigorously. I have development team in Dhaka and we are working on

Ruby on Rails stack.