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04 Startups That Caught Our Eyes Last Week

Praava Health web screenshot on Aug 02 use
Praava Health web screenshot on Aug 02 use

Praava Health

Praava is a network of family health centers based in Dhaka. According to Praava tagline, it is about family doctors and diagnostics. Praava has a group practice of family health professionals that include family doctors who have advanced training in family medicine.

In Bangladesh, people have a tendency to directly go to a specialist even when the situation doesn’t demand so.
Praava’s group of family health professionals includes women’s health specialists, pediatrics, dentistry, physiotherapy, nutritionists, psychological counseling, and health coaching.

On the backend, it has six labs that can do 250 unique tests. The lab has been set up according to international standards and we are proud to challenge anyone to find variation between our lab reports and any other internationally accredited lab. It has started the application process for international accreditation, which takes a couple of years to complete.

Praava Health has built Bangladesh’s first PCR lab for molecular cancer diagnostics. Molecular cancer diagnostics, including liquid biopsy, can reduce cancer mortality based on early detection as well as develop a better understanding of the patient’s disposition to various treatment options and disease management. This latest technology only recently became available even in the west.

Apart from its walk-in service like any other healthcare centers in the country, it has also introduced membership plans which are first of their kind in this market. Praava’ annual membership plans range from BDT 4,500 to BDT 28,000.

Praava has its own mobile app, which is part of the first-ever fully integrated hospital information system in the country. This means all of a patient’s records are kept here by Praava and can be accessed anytime from anywhere. It means Praava’s lab is fully integrated with technology. As soon as a lab machine runs a test, the report is automatically stored in its central system in the name of the patient.

Once you are registered with Praava, you can connect your app with your Praava registration number and access your records online from anywhere. You can also make appointments and communicate with Praava using the app.

Dorpon web screenshot 02
Dorpon web screenshot

Dorpon

Dorpon is an online marketplace which connects artisans, craftsman and creative entrepreneurs with the customers and enables both parties to have a win-win relationship.

Dorpon is an open platform where artisans can come and open shop and start selling. Dorpon applies a verification process to ensure that only the genuine artisans use its platform. However, it ensures that the process is friendlier for the artisan.

Once you have a shop at mydorpon.com, you can start taking orders. Dorpon provides logistics facility to ensure better customer experience.

Apart from that, it also provides assistance to artisans who are not tech-savvy per see in properly showcasing their products online. It has a photography studio where it invites producers and photograph their products to display them on the website for which it does not charge the artisans yet. It plans to offer more support to artisans to grow their business as they go.

Dorpon business follows a pay-as-you-go model, i.e. it does not charge merchants any fixed amount. Opening a shop at Dorpon is completely free. It takes a commission from every sale at rates ranging from 15% to 18%. Against that, Dorpon entrepreneur partners receive all the values that are mentioned above.

BD Assistant
BD Assistant

BD Assistant

BD Assistant is an on-demand service company based in Rangpur that provides on-demand service solutions through webs and mobile starting from computers, AC, fridge, IPS, and other devices that are in daily use.

It also provides electrical house wiring and related electrical services as well as handy services such as cleaning, carpenter, painting, plumbing etc.

Broadly, BD Assistant offers home appliances repairing services, cleaning services, event management services, home delivery services. You can get all these services from your home’s comfort.

It currently offers about 19 different services in total, under 4 categories.

A team of 10-people, 12 interns and a couple of part-timers, BD Assistant is a graduate of BRAC’s Urban Innovation Challenge and received funding from BRAC. It currently has about 40 technicians.

Bhumijo Women Toilet
Bhumijo Women Toilet

Bhumijo

Bhumijo aims to build a healthy environment and a healthy city for healthy people. Its work varies from architecture, landscape design, urban design, urban planning and social business and provides services from small to large scales, research to design, planning to implementation.

One of the problems it has been working on is finding a solution to the scarcity of public toilets in Dhaka, particularly for women. Due to the lack of public toilets in cities of Bangladesh, women go through unbearable hassles as well as physical challenges. This is a major cause of health problems such as UTIs and kidney diseases in women. Women often don’t use the existing public toilet because of an unhygienic and insecure environment.

The startup, a graduate of BRAC’s Urban Innovation Challenge, has built its first pilot toilet in Dhaka and is now looking to scale its project.

A team of 5 people, Bhumijo has a handful of revenue streams including fees from planning, direct users, designing, and maintenance of the toilets. Besides that, Bhumijo provides architectural planning and design services at various scale.

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