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FS Last Week Startup News Roundup

Things are moving fast in Dhaka. Here is a roundup of everything happened in startup scene in Dhaka last week.

Streaming is becoming hot in Dhaka. With growing popularity and positive earnings reports of Netflix and Spotify, online streaming is hot thing now. To make the space a little scarier big players like Apple, Amazon and Google are joining in the scene as well. The wind is also blowing at full swing in Dhaka. People are jumping into the space. So far, we have at least three startups in this space: Popcorn Live TV, 3rdBell and Bongo. All these startups are trying to become the Netflix of Bangladesh. But what is the future of streaming in Dhaka? 

TapStar is the gaming startup you should keep an eye on. TapStar Interactive, a startup recently graduated from Founder Institute Dhaka Chapter, aims to tap into this opportunity. It wants to create and launch games especially designed for Bangladesh market and then for the South Asian market. “We have been making games for western markets for quite a while. The market has become saturated in recent times. Making a hit game no more depends on how good the game is but it has become a matter of luck,” says A.K.M Masuduzzaman, Founder of Tapstar Interactive. That’s when the idea of starting TapStar Games came to Masuduzzaman’s mind.

We have got another search engine for Bangladesh. Google Search is awesome but team Chorki has an issue with it: it does not have much to offer to Bangladesh, about Bangladesh. A search engine is more than a technology, says Rashed Moslem of Chorki, it is psychology, culture and more and Google’s psychology, so far, does not include many things we need in Bangladesh. Google still can be the leading search platform, people can use it when they feel like but we need a search engine for Bangladesh that understands us and can offer solid results of things we want curated by deep understanding of our culture, psychology and more argues Rashed.

SmileX is the new logistic startup. Started back in 2013, SmileX aims to become a premium courier solution provider to ecommerce companies and beyond. “I started SmileX back in 2013, which was known as Rapidmail back then, to provide delivery solutions to ecommerce companies,” says Fahad Ibna Wahab, founder of SmileX, “I was following ecommerce industry closely and saw one of the biggest problems ecommerce companies facing was delivery. So I thought why not I try to solve this problem. That’s how Smile X was born.”

HandyMama Launches in Dhaka. TaskRabbit type marketplace for household tasks startup HandyMama launches today in Dhaka. The startup connects households with taskers via web and mobile platform with a Call Center in place to outsource their everyday household tasks that they don’t want to do (cleaning, laundry, dish washing, toilet cleaning, deep cleaning, etc.) and the tasks that need help with tools and skills (electrical, plumbing, sanitary, fixing home appliance, computer servicing, and many more.)

Mohammad Ruhul Kader is a Dhaka-based entrepreneur and writer. He founded Future Startup, a digital publication covering the startup and technology scene in Dhaka with an ambition to transform Bangladesh through entrepreneurship and innovation. He writes about internet business, strategy, technology, and society. He is the author of Rethinking Failure. His writings have been published in almost all major national dailies in Bangladesh including DT, FE, etc. Prior to FS, he worked for a local conglomerate where he helped start a social enterprise. Ruhul is a 2022 winner of Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He can be reached at [email protected]

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