FS Weekly Digest: The Insights You Missed Last Week

An investor may choose not to invest in your business for a lot of reasons. Their money might be tied up somewhere else or the timing might not be right on their end. It is really about persistence and not giving up in the face of rejection. I think that’s the name of the game, whether fundraising or any other aspect of the daily challenges of building a company.

After supporting 5 successful cohorts of social entrepreneurs, ygap Bangladesh is running its first yher Accelerator Program, focusing on female-led ventures, in Dhaka in October 2018. This is in partnership with Build Bangladesh and ygap Australia.

In the biggest deal ever involving a Bangladeshi company, Japan Tobacco Inc, a Japanese tobacco giant, is buying the tobacco business of Akij Group, United Dhaka Tobacco Company, for around $1.5 billion.

Praava Health Founder, Managing Director, and CEO Sylvana Quader Sinha on what inspired her to start a healthcare company in Bangladesh, the challenges of building a healthcare company, the challenges she had to overcome in the early days of Praava Health, how Praava Health plans to resource constraint in the healthcare industry in Bangladesh, her lessons in life and entrepreneurship, the single most important tip when it comes to raising investment, why having a group of supportive mentors and advisers has helped her in personal and organizational growth, Praava’s future plan, why management is all about people, why the ability to relentlessly resourceful is the single most important quality of a founder, how she designs her reading list, and much more.

Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest Bangla daily newspaper, has introduced a paid subscription for its e-paper, the online version of its daily newspaper. Readers now have to subscribe to read its online version of the day’s paper. The paper is currently offering three packages: monthly, half-yearly, and yearly. The price starts at BDT 50, for a month and BDT 400 for a year.

Field Buzz, the Dhaka-based technology startup that develops smartphone-based last-mile sales and distribution management solutions, has introduced a subscription sales force management solution called mobile sales software.

GD Assist Limited, a subsidiary of Green Delta Insurance Company, has expanded its operation to Chittagong. GD Assist, which operates at the intersection of healthcare insurance, travel, and medical tourism, has been seeing a steady growth over the past months. The company says, it has a growing business in Chittagong and wants to serve its customers from the city better.

Lamudi Bangladesh, one of the active online property marketplaces in the country, celebrated the fifth year of operation in Dhaka this July. This internet-based real estate property finder, which has operations in 33 different countries around the globe, has maintained a low profile operation in Dhaka. As it celebrates fifth year anniversary, the startup gives hints of its renewed growth push.

Styline Collection, the modest fashion startup, opened its first retail store in Sylhet last week. This was its second retail outlet outside Dhaka, first one was in Chittagong, and fourth in total. The startup aims to build two more outlets in Dhaka in 2018.

Flight Expert, the Dhaka-based OTA is going places. Last week, it has expanded to Chittagong. Since launching in mid-2017, Flight Expert has successfully positioned itself as a leading OTA in the country, from what began as a modest operation of a three people team. The company has now a team of over 30 people and enjoys a widespread brand awareness in the market.